JAMES J. D'ELIA, JR., APPELLANT,
v.
NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD RAILROAD AND RICHARD JOYCE SMITH, WILLIAM J. KIRK, HARRY W. DORIGAN AS TRUSTEES OF THE NEW YORK, NEW HAVEN AND HARTFORD RAILROAD, APPELLEES
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The court held that the National Railroad Adjustment Board's use of a hearing officer's transcript did not violate due process, as the final referee was impartial.
An employee was suspended, and the National Railroad Adjustment Board ruled against his claim for lost wages. The employee sued, alleging the Board's …
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse National Railroad Adjustment Board cases and more on FLexlaw
PER CURIAM:
D’Elia, an employee of defendant railroad, was suspended from his job for a .short time on a charge of misconduct. He claimed that the suspension was unjustified and sought to recover his wages for the period of suspension. His claim was submitted to the National Railroad Adjustment Board where, after the representatives of the parties had deadlocked, a referee decided in favor of the railroad. D’Elia then brought this action in the district court seeking a review of the determination of the National Railroad Adjustment Board. The district ■court granted defendants’ motion for .summary judgment and D’Elia appealed. We affirm the action of the district court.
The only claim which D’Elia presses here is that the Board failed to ■afford him due process of law when it ■used as a basis for its decision “a transcript made by a prejudiced hearing officer.”
The initial hearing in D’Elia’s case was held by a representative of the employer railroad. This is the procedure provided in the collective agreement between the railroad and D’Elia’s union and it is the procedure contemplated by the Railway Labor Act. See Subsection First (i) of Section 3, 45 U.S.C. § 153. Under the Act, D’Elia was entitled to a completely impartial hearing only when the case reached the referee designated to sit with the Board. As long as the final hearing officer was impartial the requirements of due process were satisfied.
The fact that the Board had before it the transcript of the proceedings before the employer’s hearing officer does not in itself import any denial of due process, and D’Elia has failed to show any particulars in which the transcript presented his case unfairly or in which he was harmed by the Board’s use of the transcript. In short, D’Elia’s conclusory allegations as to a denial of due process are wholly insufficient to resist the defendants’ motion for summary judgment.
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Edwards v. ST. Louis-San Francisco R.R. Co., 361 F.2d 946 (7th Cir. 1966)
-
McELROY v. Terminal R.R. Ass'n OF ST. Louis, 392 F.2d 966 (7th Cir. 1968)