Opinion ID: 532991
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Denial of Union's Request for Injunction

Text: 58 The Union appeals the district court's denial of its motion to enjoin the City from assigning seniority to seventy-five lieutenants promoted on June 30, 1988, pursuant to paragraph sixteen of the consent decree. The Union alleges it has standing to challenge the assignments because the City used a new method to determine the seniority of the seventy-five lieutenants. The Union asserts the district court must hold a fairness hearing before the City can use the new seniority method. 59 The district court found the Union lacked standing to challenge the seniority method because the Union was not a party to the decree, and in the alternative found no merit in the Union's arguments. Without deciding the standing issue, we affirm the district court's determination that the Union's arguments regarding the modified seniority system were meritless. 60 The existing seniority system was not applied to the new lieutenants because it was based on rankings derived from performance on the invalid 1984 promotional exam. According to the Union's evidence, 7 under the revised seniority method, the mandatory minority appointees were placed on the seniority list, with seniority among them determined by lot. The remaining discretionary appointees were then placed below the mandatory appointees, with their seniority also determined by lot. The Union argues that the discretionary appointees' rights were trammeled unnecessarily by the assignment of higher seniority to the Black, Hispanic and Asian lieutenants in the mandatory group. As support for this argument, the Union cites Firefighters Local Union No. 1784 v. Stotts, 467 U.S. 561, 104 S.Ct. 2576, 81 L.Ed.2d 483 (1984). Stotts, however, is unhelpful to the Union. In Stotts, the Supreme Court overturned a district court order requiring the layoff of nonminorities with more seniority to assure that minorities with less seniority were not disadvantaged. Stotts, 467 U.S. at 579, 104 S.Ct. at 2588. Here, no incumbent lieutenant's seniority was affected by the manner in which seniority was assigned to the newly-promoted lieutenants. Rather, the new method was used only to assign seniority within the newly-promoted group. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding the seniority method did not adversely impact the discretionary appointees. PART TWO: THE 1988 INJUNCTION 61