Case Name: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellee
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1989-05-22
Citations: 873 F.2d 97
Docket Number: No. 87-4659
Parties: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellee.
Judges: Before CLARK, Chief Judge, GOLDBERG, GEE, RUBIN, REAVLEY, POLITZ, KING, JOHNSON, WILLIAMS, GARWOOD, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH and DUHE, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 873
Pages: 97–102

Head Matter:
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MISSISSIPPI STATE TAX COMMISSION, Defendant-Appellee.
No. 87-4659.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
May 22, 1989.
Peggy R. Mastroianni, Atty., Charles A. Shanor, Gen. Counsel, E.E.O.C., Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellant.
John T. Kitchens, Asst. Atty. Gen., Richard D. Mitchell, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., Bobby R. Long, Chief Atty., Miss. State Tax Com’n, Edwin Lloyd Pittman, Atty. Gen., Jackson, Miss., for defendant-appellee.
Before CLARK, Chief Judge, GOLDBERG, GEE, RUBIN, REAVLEY, POLITZ, KING, JOHNSON, WILLIAMS, GARWOOD, JOLLY, HIGGINBOTHAM, DAVIS, JONES, SMITH and DUHE, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
REAVLEY, Circuit Judge:
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) challenges the mandatory retirement at age 60 of Mississippi State Tax Commission scales enforcement officers. The district court found age to be a bona fide occupational qualification, justifying the mandatory retirement state law within the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The work of these officers who enforce Mississippi revenue laws pertaining to commercial vehicles and highways is explained in the court's opinion at 693 F.Supp. 516. A panel of this court reversed the judgment and. remanded for back pay determinations, holding that the Mississippi Commission failed to establish that physical fitness was an occupational qualification in the absence of any minimum standards or any attempt to monitor employees' health and fitness. 848 F.2d 526, 530. The en banc court declines to hold that physical fitness can never be held to be reasonably necessary for job performance unless the employer has established formal standards and monitoring procedures, but we believe the district court incorrectly failed to consider all of the evidence on the issue. We vacate the judgment and remand for further consideration.
I.
To qualify under the BFOQ exception to the ADEA, an employer must show: (1) The job qualifications invoked to justify the age discrimination must be reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business, and (2) age is a necessary proxy for those job qualifications, either because (a) there is a factual basis for believing that all or substantially all people over a certain age would be unable to satisfy those job qualifications, or (b) there is proof that individual testing for those job qualifications is impossible or highly impractical. Western Air Lines v. Criswell, 472 U.S. 400, 413-15, 105 S.Ct. 2743, 2751-52, 86 L.Ed.2d 321 (1985); Usery v. Tamiami Trail Tours, Inc., 531 F.2d 224, 235 (5th Cir.1976).
Some courts hold that an employer is precluded from making the first showing, i.e., that the age related qualification is necessary, by a failure to develop, implement, and enforce minimum standards for that qualification. See EEOC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 829 F.2d 392, 395 (3d Cir.1987), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 108 S.Ct. 1109, 99 L.Ed.2d 271 (1988); accord EEOC v. Kentucky State Police Dept., 860 F.2d 665, 668-69 (6th Cir.1988). Other courts treat the enforcement, or lack of enforcement, of minimum standards as evidence — giving it different probative value — on the issue of the necessity of the asserted job qualifications. See EEOC v. Missouri State Highway Patrol, 748 F.2d 447, 454 (8th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 828, 106 S.Ct. 88, 88 L.Ed.2d 72 (1985) ("Moreover, the relevance of a physical fitness program to the issues . is questionable."); EEOC v. New Jersey, 631 F.Supp. 1506, 1508 (D.N.J.1986), aff'd, 815 F.2d 694 (3d Cir.1987) (the police department's commitment to maintaining the continued health and fitness of its officers forecloses any serious dispute that those qualifications are essential to the safe and efficient performance of their duties); EEOC v. City of East Providence, 798 F.2d 524, 530-31 (1st Cir.1986) ("low physical standards, coupled with other factors, might persuade a district court that physical fitness was not deemed a necessary job qualification" by that employer); Heiar v. Crawford County, Wis., 746 F.2d 1190, 1198-99 (7th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1027, 105 S.Ct. 3500, 87 L.Ed.2d 631 (1985) ("[i]f Crawford County required [periodic physical exams or fitness tests] it could argue (we need not decide with what success) that this showed the genuineness of its concern with the physical fitness of its deputy sheriffs").
