MEMORANDUM OPINION
ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, United States District Judge
Flight
Options, LLC seeks to vacate an arbitration award that
reinstated discharged pilot Captain John Hodges.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Airline Division
and Teamsters Local Union No. 1108 (Local 1108) move to
dismiss the complaint or to transfer venue to the Northern
District of Ohio, where both Flight Options and Local 1108
are located. Flight Options, as Plaintiff, has selected the
District of Columbia as its preferred forum; Defendant IBT
Airline Division, the certified bargaining representative and
signatory to the parties' collective bargaining
agreement, is located in D.C. All parties agreed to arbitrate
Captain Hodges' discharge in the District; the
arbitration that is the focus of this case began and
continued for two days in D.C.; and Defendant Local 1108
thereby had substantial contacts with D.C. and can be deemed
to have consented to jurisdiction in D.C. The Court will deny
the motion.
I.
FACTS
According
to the papers, Flight Options is a luxury jet fractional air
carrier headquartered in Richmond Heights, Ohio. Flight
Options is signatory to a collective bargaining agreement
with IBT Airline Division that covers its pilots. IBT and IBT
Airline Division are located in the District of Columbia.
Local 1108, which “implement[s]” the collective
bargaining agreement, see Defendants' Mot. to
Dismiss or Transfer Venue (Defs.' Mot.) [Dkt. 5] at 2, is
located in Richmond Heights, Ohio. The contract is governed
by the Railway Labor Act (RLA), 45 U.S.C. § 151 et
seq. Flight Options seeks to vacate an arbitration award
of the parties' System Board of Adjustment (Board), which
was issued by Homer La Rue as Impartial Arbitrator and Board
Chair from his place of business in Columbia,
Maryland.[1] The parties' post-hearing briefs were
submitted to the Board in Cleveland, Ohio, and to Arbitrator
La Rue in Columbia, Maryland. The first two days of the
arbitration hearing were conducted in Washington, D.C., and
the last three days were conducted at various locations in or
near Cleveland, Ohio. See Ex. 2, Defs.' Mot.,
Declaration of Business Agent Laddie J. Hostalek (Hostalek
Decl.) [Dkt. 5-2] ¶ 2 (“IBT Local 1108 acts on
behalf of Defendants” IBT and IBT Airline Division.);
see Id. ¶ 19 (arbitration hearings in D.C. and
Cleveland).
“International
Brotherhood of Teamsters, Airline Division, (‘IBT
ALD”) [sic] is the National Mediation Board certified
representative of the craft or class of pilots at Flight
Options for labor law purposes under the RLA.”
Id. ¶ 23. IBT Airline Division is “an
administrative unit of IBT.” Id. ¶ 14.
Neither “had any involvement in representing [Capt.]
Hodges regarding his termination, ” as it was handled
by Local 1108. Id. ¶ 24.
Flight
Options filed its Petition to Vacate Arbitration Award in
this Court on September 12, 2017. [Dkt. 1]. On that same
date, Local 1108 and IBT Airline Division filed an Action to
Enforce Arbitration Award in the District Court of the
Northern District of Ohio, where the parties are already
conducting other, unrelated, litigation.
II.
ANALYSIS
The
parties argue over whether this Court in the District of
Columbia has jurisdiction over Local 1108, which is an
unincorporated association headquartered in Richmond, Ohio,
where Flight Options is also headquartered. Specifically,
each side cites 28 U.S.C. § 1391, which provides in
relevant part:
(b) Venue in general.-A civil action may be
brought in-
(1) a judicial district in which any defendant resides, if
all defendants are residents of the State in which the
district is located;
(2) a judicial district in which a substantial part of the
events or omissions giving rise to the claim occurred . . .;
or
(3) if there is no district in which an action may otherwise
be brought as provided in this section, any judicial district
in which any defendant is subject to the court's personal
jurisdiction with respect to such action.
(c) Residency.-For all venue purposes- . . .
(2) an entity with the capacity to sue and be sued in its
common name under applicable law, whether or not
incorporated, shall be deemed to reside, if a defendant, in
any judicial district in which such defendant is subject to
the court's personal jurisdiction with respect to the
civil action in question . . . .
Id. § 1391(c)(2). Contending that “Local
1108 is the local affiliate of the IBT that handles the
day-to-day representation of the pilots at Flight Options and
actually prosecuted the grievance and arbitration from its
headquarters in Richmond Heights, Ohio, ” Defendants
argue that “[n]o substantial part of events or
omissions giving rise to the claim for relief occurred in the
District of Columbia, ” so that jurisdiction cannot be
predicated on 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b)(2). Defs.' Mot. ...