Opinion ID: 59430
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Class-Wide Back-Pay Formula

Text: Lufkin also challenges the class-wide back-pay award. The district court's calculation of a back pay award is reviewed for clear error. Shipes v. Trinity Indus., 987 F.2d 311, 316-17 (5th Cir.1993).
Lufkin complains that the district court erred by using a formula to calculate the award rather than computing damages on an individual basis. The complexity of the case is the determining factor in what method the district court should utilize to formulate a back-pay award. Pettway v. Am. Cast Iron Pipe Co., 494 F.2d 211, 261 (5th Cir.1974). Whenever possible, back pay should be awarded individually and tailored to the actual victims of discrimination. United States v. U.S. Steel Corp., 520 F.2d 1043, 1055-56 (5th Cir.1975). If the class is small, the time period short, or the effect of the discrimination straightforward, individual determinations of each claimant's position but for the discrimination are possible. Pettway, 494 F.2d at 261. If, however, the class is large, the promotion or hiring practices are ambiguous, or the illegal practices continued over an extended period of time, a class-wide approach to the measure of back pay may be necessary. Id.; see also Shipes, 987 F.2d at 318. In this case, the district court concluded that the size of the class and the inherent uncertainty of the individual claims contraindicates the use of an individualized approach. We agree. We are not persuaded that the district court could easily make individualized inquiries for each of the more than 700 plaintiffs in this case, as Lufkin contends. Further, as in Pettway, there is no practical way to determine through individual hearings which jobs the class members would have bid on and obtained but for the discriminatory procedures Lufkin had in place. See Pettway, 494 F.2d at 260. Class members outnumber promotion vacancies; jobs become available over time; the vacancies involve different pay rates; and a determination of who was entitled to a vacancy would have to be made by an evaluation of seniority and ability at that time. Id. (citing identical factors in approving the formula approach). [7] [W]here employees start at entry level jobs in a department and progress into a myriad of other positions and departments on the basis of seniority and ability over an extended period of time, exact reconstruction of each individual claimant's work history, as if discrimination had not occurred, is not only imprecise but impractical. Id. at 262. An individualized process of determining actual damages for each plaintiff in this case would result in the quagmire of hypothetical judgments that courts should avoid. Id. at 260. Accordingly, the district court neither abused its discretion nor clearly erred in adopting the formula-driven approach.
While Lufkin levies various attacks on the district court's methodology for determining the back-pay award, these need not all be considered. With the elimination of a finding of class discrimination in initial assignments to the Foundry, the damage award must be vacated and remanded. On remand, the district court will be dealing solely with damages attributable to approximately 127 lost promotions in hourly pay grades and nine lost salaried employment promotions. The accepted way to apportion damages among a class of plaintiffs who outnumber the lost promotion spots is to compute the total additional wages attributable each year to each promotion and divide the value among the class members. See United States v. City of Miami, 195 F.3d 1292, 1299-1302 (11th Cir.1999); Dougherty v. Barry, 869 F.2d 605, 614-15 (D.C.Cir.1989) (Ginsburg, J.); Hameed v. Iron Workers Local 396, 637 F.2d 506, 520-21 (8th Cir.1980). The district court should adapt this method with whatever modifications will both expediently and fairly apportion the lost wages among class members working in the multiple divisions of Lufkin. What the court may not do is return to Dr. Drogin's lost wages calculations given our disposition of this case. Dr. Drogin estimated annual hourly wage disparities between black and white workers and black and non-white workers and made a similar racial comparison for salaried workers. The conclusions in this section of his report were intended to demonstrate the systemic effects of racially discriminatory Foundry assignments throughout workers' careers. Whether or not such conclusions would be supportable for both hiring and promotion claims, they do not pertain to the class claim that is now limited to lost promotions. Dr. Drogin's figures would come close to compensating each class member for the full value of lost promotions, where plainly each member had at best a possibility of progressing up the ladder. The district court is free to consider any additional evidence that the parties may offer on this issue.