John A. James, Aaron Tiffany, Christopher Kopf v. Norfolk Souothern Railway Company, aka Norfolk Southern Corporation, et al.

Toledo, Ohio employment law lawyer represented the Plaintiffs on a wrongful termination claim.





Plaintiffs John James, Aaron Tiffany, and Christopher Kopf are former employees of Norfolk Southern Railway (NSR) whose terminations were upheld in arbitrations under the Railway Labor Act (RLA). They bring fraud claims regarding the arbitrator selected to adjudicate their terminations, naming as defendants: NSR; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a national railway labor union; and a BLET subpart, Norfolk Southern Northern Lines/CF&E General Committee of Adjustment (GCA) (together with BLET, the "Union Defendants”). They also bring claims that the Union

Defendants breached the duty of fair representation. Plaintiffs James and Tiffany additionally bring a whistleblower claim against NSR under the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA), alleging that it discharged them in retaliation for not falsifying their time records.

The district court dismissed the fraud and duty of fair representation to NSR on the FRSA claim. The Plaintiffs appeal those decisions. BLET and GCA moved to dismiss this appeal and for sanctions against the Plaintiffs.



Affirmed in part and denied in part.