On May 9, 2018, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously enforced an order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York that confirmed an arbitration award obtained by the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) against Southside Hospital.
Southside had sued in state court seeking to overturn the arbitration award, where the Arbitrator found that Southside had violated its collective bargaining agreement with NYSNA by requiring nurses to regularly perform technical, support, and other non-nursing duties. NYSNA removed the case to federal district court, and the District Court rejected Southside’s argument that the Arbitrator did not have jurisdiction to decide the dispute due to language in the contract that excluded some types of disputes from the grievance and arbitration procedure. On appeal, the Second Circuit agreed with NYSNA and the District Court that NYSNA and Southside had agreed that the issue would be resolved by arbitration.
The Court’s decision is available here.
Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP partner Joshua J. Ellison represented NYSNA at oral argument before the Court. Richard M. Seltzer was with him on the brief.