Associate Judge David A. Wiseman said in his order yesterday that, generally, joinder of parties should be encouraged to further the interests of judicial economy.
“Joinder of plaintiffs to the action is proper if the plaintiffs assert any right to relief arising out of the same transaction, and there are common questions of law or fact,” he said.
Wiseman said the joining parties have requested the same relief, and the underlying facts are not necessarily specific to Deleon Guerrero but to the department’s mode of conduct.
DPS, represented by Assistant Attorney General Meaghan Hassel-Shearer, argued that the 26 other police officers cannot be included in the lawsuit because “they have failed to exhaust their administrative remedies.”
Wiseman said the exhaustion rule is not always applicable and “if the circumstances of the case dictate otherwise, a party may not be required to exhaust all administrative remedies.”
He said while the court is aware of the department’s argument that all remedies must first be exhausted, there are circumstances when the facts of the case do not require such exhaustion.
The judge said Deleon Guerrero has exhausted all of his administrative remedies, and to require all 26 police officers to go through the same course of action would be illogical.
“The course of action that DPS undertook with Deleon Guerrero leads this court to believe that such an action would be futile,” Wiseman said.
Deleon Guerrero began to process the filing of grievances with DPS in accordance with the guidelines in the Personnel Service Rules and Regulations on Dec. 7, 2007.
He said he was “utterly ignored at every stage in the process.”
He then filed a notice of appeal with the Civil Service Commission on April 22, 2009 but the commission denied a hearing for lack of quorum and directed him to proceed to have his grievances heard in Superior Court.
He filed a petition for judicial review of agency decision on May 9, 2009 against DPS, stating that the department failed to comply with the promotion, salary/merit increase and competitive selection process regulations prescribed by law.
Later, 26 police officers joined his petition.
In an e-mail, Deleon Guerrero’s lawyer, Robert T. Torres, said the salaries and promotions of least 26 hardworking DPS officers, along with many others in government, have been frozen while others, for reasons unknown, unclear or unfair, have jumped ahead of the line.
Torres said the DPS motto of “Setbienten Publiku” — public servants — does not mean ignoring complaints of officers who enforce the law.
“Doing so would be injustice, and doing justice, as difficult as it may be, is what the DPS officers seek for themselves and for their brothers and sisters in DPS,” he said.
