The Third Division of the Adjustment Board, upon the whole record and all the evidence, finds that:

The carrier or carriers and the employee or employees involved in this dispute are respectively carrier and employee within the meaning of the Railway Labor Act, as approved June 21, 1934.

This Division of the Adjustment Board has jurisdiction over the dispute involved herein.

Parties to said dispute were given due notice of hearing thereon.

The jurisdiction of the Board has been raised by the Carrier as a threshold matter. Carrier contends the matter was not advanced to the Board in accordance with Rule 15 of the effective Agreement. That Rule provides that the appeal from the decision of the Director of Labor Relations must have been made within 185 days of the date of the decision. Although dated October 10,1996, the appeal was not filed with the Board until February 11,1997. Because the decision of the Director of Labor Relations was dated June 12,1996, Claimant's filing was 59 days late. As such, the appeal was not progressed in the usual manner required by Rule 15. Accordingly, it is barred from consideration by Section 153, First (i) of the Railway Labor Act.

A review of the record in this case reveals no persuasive evidence that Claimant made the requisite filing with the Board prior to February 11,1997. Indeed, the record shows that Carrier's copy of the filing was not postmarked until January 4 and it was not received until January 7, 1997, although it was also dated October 10, 1996. Even a filing with the Board in January 1997 would have been untimely.

Procedural objections of the type here are well settled matters. Because it was not filed in accordance. with the effective Agreement, the Railway Labor Act denies the Board jurisdiction to review the matter. Accordingly, the proper disposition of such matters is dismissal. See, for example, Third Division Award 25130.

AWARD