By Elissa Hachmeister
Today, in a published opinion in the civil case of Lee v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., the Fourth Circuit established that the “Election of Remedies” provision of the Federal Railroad Safety Act (FRSA) is to be narrowly applied to bar duplicative claims brought under statutes aimed at preventing retaliation for workplace health and safety whistleblowing.
Lee’s Suspension and Subsequent Lawsuits
Charles Lee works as a carman for Northern Southern Railway Company (NS), where his responsibilities include inspecting railcars to identify potential defects. According to Lee, NS’s management capped the number of railcars that Lee could tag for repair. Lee refused to comply with the quotas because he believed federal law required him to identify and tag all defective railcars.
Lee, an African-American, further alleged that NS denied African-American carmen the training and advancement opportunities provided to white carmen. Lee described racial harassment by co-workers, who allegedly threatened his children, called him racial slurs, and hung a noose in his locker.
In July 2011, Lee was suspended for six months without pay. NS claimed it suspended Lee for drinking on the job in violation of company policy. Lee claimed that the suspension was really motivated by racial and retaliatory animus. He alleged that his white supervisor drank beer on duty and was never disciplined.
Lee filed two lawsuits against NS. In the first, Lee claimed racial discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The district court granted summary judgment for NS.
In the second lawsuit, Lee claimed retaliation in violation of the whistleblower protection provision of FRSA. Lee did not bring this claim in his first lawsuit because he was required to exhaust his administrative remedies first. The district court held that the second lawsuit was barred by FRSA’s Election of Remedies provision, which forbids an employee from “seek[ing] protection under both this section and another provision of law for the same allegedly unlawful act of the railroad carrier.” 49 U.S.C. § 20109(f).
FRSA’s Election of Remedies Provision Does Not Require a Choice Between FRSA and Federal Antidiscrimination Laws
While the district court had focused on whether Lee’s first lawsuit under § 1981 was an attempt to seek protection under “another provision of law,” the Fourth Circuit clarified that the issue was whether the two lawsuits, which both challenge the same suspension, concerned “the same allegedly unlawful act.” A question of statutory interpretation is reviewed de novo.
The court first looked at the plain language of the Election of Remedies provision and concluded that that the phrase “the same unlawful act” ordinarily means that the act is unlawful for the same reasons. The court explained that the “same act” may be implicated in more than one claim yet is “allegedly unlawful” for fundamentally different reasons depending on the claim. The provision is not triggered by merely the “same act” but by “the same allegedly unlawful act.”
Looking beyond the meaning of the words, the court reasoned that accepted grammatical rules also support its interpretation of the phrase. There is no comma between “same” and “allegedly unlawful act,” suggesting that “same” modifies the entire phrase and “unlawful act” should be read as a unit. If “same” and “allegedly unlawful” both independently modify “act,” then the adjectives should be separated by a comma per several widely respected style guides.
While the court found the provision unambiguous—that is, capable of only one reasonable interpretation—it noted that the result would have been the same even if it had found the provision ambiguous: the legislative history and context of the statute showed that the Election of Remedies provision was “only intended to bar railroad employees from seeking duplicative relief under overlapping anti-retaliation or whistleblower statutes that provide protections similar to the protections in FRSA.” Thus, the Election of Remedies provision would apply to potential claims under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSH Act) and various state versions of the OSH Act since those statutes, like FRSA, are aimed at preventing retaliation for engaging in protected whistleblowing activities regarding safety and health in the workplace.
The court also pointed to a 2007 amendment to FRSA that states that nothing in the FRSA’s retaliation provision is to “diminish” other rights of employees under “any” law. 49 U.S.C. § 20109(h). Quoting approvingly from a Sixth Circuit opinion, the Fourth Circuit explained that the Election of Remedies provision, if construed as NS suggested, would dilute an employee’s rights since“[r]estricting an employee to only one of the numerous arrows in his quiver obviously reduces the number of options available to him.” Norfolk S. Ry. Co. v. Perez (6th Cir. 2015).
FRSA’s Election of Remedies Provision Does Not Bar Lee’s Suit
Although both of Lee’s lawsuits challenge the same “act”— his suspension by NS—the Fourth Circuit agreed with Lee that a suspension on the basis of race is not “the same allegedly unlawful act” as a suspension in retaliation for railway safety whistleblowing. The court explained that a suspension in itself is not unlawful. An “unlawful act” must have a basis in the law. Since Lee’s claims were based in different laws they did not concern the “same allegedly unlawful act.”
The court emphasized that the laws implicated here, § 1981 and FRSA, have different aims and give rise to distinct causes of action with different elements and burdens of proof. FRSA seeks to prevent retaliation for engaging in protected whistleblowing activities regarding railway safety while § 1981 aims to halt racial discrimination. FRSA’s Election of Remedies provision therefore does not apply to bar Lee’s second lawsuit.
The Fourth Circuit Vacated and Remanded for Further Proceedings
