George v. Baltimore City Public Schools

117 F.R.D. 368, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2180, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9475
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedSeptember 21, 1987
DocketCiv. A. No. Y-87-860
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 117 F.R.D. 368 (George v. Baltimore City Public Schools) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
George v. Baltimore City Public Schools, 117 F.R.D. 368, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2180, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9475 (D. Md. 1987).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

JOSEPH H. YOUNG, District Judge.

This action results from the August 1986 labor agreement between the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, the Board of School Commissioners, and the Baltimore Teachers Union which authorized the collection of a union representation fee from the salaries of public school employees. On April 9, 1987, seventeen public school teachers sued the parties to this labor agreement to halt the deduction of the representation fee from the wages of non-union teachers. In their complaint, they allege that the collection procedures employed violate their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights recently set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1 v. Hudson, 475 U.S. 292, 106 S.Ct. 1066, 89 L.Ed.2d 232 (1986). See also Damiano v. Matish, 644 F.Supp. 1058 (W.D.Mich.1986) (applying the Hudson requirements to a union’s collection of representation fees from non-union employees within the represented bargaining unit).

Currently, two motions are before the Court. Plaintiffs have moved to certify a class pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2) comprised of plaintiffs and “all nonmembers of the Baltimore Teachers Union [BTU], Maryland Federation of Teachers [MFT], [and the] American Federation of Teachers [AFT], employed by the Baltimore City Public Schools as teachers or other professionals who are not participating in arbitration with the BTU over the amount of its representation fee for the 1986-87 school year, and subsequent years.” Defendants [370]*370have moved for the Court to receive into evidence certain admissions by plaintiffs which detail the relationships among plaintiffs, their counsel, and the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. Such admissions form the backbone of defendants’ argument against class certification.

The Prerequisites to a Class Action

The Supreme Court has provided that a class action “may only be certified if the trial court is satisfied, after a rigorous analysis, that the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) have been satisfied.” General Telephone Co. of Southwest v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 161, 102 S.Ct. 2364, 2372, 72 L.Ed.2d 740 (1982). Rule 23(a) provides:

One or more members of a class may sue or be sued as representative parties on behalf of all only if (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a). Accordingly, the Court will follow the practice employed in previous class certification questions of scrutinizing the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification to determine whether it fulfills the four prerequisites of Rule 23(a). See Twyman v. Rockville Housing Authority, 99 F.R.D. 314 (D.Md.1983); Smith v. B & O Railroad Co., 473 F.Supp. 572 (D.Md.1979).

Plaintiffs’ proposed class exceeds one thousand members, which clearly makes joinder of all members impracticable. See Twyman, 99 F.R.D. at 320 (“many courts have found that approximately 150 members satisfies the numerosity requirement”). Accordingly, plaintiffs fulfill the “numerosity” requirement of Rule 23(a)(1).

Plaintiffs also satisfy the “commonality” requirement of Rule 23(a)(2). They demonstrate that each member of the proposed class is a nonunion employee, that each member has had a representation fee deducted from his wage pursuant to the August 1986 labor agreement between the City and the union, and that this deduction allegedly constitutes an invasion of each member’s First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The proposed class shares several common issues of law and fact.

While the “numerosity” and “commonality” requirements of Rule 23(a) concentrate on the nature of the class, the last two prerequisites, “typicality” and “adequate representation,” focus on the quality of the class representative. See Newberg on Class Actions § 3.13 (1985). Defendants argue that plaintiffs are unable to fulfill either requirement because they are represented by staff counsel from the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, Inc. (Foundation). Defendants suggest several conflicts of interest between plaintiffs and other members of the proposed class, namely that the Foundation is paying plaintiffs’ legal costs, that plaintiffs have signed a “Retainer Authorization” in which they have agreed not to waive any legitimate attorneys’ fee claim as part of settlement, and that plaintiffs have signed a “Disclosure Agreement” in which they have agreed not to accept a settlement which forbids the Foundation from disclosing the case history and settlement terms.1 Accordingly, defendants argue that, in reality, the Foundation controls this litigation to the detriment of the proposed class.

This claim by defendants is best addressed by breaking it down into smaller issues. First, defendants argue that plain[371]*371tiffs’ claims are not typical of the claims of the proposed class as required by Rule 23(a)(3) because the Foundation is financing plaintiffs’ legal expenses and has asked plaintiffs to sign the “Retainer Authorization” and the “Disclosure Agreement.” However, the Foundation is a “bona fide, independent legal aid organization,” Int’l Union, UAW v. Nat’l Right to Work Legal Defense and Education Foundation, 781 F.2d 928, 932-34 (D.C.Cir.1986), which has successfully sponsored class action litigation before the Supreme Court. See Ellis v. Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, 466 U.S. 435, 104 S.Ct. 1883, 80 L.Ed.2d 428 (1984); Abood v. Detroit Board of Education, 431 U.S. 209, 97 S.Ct. 1782, 52 L.Ed.2d 261 (1977). See also Plaintiffs’ Reply Brief to Union Defendants’ Opposition to Class Certification at 3 n. 6. Thus, the Foundation’s representation of plaintiffs in this litigation does not render plaintiffs’ claims atypical of those of the proposed class.

The “typicality” requirement of Rule 23(a)(3) “emphasizes that the representatives ought to be squarely aligned in interests with the represented group.” New-berg on Class Actions § 3.13. Like the rest of the proposed class, plaintiffs are not members of a union, have had the union representation fee deducted from their salary, and thereby allege violations of their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Accordingly, plaintiffs satisfy Rule 23(a)(3).

The defendants also argue that plaintiffs fail to satisfy the “adequate representation” requirement of Rule 23(a)(4) because the Foundation is paying for plaintiffs’ legal costs and thereby exerting too much control over the claims of both plaintiffs and the proposed class.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 F.R.D. 368, 127 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2180, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-v-baltimore-city-public-schools-mdd-1987.