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CS de­feats mo­tion to dis­miss in hy­brid duty-of-fair-rep­res­ent­a­tion case against South­w­est Air­lines

January 12, 2010

The United States Dis­trict Court for the North­ern Dis­trict of Texas (Judge Bar­bara M.G. Lynn) today denied South­w­est Air­lines' mo­tion to dis­miss in a hy­brid duty-of-fair-rep­res­ent­a­tion case brought by First Of­ficer Janice Mc­Call. Mc­Call al­leges that South­w­est at­temp­ted to co­erce her in­to ly­ing dur­ing a Fed­er­al Avi­ation Ad­min­is­tra­tion safety in­vest­ig­a­tion and then re­tali­ated against her when she re­fused to do so.

The dis­trict court re­jec­ted South­w­est's ar­gu­ments that Mc­Call failed to ex­haust ad­min­is­trat­ive rem­ed­ies and that the con­duct that Mc­Call al­leged did not con­sti­tute a breach of the duty of fair rep­res­ent­a­tion or of the col­lect­ive bar­gain­ing agree­ment between South­w­est and its pi­lots' uni­on.

Noah Rad­b­il briefed the mo­tion to dis­miss.