Williams v. Bordon Chemical, Inc., 2003-SOX-10 and 11 (ALJ Oct. 14, 2003)

U.S. Department of Labor

Office of Administrative Law Judges 800 K Street, NW, Suite 400-N Washington, DC 20001-8002

Issue Date: 14 October 2003

In The Matter of

TODD C. WILLIAMS
    Complainant

    v.

BORDON CHEMICAL, INC.
    Respondent

Case No.: 2003-SOX-00010

TODD C. WILLIAMS
    Complainant

    v.

HA-INTERNATIONAL, LLC
    Respondent

Case No.: 2003-SOX-00011

   These cases concern claims filed by the complainant under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Under that statute, complaints of discrimination by whistleblowers must be filed with the Department of Labor. However, if "the Secretary has not issued a final decision within 180 days of the filing of the complaint and there is no showing that such delay is due to the bad faith of the claimant," then the complainant may remove the cases to the Federal District Court for a de novo proceeding. When the Department of Labor did not complete the adjudication of the cases by May 20th, complainant removed the cases to the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

   Since the cases have been removed to Federal Court, it appeared that this Office no longer has jurisdiction over them. Therefore, on September 13, 2003, I issued an order directing the parties to show cause why these cases should not be dismissed. The parties filed a joint reply stating that they agreed these cases should be dismissed. Therefore,

   IT IS ORDERED that these cases before the Department of Labor are dismissed. Nothing in this Order should be construed as prejudicing the rights of the parties in the Federal District Court to which the action was removed.

       JEFFREY TURECK
       Administrative Law Judge