United States Second Circuit

In a Railway Labor Act (RLA) action challenging the validity of a Restructuring Participation Agreement reached between plaintiff flight attendants' former employer and their union, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) the relevant RLA provisions, 45 U.S.C. section 152, First and Seventh, do not provide a private cause of action; 2) the RLA preempted plaintiffs' state law claims; and 3) plaintiffs failed to adduce sufficient evidence of a material factual dispute on their fair representation claim to defeat summary judgment.

Appellate Information

• Argued 07/06/2009
• Decided 09/21/2009
• Published 09/21/2009

Judges

• REENA RAGGI, Circuit Judge:, Before: RAGGI, HALL, Circuit Judges, and BIANCO, District Judge.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Emily M. Bass, Brooklyn, N.Y. (Steven M. Nachman, New York, NY; Michael S. Haber, New York, NY; Martin Garbus, Davis & Gilbert, New York, NY, on the brief), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Stephen B. Moldof (Michael L. Winston, Travis M. Mastroddi, on the brief), Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP, New York, NY, for Defendants-Appellees Association of Professional Flight Attendants and John Ward., Thomas E. Reinert, Jr. (Jonathan C. Fritts, on the brief), Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Washington, D.C., for Defendants-Appellees American Airlines, Inc. and AMR Corporation.