The TWA pilots lawsuit against APA, AA and ALPA has been decided by an Appeals Court ruling dismissing the charges against AA and APA but finding the charges against ALPA have merit.
An Oral hearing was held in the Eastern District US Federal court in Brookln on Tuesday. Judge Gershon presiding. There were 9 lawyers, Moldoff and Katz for APFA, ? who looked like Crandall for AA, S. Cooper and J. Allen for TWA, and three lawyers for one of the nAAtive RA suits. There were about 30 TWAers present, VP APFA and two others who appeared to be connected to APFA. This writer attended. At issue is whether the promises made to TWAers represented by IAM before the closing of the purchase are issues under the Railway labor Act or can be tried as a promise (like a binding contract) for damages. Remember these various promises were made in exchange for TWAers dropping their demand for Allegheny-Mohawk arbitration. AA and APFA say these promises are RLA issues while the TWAers say that the RLA covers only employees and the TWAers were not employed by AA or TWA LLC at the time. The Judge said at the end, "there are important legal issues to resolve." This was the issue the lawyers were arguing about. There are other charges in the lawsuit which were not argued. It is expected the Judge will rule by the end of the year. Many outcomes are possible. I suspect some charges will be sustained and perhaps others will get thrown out. If the TWAers prevail on any charge, I believe they will take it to trial as soon as possible.
An Oral hearing was held in the Eastern District US Federal court in Brookln on Tuesday. Judge Gershon presiding. There were 9 lawyers, Moldoff and Katz for APFA, ? who looked like Crandall for AA, S. Cooper and J. Allen for TWA, and three lawyers for one of the nAAtive RA suits. There were about 30 TWAers present, VP APFA and two others who appeared to be connected to APFA. This writer attended. At issue is whether the promises made to TWAers represented by IAM before the closing of the purchase are issues under the Railway labor Act or can be tried as a promise (like a binding contract) for damages. Remember these various promises were made in exchange for TWAers dropping their demand for Allegheny-Mohawk arbitration. AA and APFA say these promises are RLA issues while the TWAers say that the RLA covers only employees and the TWAers were not employed by AA or TWA LLC at the time. The Judge said at the end, "there are important legal issues to resolve." This was the issue the lawyers were arguing about. There are other charges in the lawsuit which were not argued. It is expected the Judge will rule by the end of the year. Many outcomes are possible. I suspect some charges will be sustained and perhaps others will get thrown out. If the TWAers prevail on any charge, I believe they will take it to trial as soon as possible.
