FRANKFORT, Ky. (Legal Newsline) – Lawyers can’t take one case of one employee who belongs to a union and attach it to all other members, which would have driven up damages, a Kentucky court has ruled.
The Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 5 that Saulette Davis’ lawsuit against Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government should not have been certified as a class action by Jefferson Circuit Judge Olu Stevens.
Stevens’ July 2020 ruling certified a class of members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, even though the evidence only showed a grievance by one AFSCME member – Kelvin Brown.
Brown was terminated from the Louisville Metro Department of Public Protection but claimed he was discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act. He belonged to Local 2629, which has about 800 members.
Pursuant to the collective bargaining agreement, the union filed a grievance that resulted in back pay and retroactive health insurance. He was also eventually reinstated to his position.
Louisville found that he’d been overpaid by 37.73 hours prior to dismissal and declined to pay the back pay and insurance during the time prior to his reinstatement.
The union filed a complaint through proposed class representative Saulette Davis on behalf of union members who are non-supervisors. Judge Stevens agreed to let it proceed as a class action.
“The circuit court abused its discretion,” Judge Glenn Acree wrote, noting how much variance there would be between individual complaints of union members.
“The ‘common questions of law or fact’ did not predominate over individual cases. In fact, there is no other individual case.”
The Louisville firm Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings represents the plaintif Acree wrote the circuit court found the wrong two issues arise in its case.
Judge Stevens said he was to determine whether there was a valid contract between the parties and whether Louisville violated it when it refused to honor the arbitrator’s back pay and insurance benefits award.
“These are not the correct questions,” Acree wrote. “The only relevant question is whether it was proper for Metro to unilaterally offset the arbitrator’s award – not whether there was a breach of the contract. This issue relates to Brown and only to Brown. It is not a class issue.
“There is nothing common to any other member in the union and it was unnecessary and excessive to make this a class action.”