Settlement with former police officer challenged

The Montana Public Employees Association has asked the Montana Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling that ordered the organization to pay a former Whitefish Police officer more than $100,000 for the mishandling of an employment grievance.

In a Sept. 16 appeal the association claimed the lower court’s decision to make the organization pay “is based on manifest errors of law.”

“If allowed to stand, it will violate long-standing, well-established law governing the relief available in a breach of fair representation case against a union, and will therefore result in substantial injustice,” the Montana Public Employees Association’s attorney James P. Molloy wrote.

In March, Flathead District Judge Heidi Ulbricht ordered the association pay Jeffrey Folsom $47,550 in attorneys fees, $50,000 in punitive damages and additional costs in the amount of $6,067.95. According to court documents, the settlement was awarded because the court found that the Montana Public Employees Association failed to properly handle a grievance after Folson was fired from the Whitefish Police force.

Folsom had sued the city of Whitefish and the association in August 2014. He sought more than $785,000 in back pay and lost benefits, and punitive damages, from the city and the Montana Public Employees Association. The association is the union that Folsom was a part of when he was fired in 2013. Folsom claimed the city did not have a legal reason to fire him, and that the union unfairly represented him in an alleged breach of a collective bargaining agreement.

Folsom claimed that he was fired after he attempted to seek legal advice. He alleged that other officers had violated his rights and Montana state law by recording officers’ conversations in the police department.

Folsom settled his case with the city in 2015, without a monetary settlement. Police Chief Bill Dial said at the time that Folsom’s complaints about other officer’s conduct were unfounded and had been investigated by state officials without any resulting recourse.

The Montana Public Employee’s Association is not disputing in the appeal that Folsom’s case was mishandled.

“In addition, the record is clear that MPEA’s counsel engaged in serious misconduct, and that misconduct has resulted in manifest injustice,” Molloy wrote in the appeal. “Not only did attorney (Carter) Picotte violate his obligations to MPEA, he egregiously failed to fulfill his professional obligations to the court. As a result of his serious misconduct, the adversary system of justice failed in this case.”

The union is arguing that state law does not provide a basis for damages to be awarded in the case.

“MPEA acknowledges that the District Court’s findings support its conclusion that MPEA breached its duty of fair representation,” Molloy wrote. “They cannot, however, be re-characterized as fraud in order to support an award of punitive damages.”

Folsom’s attorney declined to comment about the appeal.