NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
THIRD DIVISION Docket Number SG-19392
Robert M, O'Brien, Referee
(Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen
PARTIES TO
DISPUTE:
(George P. Baker, Richard C. Bond, Jervis Langdon, Jr.,
( and Willard Wirtz, Trustees of the Property of
( Penn Central Transportation Company, Debtor
STATEMENT OF CLAIM: 1. Carrier failed to comply with the procedural require
ments agreed upon by the parties with respect to application
of the National Agreement dated August 21, 1954, when Supervisor C&S D. A. Walker
failed to decline within 60 days from date claim was filed on behalf
of
Signal
Maintainer Ralph Downour, and
2. Carrier shall now allow claim as presented; i.e.:
(a) Carrier failed to provide transportation to Signal
Maintainer Ralph Downour either in the form of a track motor car or
motor truck (highway vehicle) in accordance with Job Bulletin in
which Mr. Downour bid on and was assigned to the job he held on
October 1, 1969, and as the result of the failure of Carrier to
provide the herein-referred-to transportation Mr. Downour was forced
under such circumstance to use his private automobile when he was
called to perform emergency service by the Carrier on date of October
1, 1969, and when returning from performing such emergency service
which was at Stanley Yards in Toledo, Ohio, and when still on Carrier
property sustained damages to his private automobile on this date,
and
(b) Carrier be now required to reimburse Signal Maintainer
Ralph Downour in the sum of $215.78, such being the cost of damages
to his private automobile for repair of same, account failure of Carrier to provide transportation a
1, 1969. (Carrier's File: m-1)
OPINION OF BOARD: On October 1, 1969 while on Carrier's property and in Carrier's
employ, claimant sustained damage to his private automobile
which he was required to
use due
to Carrier's failure to provide him with trans
portation. Claim was filed November 24, 1969 requesting Carrier to reimburse claim
ant for the cost of repairs to the automobile. It is the Organization's position
that the claim moat be allowed since Carrier's Supervisor failed to render a deci
sion on the claim within the 60 day time period prescribed in Article V of the
August 21, 1954 National Agreement.
Award Number 19766 Page 2
Docket Number SG-19392
We cannot agree with the Organization's contention. Before the
time limits of Article V become applicable, the claim as presented moat come
within the term "claims or grievances" upon which Article V is premised. The
claim requesting compensation for damage to claimant's automobile is in the
nature of a tort and does not involve the working agreement between the parties.
The claim does not allege a rule violation nor does it involve the
interpretation or application of the Schedule Agreement. The duly established
grievance procedure on this property has thus been erroneously invoked by the
Organization. The proper forum for adjudication of the within claim is a Court
of Law and not the National Railroad Adjustment Board. Thus we are left no
alternative other than to dismiss the claim.
FINDINGS: The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole rt ·.ord and
all the evidence, finds and holds:
That the parties waived oral hearing;
That the Carrier and the Employee involved in this dispute are
respectively Carrier and Employee within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act,
as approved June 21, 1934;
That this Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the
dispute involved herein; and
That the Claim be dismissed.
A W A R D
Claim dismissed.
NATIONAL RAILROAD ADJUSTMENT BOARD
By Order of Third Division
ATTEST:
Executive Secretary
Dated at Chicago, Illinois, this 25th day of May, 1973.
i
. . .m `~