Opinion ID: 551534
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Discriminatory Demotion and Discriminatory Discharge

Text: 19 Ingram argues that under Patterson, section 1981 does not extend to claims for racially discriminatory demotion or to claims for racially discriminatory discharge. 2 We are faced with the question whether we should confront these new issues. 20 A general principle of appellate review is that an appellate court will not consider issues not presented to the trial court. [J]udicial economy is served and prejudice is avoided by binding the parties to the theories argued below. Higginbotham v. Ford Motor Co., 540 F.2d 762, 768 n. 10 (5th Cir.1976). We may, however, in the exercise of our discretion consider issues not preserved in the trial court when a pure question of law is involved and a refusal to consider it would result in a miscarriage of justice. Martinez v. Mathews, 544 F.2d 1233, 1237 (5th Cir.1976); see also Booth v. Hume Publishing, Inc., 902 F.2d 925, 928 (11th Cir.1990). 21 We acknowledge the general principle that an appellate court should apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision. Gulf Offshore Co. v. Mobil Oil Corp., 453 U.S. 473, 486 n. 16, 101 S.Ct. 2870, 2879 n. 16, 69 L.Ed.2d 784 (1981); Bradley v. School Bd. of Richmond, 416 U.S. 696, 711, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2016, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974); Jones v. Preuit & Mauldin, 876 F.2d 1480, 1483 (11th Cir.1989) (en banc ). Likewise we recognize the general rule that judicial decisions normally are applied retroactively. Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106-07, 92 S.Ct. 349, 355, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971). Our decision today does not affect these long-standing principles because these maxims are true only with regard to arguments actually presented to trial and appellate courts. Here we confront new arguments and issues not presented until a late stage of the proceedings, rather than simply new law that could be applied to arguments already developed. A party normally waives its right to argue issues not raised in its initial brief. See FSLIC v. Haralson, 813 F.2d 370, 373 n. 3 (11th Cir.1987); Rogero v. Noone, 704 F.2d 518, 520 n. 1 (11th Cir.1983). 22 We conclude there would be no miscarriage of justice if we decline to address any arguments based on Patterson in this case. Ingram asserts that it should be allowed to present its Patterson arguments because there was no way it could have predicted the Supreme Court's ultimate conclusions in the Patterson case. Although it may be true that no one could have predicted the Supreme Court's resolution of the Patterson case, it is also true that the general argument that section 1981 does not extend to the conduct with which Ingram was charged was available to Ingram at the time of trial and at the time of appeal. 23 The Fourth Circuit rendered its decision in Patterson on November 25, 1986, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 805 F.2d 1143 (1986) aff'd in part and vacated in part, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989), approximately eight months before McGinnis filed his claim (July 17, 1987), about fourteen months prior to the beginning of the trial in this case (January 19, 1988) and over two years before Ingram filed its initial brief on appeal (January 6, 1989). The Fourth Circuit opinion clearly limited the scope of a section 1981 claim, at least with regard to racial harassment. Id. at 1145-46 (claim for racial harassment not cognizable under section 1981). 24 Further, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the scope of section 1981 on October 5, 1987, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 484 U.S. 814, 108 S.Ct. 65, 98 L.Ed.2d 29 (1987), still over three months before trial. After certiorari was granted, the Court requested counsel to brief and argue an additional question that went to the heart of the scope of section 1981: Whether the decision in Runyon v. McCrary 3 should be reconsidered. Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 485 U.S. 617, 108 S.Ct. 1419, 99 L.Ed.2d 879 (1988). This took place on April 25, 1988, three months after trial, but over eight months before Ingram filed its initial brief on appeal. 25 It is true that the Fourth Circuit found that racially discriminatory discharge was still actionable under section 1981, Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 805 F.2d 1143, 1145 (1986), aff'd in part and vacated in part, 491 U.S. 164, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989), so that arguably Ingram could not have predicted that the Court might intimate that section 1981 might not extend to discharge. Regardless, the argument that the scope of section 1981 did not extend to the conduct in question in this case was available to Ingram. Ingram, for whatever reason, chose not to make it. Instead, Ingram argued only that it did not intentionally discriminate. 26 The dissent suggests that if Ingram had made this argument, Rule 11 sanctions would have been appropriate. We are aware of no case in this circuit or anywhere in the nation in which a court imposed sanctions on a party who had acknowledged adverse precedent, but argued that the precedent should be reversed. Rule 11 is not intended to chill an attorney's enthusiasm or creativity in pursuing factual or legal theories. Fed.R.Civ.P. 11, advisory committee notes on 1983 amendment. Not surprisingly, all the cases cited by the dissent 4 to support its contention that we are forcing attorneys into a Hobbesian dilemma involve failures, through inexcusable ignorance or dishonesty, candidly to present relevant precedent. 5 The attorneys in those cases misrepresented what the law actually was instead of arguing what the law should be; sanctions therefore were appropriate. 27 Two recent cases are instructive on this point. The circumstances in Bailey v. Northern Indiana Public Service Co., 910 F.2d 406 (7th Cir.1990) and in McKnight v. General Motors Corp., 908 F.2d 104 (7th Cir.1990) were very similar to the circumstances in this case. In these cases, the Seventh Circuit addressed arguments based on Patterson in cases that were pending on appeal when Patterson was decided. However, these cases differ from ours in one very important respect. In each case, the plaintiff had waived its argument that the defendant had waived its right to argue that the conduct in question was not actionable under section 1981. In other words, the waiver argument had itself been waived. See Bailey at 409-10 n. 2; McKnight at 108. By contrast, McGinnis presented a timely waiver argument in response to Ingram's belated Patterson arguments. Had the defendants in Bailey and McKnight presented waiver arguments, the result in those cases might very well have been different. Judge Posner makes this point in McKnight: 28 But the order to reargue Patterson was issued more than five months before the trial in the present case began. General Motors had plenty of time to mount a timely challenge to the applicability of section 1981 ... 29 Even if by this delay General Motors waived its right to invoke Patterson, a question we need not answer, McKnight cannot benefit. For while vigorously contesting the applicability of Patterson to the facts of his case, he has never argued that General Motors has waived its right to rely on Patterson. 30 McKnight at 108. Here, we answer the question that Judge Posner found unnecessary to confront. 31 In Patterson itself the Court refused to consider the argument that Patterson's failure to promote claim was not actionable [b]ecause respondent has not argued at any stage that petitioner's claim is not cognizable under Sec. 1981.... Patterson, 491 U.S. 164, ----, 109 S.Ct. 2363, 2377, 105 L.Ed.2d 132 (1989). Similarly, in Jett v. Dallas Independent School District, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598 (1989) the plaintiff was permitted to challenge his discharge under section 1981 because the defendant had at no stage in the proceedings ... raised the contention that the substantive scope of the 'right ... to make ... contracts' protected by Sec. 1981 does not reach the injury suffered by petitioner here. Id. at ----, 109 S.Ct. at 2709. 6 32 Finally, we believe our decision to decline to address arguments based on Patterson in this case comports with our role as a decision-making body. Any questions that Patterson might raise regarding the scope of section 1981 are not properly presented for decision in this case. We simply decide the issues that were timely presented to us by the litigants. 33 In conclusion, we hold that under these circumstances, Ingram waived its right to argue that discriminatory demotion and discriminatory discharge are not actionable under section 1981 and that in the exercise of our discretion we should decline to address these issues in this case.