On December 10, 2009, Kerry Shea Price filed a pro se complaint against the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority ("WMATA") and its former General Manager John Catoe (together, "the WMATA defendants") and against Local 689, Amalgamated Transit Union ("the Union" or "Local 689") and Union President Warren George (together, the "Union defendants"), alleging that WMATA wrongfully discharged him and that the Union arbitrarily refused to take his grievance against WMATA to arbitration.
Price was employed by WMATA as a Metrobus operator. WMATA terminated him on January 24, 2008, after learning that he had failed to disclose a felony conviction on his job application and in the wake of a bus passenger's having made a complaint that Price harassed her (a charge of which Price was cleared). Price filed a grievance, and the matter eventually was put to a vote of Union members on the question whether the Union should take Price's grievance to arbitration. On August 6, 2008, the Union members (having been informed of the felony that Price committed) voted not to send his grievance to arbitration.
Price filed a pro se complaint against WMATA, the Union, and some Union officials on November 7, 2008, but the trial court dismissed that complaint without prejudice as to all defendants. Appellant filed his largely identical complaint in the instant case on December 10, 2009. On April 19, 2010, the trial court dismissed the claims against the WMATA defendants, finding that any liability lay with WMATA, rather than with Catoe individually, and that the claim against WMATA "f[ell] beyond the applicable six-month statute of limitations." On April 8, 2011, the court
This appeal followed. Price's primary argument on appeal is that the trial court erred in applying the six-month limitations period instead of the District of Columbia's three-year limitations period applicable to claims for breach of contract and other claims (such as malpractice) for which a limitations period is not specifically prescribed.
In holding that Price's suit against WMATA and the Union was time-barred, the trial court relied on DelCostello v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), in which the Supreme Court held that hybrid CBA/fair representation suits are subject to the six-month statute of limitations "borrowed" from § 10(b) of the NLRA. 462 U.S. at 163, 103 S.Ct. 2281.
WMATA is a creature of the "Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Compact" (the "Compact"), an interstate agreement between the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the State of Maryland that was authorized by Congress. See Office & Prof'l Employees Int'l Union, Local 2 v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., 724 F.2d 133, 135 (D.C.Cir.1983). The Compact, which is codified at D.C.Code § 9-1107.01 (2001), "incorporates by reference the NLRA's definition of employee as set forth at 29 U.S.C. § 152." Office & Prof'l Employees, 724 F.2d at 140. Specifically, paragraph 66(b) of the Compact provides that WMATA "shall deal with and enter written contracts with employees as defined in section 152 of Title 29, United States Code, through accredited representatives of such employees or representatives of any labor organization authorized to act for such employees concerning wages, salaries, hours...." D.C.Code § 9-1107.01, Art. XIV ("Labor Policy"), ¶ 66(b). The Compact thus mandates collective bargaining between WMATA and its employees, and it "ties the NLRA definition of employee to the designation of that party with whom the Authority must bargain." Office & Prof'l Employees, 724 F.2d at 140. For that reason, even though "the Compact, not the ... National Labor Relations Act, governs WMATA's collective-bargaining relationship with its employees and their representatives," Hill v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., 309 F.Supp.2d 63, 66 (D.D.C.2004), courts—including this court—have looked to NLRA case law to derive principles applicable to disputes involving the WMATA collective bargaining agreement and Local 689 representation issues. See, e.g., Jordan v. Washington Metro. Area Transit Auth., 548 A.2d 792, 796-97 (D.C.1988) (relying on Vaca v. Sipes, 386 U.S. 171, 177, 87 S.Ct. 903, 17 L.Ed.2d 842 (1967) (which applied the "well established" statutory duty of fair representation, that was developed in cases involving unions certified as exclusive bargaining representatives under the NLRA), for the conclusion that "[a]s the exclusive agent of the employees in a bargaining unit, [Local 689] union owes to those employees a duty to represent them fairly, both in its collective bargaining with the employer and in its enforcement of the resulting collective bargaining agreement").
We discern no unfairness in applying the NLRA case law, particularly DelCostello, in addressing the specific issue presented here (an issue of first impression in this court), since, in bringing his lawsuit, Price has invoked Local 689's duty of fair representation that this court recognized in Jordan by relying on the NLRA scheme.
Moreover, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia has repeatedly followed DelCostello in ruling that the six-month limitations period borrowed from § 10(b) governs whether hybrid claims against WMATA and the Union are time-barred. See Ferguson v. Local 689, Amalgamated Transit Union, et al., 626 F.Supp.2d 55 (D.D.C.2009) (agreeing that the six-month statute of
We acknowledge that, in none of the cases cited in the preceding paragraph, did the court address whether the six-month limitations period of § 10(b) of the NLRA should apply to a claim involving the political subdivision WMATA. Nevertheless, the number of instances in which our sister federal courts have applied the six-month limitations period in hybrid cases involving WMATA is an important additional factor in our analysis. In DelCostello, the Supreme Court emphasized the importance of national uniformity in procedures followed for similar labor relations claims,
Unless subject to tolling, a limitations period begins to run when the plaintiff "discovered or reasonably should have discovered all of the essential elements of [his] possible cause of action." Farris v. Compton, 652 A.2d 49, 54 (D.C. 1994). We discern no reason to hold that the running of the limitations period was tolled in this case.
Finally, Price faults the trial court for "failing to address [his] allegation[s] of a deprivation of Constitutional Rights." His brief asserts "violation[s] of [his] Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Rights" to due process, premised on WMATA's having failed to give him timely notice of its investigation into his prior criminal conviction and job application and having delayed taking adverse action upon the investigation results, and on Price's not having been afforded a hearing in which to challenge the information WMATA obtained during the investigation. He argues that, taking cognizance of these claims, we are bound to apply the three-year limitations period for personal injury claims that applies to actions under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
We reject the foregoing argument. We note first that Price's complaint contains no mention of § 1983, failure to afford a hearing, a deprivation of due process, or constitutional rights. In light of our "duty to construe a pro se complaint liberally," Elmore v. Stevens, 824 A.2d 44, 46 (D.C. 2003), those omissions might not be fatal, especially in light of the fact that Price did assert his constitutional argument in opposing the defendants' dispositive motions.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the trial court is
Affirmed.
Consistent with these principles, courts have held that the six-month limitations period of § 10(b) applies to what is "in actuality a hybrid claim" even if the plaintiff sues only the employer or only the union. Hill v. City of Okla. City, Case No. CIV-05-261-L, 2006 WL 222718, *5, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5852, *13-14 (W.D.Okla. Jan. 30, 2006) ("[T]he court finds that plaintiff cannot avoid the six-month statute of limitations applicable to hybrid claims by suing only the [employer]."); Edwards, 46 F.3d at 1052 ("Edwards could not avoid the six-month statute of limitations applicable to both elements of a `hybrid' claim under DelCostello by suing only the Union.").