Bruce Colven's Legal Cases (2)

State, local, and municipal law

Wood v. Battle Ground School District, Wood v. Battle Ground School District, 107 Wn.App 550, 27 P.3d 1208 (2001)

Jul 27, 2001

OUTCOME: The case settled after the Washington Court of Appeals ruled on various aspects of both my client's defamation and open public meeting act claims

This started as a defamation case brought by my client against a member of the Battle Ground school board. In the course of the discovery phase of litigation, we learned there were multiple violations ... of the Washington Open Public Meetings Act by members of the board, so claims for violation of the Act were added. This was the first reported Washington case involving the issue of whether email discussions among members of a public body violated the Washington OPMA.

Arbitration

Teamsters Local 58 v. BOC Gases, 249 F.3d 1089 (2001)

May 16, 2001

OUTCOME: The case settled after the Ninth Circuit's reinstatement of the arbitration award.

My client was a truck driver who had been terminated following a truck mishap that caused damage to both the company's truck and property of one of the company's customers. The client's union represen ... ted him at arbitration and prevailed; however, the company appealed the arbitrator's decision to US District Court in Tacoma, and that Court vacated the decision of the arbitrator. The union then ceased representing the driver - as was the union's perogative -- and we appealed the district court's ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Relying on longstanding federal law which gives great deference to the decisions of arbitrators in union-based arbitrations, the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court, and reinstated the arbitrator's decision that had awarded my client back pay and employment reinstatement.

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