Opinion ID: 6983495
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Individual plaintiffs’ claims

Text: Finally, plaintiffs argue that the district court erred in granting summary judgment on the individual plaintiffs’ claims of discrimination. We disagree. This action was initially filed as a class action claiming that Ford had engaged in an unspecified pattern and practice of discrimination in hiring against African Americans; a subsequent tag-along action raising only allegations of hiring discrimination because of the use of the pre-employment test, was filed by plaintiffs Dale and Thomas. The district court certified a class that excluded Plaintiff Harris, one of the named plaintiffs in the initial class action complaint. The parties have conceded that two others of the named plaintiffs in the initial complaint are also not properly members of the class. In its certification order, however, the district court held that the two tag-along plaintiffs were adequate representatives of the class. When Ford moved for summary judgment, it demanded judgment on all claims in the complaint. Plaintiffs presented no evidence relative to claims of discrimination against individual plaintiffs in opposition to the motion for summary judgment; 15 plaintiffs did not oppose Ford’s motion for judgment in the tag-along action after the district court granted Ford’s motion for summary judgment in the class action and dismissed that action; and plaintiffs did not file any post-judgment motion bringing to the district court’s attention their contention that the judgment was overbroad. We find no error in the grant of summary judgment and dismissal of the entire case. Although the plaintiffs contend on appeal that the “claims of Williams, McMiller, and Spinkston raise the issue of racial discrimination in the selection procedure used by Ford at its Lorain, Ohio plant in choosing who would get to take Ford’s HSS test battery,” we are hard-pressed to find any such specific individual claim raised in the class action complaint, and the tag-along complaint raises only the adverse impact caused by the challenged test. Ford responds to plaintiffs’ claim by noting that it proffered evidence in support of its motion for summary judgment demonstrating that 18.3 percent of the test takers at Lorain Assembly were African American, though African Americans comprised only 8.7 percent of the relevant labor force in Ohio, Ford met its initial burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine issue of material fact regarding the claims of Williams, McMiller, and Spinkston, and plaintiffs’ failure to adduce competent evidence to support the individual claims rendered summary judgment appropriate as to the individual claims. We note in passing that before the district court, the plaintiffs did not dispute the fact that African Americans took Ford’s pre-employment test in numbers disproportionate to their representation in the relevant labor market. The plaintiffs indeed failed to show any discrepancy between the composition of the pool of actual test-takers and the composition of the pool of candidates for testing in the relevant labor market as is required to make out a prima facie case of adverse impact under Ohio law under Little Forest Medical Center v. Ohio Civil Rights Comm’n, 61 Ohio St.3d 607, 575 N.E.2d 1164, 1168 (Ohio 1991). The statistics in the record show an overrepresentation of African Americans among Ford’s test-takers. We conclude that the district court properly granted summary judgment on the adverse impact claims of the individual plaintiffs.