A prior panel of this circuit drew upon the Third Circuit's writing when it affirmed the district court's rejection of Mississippi's mandatory retirement age for game wardens. EEOC v. Mississippi, 837 F.2d 1398 (5th Cir.1988). We do not disagree with that panel, and the trial judge, in stressing the weight of standards of health and fitness in the fact determination; we only say that physical fitness may be a job qualification despite the lack of formal standards. The weight to be given the existence or absence of formal standards is for the fact finder to decide, with its finding subject to the appropriate appellate review on the entire record. The Criswell opinion emphasizes the importance of fact finding on a "case-by-case basis" under the ADEA structure. 105 S.Ct. at 2755.
II.
To satisfy the first prong of the Tamia-mi test, the district court found: "that the MSTC has clearly established that physical stamina and the ability to withstand the stressful working conditions are essential to the safe and efficient execution of the duties of a Scales Enforcement Officer." 693 F.Supp. at 526. In view of the failure of the court to discuss the evidence supporting the EEOC's contention that health and fitness were in fact ignored by the Commission, the stated finding may refer to an ideal scales officer force — or what might be done — rather than the operation Mississippi actually has in place. The Chairman of the Mississippi State Tax Commission insisted that the officers are required to be physically fit in order to perform their tasks, and the Commission presented substantial evidence of tasks and challenges which could be managed only by officers with stamina and the ability to handle stress. The difficulty with the evidence and the district court's finding is not only that the Commission had no periodic physical examinations or fitness tests. The EEOC elicited testimony that scales enforcement officers, on the whole, fail to exemplify the type of employee the Commission contends is required for the job. An expert witness called by the EEOC, Dr. Arthur Leon, stated his opinion that a quarter of the employees are overweight, over two-thirds smoke cigarettes, few exercise, and quite a few have serious medical problems. Among the medical problems of current employees under retirement age are diabetes, orthopedic problems, mental problems, and high blood pressure. The district court did not discuss this evidence and may have confused the distinct inquiries raised under the two separate prongs of the Tamiami test. If so, the district court is not alone. See Missouri State Highway Patrol, 748 F.2d at 454; cf Heiar, 746 F.2d at 1198 (the court's simultaneous treatment of both prongs of the BFOQ inquiry prompts confusion from its discussion of minimum standards and of impossible or impracticable individual testing).
Under the first prong, the employer must establish that certain job qualifications — in this case, physical stamina and the ability to withstand stress — are reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business. The inquiry looks neither to the good faith of Commission officials nor to the ideal highway tax enforcement program, but to the normal operation of this program in Mississippi. Whether the employer Commission enforces the stated job qualifications by standards and tests or otherwise is certainly relevant to the determination of this first prong. If standards are employed (for example, by testing performance of physical exercises designed to mirror the purported job qualifications as in New Jersey, 631 F.Supp. at 1508), it tends to show that employees must be physically fit regardless of their age.
Under the second prong, the employer must establish that age is a necessary proxy for the stated job qualifications, and one method of proof is to show that it is impossible or highly impractical to test individual employees for those qualifications. For example, testing may demonstrate present ability but fail to disclose the heart disease that could fell the older officer on the occasion of his next stressful exertion. Courts must remember that the significance of physical examinations and performance tests differs with the separate Tamiami inquiries.
We remand the case to the district court to consider fully the Commission's enforcement, or lack of enforcement, of the stated job qualifications of physical stamina and the ability to withstand stress. We do not reach the second prong of the Tamiami test. The district court may elect to take further evidence, and may — in resolving declaratory relief — consider the job qualifications under present operations if changes have occurred.
JUDGMENT VACATED; CAUSE REMANDED.
. Miss.Code Ann. § 27-5-75 (Supp.1988).
. 29 U.S.C. § 623. The 1986 amendment concession for state laws affecting firefighters and law enforcement officers, § 623(i), is not applicable to the present case because it began prior to January 1, 1987.