"Claim on behalf of the General Committee of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad:
Claim on behalf of C.D. Mills and S.G. Barish for payment of one hour each per day at the time and one-half rate, beginning September 3, 1996, and continuing for the term of the violation, account Carrier violated the current Signalmen's Agreement, particularly Appendix U and Rule 68, when it did not provide the Claimants with proper headquarters facilities at Madisonville, Tennessee. Carrier also violated Rule 54 when it failed to provide notice of the disallowance of the claim within 60 days of the date on which the claim was presented. Carriers's File No. 15(97-1). General Chairman's File No. 96-158-07. BRS File Case No. 10376-L&N."
When the Organization appealed the claim to the highest Carrier officer designated to handle claims on appeal, Carrier's response was solely directed to the merits. It failed to mention, let alone present any arguments to counter the alleged procedural violation. Nor did the Carrier refer to said procedural error in any post conference communication.
In its Submission, the Carrier argues that the procedural argument is bogus because the Organization never presented the Carrier with a copy of the claim originally filed that was not answered. The Carrier's defense comes too late. It should have challenged the Organization during the on-property handling as the Carriers did in Third Division Awards 28168, 26675 and 30024.
The on-property record reflects that the Carrier did not timely respond to the claim originally presented. Pursuant to the Rule, the claim is to be sustained without regard to the merits, however, this claim is continuing commencing September 3, 1996.
Generally, continuous claims upon which a Carrier defaults are sustained up to the date the Carrier denies the claim, which in this case was February 28, 1997. However, there is one additional feature in this case. The Carrier in its letter of February 28,1997 stated without rebuttal that the Assistant Signal Maintainer position no longer existed.
Based solely upon the procedural violation, the claim on behalf of each Claimant will be sustained for one hour at the pro rata rate for each workday up to but not including the date the Assistant Signal Maintainer's position was abolished.