Union president can’t split claims, 9th Circuit says

A union local president in Las Vegas was removed from office because of alleged financial irregularities and later filed two lawsuits asserting roughly the same claims against the same parties. Read on to learn how they played out at the 9th Circuit.

Facts

Local 1637, an affiliate of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU), represents coach operators and mechanics in Las Vegas. In April 2017, the ATU received a number of complaints from members about alleged financial malfeasance by local president Jose Mendoza and imposed a temporary trusteeship.

A letter from the ATU International president announcing the temporary trusteeship cited a variety of alleged “issues severely impacting the effective administration and functioning of Local 1637.” Chief among them was the allegation that Mendoza had been overpaid in terms of salary and vacation pay.

The letter also said that, under the ATU’s constitution and general laws (CGL), the “imposition of the trusteeship automatically suspends all officers and executive board members of the local union from office.” ATU International vice president James Lindsay was designated as Local 1637’s trustee, while Mendoza and the other local executive board members were removed from office.

In September 2017, Mendoza filed a single-plaintiff action (Mendoza I) against ATU and several officers. Then in May 2018, while the action was still pending, he filed a second, multi-plaintiff action (Mendoza II) in which he and a majority of Local 1637’s other former executive board members asserted related claims against ATU, the same ATU officers, and several other parties.