Government of the Virgin Islands v. Caneel Bay Plantation, Inc.

6 V.I. 576, 1968 WL 183159, 1968 V.I. LEXIS 10
CourtMunicipal Court of The Virgin Islands
DecidedFebruary 5, 1968
DocketCivil No. 180-1966
StatusPublished

This text of 6 V.I. 576 (Government of the Virgin Islands v. Caneel Bay Plantation, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Municipal Court of The Virgin Islands primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Government of the Virgin Islands v. Caneel Bay Plantation, Inc., 6 V.I. 576, 1968 WL 183159, 1968 V.I. LEXIS 10 (vimunict 1968).

Opinion

MICHAEL, Judge

[577]*577STATEMENT OF FACTS

This action for injunctive relief and motion to dismiss for failure to conduct an administrative hearing originally came up before the court at Part II. In its opinion, after considering the briefs submitted and argument of counsel, the court stated that “the record is barren of the factual findings or the standards or the criteria which the Assistant Commissioner of Labor, acting for the Commissioner, applied in reaching the determination that there was a resident worker available as a chambermaid who was occupationally qualified. Yet it was on this basis that Caneel Bay was notified that Chambermaid Williams had to be discharged to make room for Phyllis Peltier.”

As a consequence, the court denied the petition for injunctive relief “without prejudice”, and remanded the case to the Commissioner of Labor, [5 V.I. 655] “so that the Assistant Commissioner of Labor familiar with this case ab initio may make explicit findings of fact from which the conclusion may be drawn that Phyllis Peltier was and is occupationally qualified as a chambermaid and thus, according to law, she should replace Kathleen Williams at Caneel Bay.”

The matter is again before the court on a Petition, which was subsequently amended, praying the court for injunctive relief by enjoining the defendant from employing any non-resident worker in the position of chambermaid so long as the resident worker Phyllis Peltier, who had been found occupationally qualified on March 7, 1966 by the Commissioner in his findings dated December 22, 1966, is available for the position.

The amendment praying that defendant be enjoined from employing any non-resident worker so long as Phyllis Peltier is available for the position, instead of confining it to Kathleen Williams, stems from the fact that counsel for the plaintiff, A. Robert Pfeffer, Esq., Assistant Attorney [578]*578General, was informally notified by the attorney for the defendant, George H. T. Dudley, Esq., that Kathleen Williams is no longer employed by the defendant and that the defendant does not intend to terminate the employment of any other non-resident chambermaid and does not intend to rehire Phyllis Peltier.

The pertinent allegations of the plaintiff in the present posture of its Amended Complaint are: a) that the Assistant Commissioner of Labor, acting for the Commissioner, has determined pursuant to 24 V.I.C. 129 that there is an occupationally qualified worker, Phyllis Peltier, to fill the position of chambermaid at Caneel Bay Plantation, Inc., in lieu of any non-resident worker having less seniority in that classification; b) that notwithstanding the defendant has been so notified, has refused to employ Phyllis Peltier, who is still unemployed and available for employment; and c) that the defendant is not in full compliance with 24 V.I.C. 129 until such time that Phyllis Peltier is unavailable for employment or until such time as the defendant no longer has non-resident chambermaids in its employ.

In its Answer and Special Defense to the Amended Complaint, the defendant contends: 1) that Phyllis Peltier is not an occupationally qualified chambermaid in terms of the provisions of 24 V.I.C. 129(b) for employment at defendant’s establishment; 2) that the Commissioner has not determined the occupational qualification of Phyllis Peltier as provided in 24 V.I.C. 129(c); and 3) that the Findings of December 22, 1966, and referral Order of the Commissioner dated March 7,1966, do not comply with the provisions of 24 V.I.C. 132, ending with a prayer for dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint.

To defendant’s Answer and Special Defense plaintiff filed motion to strike certain portions thereof. After hearing on this motion and considering the memorandum of law filed by the plaintiff in support thereof, the court [579]*579entered an order granting said motion in part and set the matter for hearing on its merits as to occupational qualification of the complaining witness, Phyllis Peltier, as it was satisfied by the record and argument of counsel that .the investigation conducted by the Commissioner as to the basis upon which Findings of Fact were made as to the occupational qualification of the complaining witness, Phyllis Peltier, and upon which plaintiff relies for injunctive relief, was inadequate. This inadequacy arises through failure of giving notice and opportunity to be heard on the issue of Peltier’s occupational qualification by the Commissioner to the defendant, which, in the instant case, are essential to due process. 5 Y.I. 665,661.

As indicated in its order, the question now before the Court is whether Phyllis Peltier is occupationally qualified as a chambermaid to work at defendant’s resort.

Pursuant to agreement of the parties that the court would rule at the end of the trial as to the admissibility of the Exhibits submitted, the following are admitted:

Plaintiff’s Exhibits 1 to 7, and Defendant’s Exhibits A, B, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, T, U, V and W.

While the proceedings and record in the case have been extensive and voluminous, the findings and discussion by the court need not be in determining the one issue before it.

Consequently, the court makes the following

FINDINGS OF FACT

The complaining witness, Phyllis Peltier, was employed as a chambermaid at the Caneel Bay Plantation, Inc., beginning in the month of March, 1962, at which time she was a bonded alien.

During the period 1962 to 1964, or thereabouts, most of her work as a chambermaid was done at the home of Mr. Moore, a former manager at Caneel Bay, who also had [580]*580a child living with him and taken care of by Peltier. As a result, Mr. Moore was friendly towards Peltier, as indicated by Government’s Exhibit No. 6.

After Mr. Moore left, Peltier was removed from her duties of taking care of the Manager’s house by Mrs. La Rosa, the Housekeeper, and replaced by a “bonded alien”, according to Peltier, which was evidently displeasing to Peltier.

As a consequence, ever and anon Peltier was dissatisfied with certain assignments given her by La Rosa, which reflected in her attitude and quality of her work, and to which her attention was called in writing on more than one occasion by La Rosa.

In the main, other employees had similar assignments from time to time, so that the court finds no discrimination against Peltier by La Rosa.

That beginning with the summer of 1965, the management began to get reports of thefts of money from guest rooms, concerning which entries were made in the records of the employees alleged to have serviced said rooms.

According to the complaint of a guest to the management, and as appears in a deposition taken by and on behalf of the complaining witness in the case of the Government of the Virgin Islands v. Phyllis Peltier, at which her attorney was present (Defendant’s Exhibit F), the complaining witness, Phyllis Peltier, who was left by the guests in their room when they left, was suspected of removing $10.00 from money which had been left by one of them.

According to Defendant’s Exhibit K, one Mr. Koch, a guest, reported to the Management that Mrs. Koch, his wife, walked into her room and found the complaining witness, Peltier, going through her drawer and when asked what she was doing, replied “nothing”.

[581]

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Related

Government of the Virgin Islands v. Caneel Bay Plantation, Inc.
5 V.I. 655 (Municipal Court of The Virgin Islands, 1966)

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6 V.I. 576, 1968 WL 183159, 1968 V.I. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/government-of-the-virgin-islands-v-caneel-bay-plantation-inc-vimunict-1968.