Summary
The D.C. Circuit denied Stage Hands Referral Service, LLC’s petition for review of a National Labor Relations Board order and granted the Board’s cross-application for enforcement of a $77,455 backpay award plus interest. The court held that the petitioner’s post-hearing brief was not part of the Board record, that several exceptions were insufficiently particularized for review, and that the Board did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to supplement the record.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the Board acted arbitrarily by refusing to consider petitioner's post-hearing brief and the substance of insufficiently particular exceptions to the backpay award.
- Whether the Board abused its discretion by denying petitioner's motion to supplement the record with the post-hearing brief.
- Whether the Board's backpay award should be enforced.
Holdings
- A post-hearing brief filed with the administrative law judge was not part of the record before the Board under the plain language of the Board's regulations, so the Board properly refused to consider it.
- The Board properly concluded that several exceptions were unreviewable because they were not stated with sufficient particularity.
- The Board did not abuse its discretion by denying petitioner's motion to supplement the record with the post-hearing brief.
- The Board's cross-petition for enforcement of the backpay award was granted.
Key quotations
“Accordingly, we deny petitioner’s petition for review, and grant the Board’s cross-petition for enforcement.” (2)
Factual background
The Board awarded petitioner’s opposing party $77,455 in backpay plus interest after an administrative hearing. Petitioner attempted to rely on a post-hearing brief and sought to supplement the Board record with that brief more than two years after the deadline for a brief supporting exceptions. The Board refused to consider the brief, found several exceptions insufficiently particular, and declined to disturb the award.
Procedural history
The National Labor Relations Board issued a May 3, 2011 order refusing to consider petitioner's post-hearing brief, declining to consider insufficiently particular exceptions to an administrative law judge's backpay award, and denying a motion to supplement the record. The D.C. Circuit denied the petition for review and granted the Board's cross-application for enforcement of the $77,455 backpay award plus interest.