New York City Transit Authority v. Transport Workers Union of America

37 A.D.3d 679, 832 N.Y.S.2d 209
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided February 20, 2007·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

In an action, inter alia, to enjoin the prospective violation of the Taylor Law, the defendant Local 100 of Transport Workers [680] Union of America, AFL-CIO, appeals, as limited by its brief, from so much of an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Jones, J), dated May 12, 2006, as, upon an order of the same court dated April 19, 2006 granting, after a nonjury trial, those branches of the plaintiffs’ motion which were to impose a determinate contempt fine upon it and suspend its right to deduct union dues from the paychecks of its members, and upon an order and judgment (one paper) of the same court dated December 20, 2005, inter alia, adjudging it guilty of contempt of court, imposed a determinate fine in the sum of $2,500,000 upon it and, among other things, suspended its right to collect union dues from its members by means of a deduction from the paychecks of its members for an indefinite period of time.

Ordered that on the Court’s own motion, the notice of appeal from the order dated April 19, 2006 is deemed a premature notice of appeal from the order and judgment dated May 12, 2006 (see CPLR 5520 [c]); and it is further,

Ordered that the order and judgment dated May 12, 2006 is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

On December 13, 2005 the Supreme Court preliminarily enjoined the defendant Local 100 of Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO (hereinafter Local 100), from engaging in, causing, instigating, encouraging, or condoning a strike against the plaintiffs New York City Transit Authority and Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transportation Operating Authority (hereinafter together the employer). Nonetheless, on December 20, 2005 at 3:00 a.m., Local 100 commenced a strike against the employer. Later that same day, the Supreme Court adjudicated Local 100 to be in contempt of court for violating the preliminary injunction order, and, after a nonjury trial, imposed a fine of $1 million per day for each day that Local 100 had already been on strike, or thereafter remained on strike. Local 100 remained on strike until 3:00 p.m. on December 22, 2005 when it directed its members to return to work. Several months later, the employer moved, among other things, to fix a determinate fine predicated on the per diem fine already imposed, and for an order forfeiting the right of Local 100 to collect dues by means of a payroll deduction from those of its members who worked for the employer. After a second nonjury trial, the Supreme Court determined that Local 100 had been on strike for 2V2 days, and thus fixed the determinate contempt fine in the sum of $2.5 million. It also ordered the forfeiture of the right of Local 100 to the payroll deduction for an indefinite period of time, without prejudice to the right of Local 100 to request the court [681] to reinstate that right no earlier than 90 days after the entry of the order and judgment effecting the forfeiture. Local 100 appeals.

Contrary to the contention of Local 100, it was not improper for the employer to request the forfeiture of Local 100’s payroll deduction privilege by means of a motion in this Taylor Law action, subsequent to the entry of the court’s initial order and judgment adjudicating Local 100 to be in contempt. Civil Service Law § 208 (1) (b) provides that “[a] public employer shall extend to an employee organization certified or recognized pursuant to this article” the right to “membership dues deduction, upon presentation of dues deduction authorization cards signed by individual employees.” Civil Service Law § 210 (1), however, prohibits public employees and public employee organizations from engaging in, or causing, instigating, encouraging, or condoning, a strike. In turn, Civil Service Law § 210 (3) (a) provides that “[a]n employee organization which is determined by the [Public Employment Relations B]oard to have violated the provisions of subdivision one of this section shall, in accordance with the provisions of this section, lose the rights granted pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (b) of subdivision one of section two hundred eight of this chapter.” In particular, Civil Service Law § 210 (3) (f) directs that the Public Employment Relations Board (hereinafter PERB), upon a determination that a public employee union violated section 210 (1), “shall order forfeiture of the rights granted pursuant to the provisions of paragraph (b) of subdivision one, and subdivision three of section two hundred eight of this chapter, for such specified period of time as the board shall determine, or, in the discretion of the board, for an indefinite period of time subject to restoration upon application, with notice to all interested parties, supported by proof of good faith compliance with the requirements of subdivision one of this section.”

Prior to 1986, only PERB possessed the authority to order such a forfeiture, regardless of whether the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court had been invoked pursuant to the contempt powers granted to it by Judiciary Law § 751 (see generally Matter of Egan v Newman, 92 AD2d 1007 [1983]). In enacting L 1986, ch 929, § 34, however, the Legislature empowered the Supreme Court, and indeed mandated it, under certain circumstances, to exercise the power to order such a forfeiture. That section provides, in relevant part, that, “[w]here an employee organization is determined by the court in the exercise of its authority under section seven hundred fifty-one of the judiciary law to have violated the provisions of subdivision one of section [682] two hundred ten of the civil service law, the court shall apply the provisions set forth in subdivision three of such section two hundred ten.” Although an employer’s forfeiture application thus cannot be granted in the absence of a finding that the union has violated the Taylor Law, there is nothing in this provision that requires the application to be made in any particular manner, with any notice other than that required by CPLR 2211, or at any particular time.

Thus, there is no merit to Local 100’s contention that the employer’s request for forfeiture of the membership dues deduction right must be made simultaneously with, or as part of, its motion to hold Local 100 in contempt. Even if there were, the motion for forfeiture was in fact made simultaneously with the employer’s motion to fix a determinate contempt fine, and thus was made in the course of the proceeding in which the Supreme Court was exercising its contempt jurisdiction.

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New York City Transit Authority v. Transport Workers Union of America, 37 A.D.3d 679, 832 N.Y.S.2d 209 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2007).

37 A.D.3d 679 (New York City Transit Authority v. Transport Workers Union of America) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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