Opinion ID: 465437
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The 18 losing plaintiffs.

Text: 84 The losing plaintiffs in this case were Belinda Black, Annette Cox, Joyce Crane, Glenda Duncan, Rhonda Edwards, Glenda Glenn, Bernice Huffman, Daphne Gay Johnson, Mary Dianne Lee, Judy Lockard, Jerri Ogletree, Joyce Pandellis, Mary Jane Seabury, Jewell Smith, Patricia Ann Terry, Velma Waldrop, Beverly Ann Walker and Julia Womble. Several errors taint the lower court's decisions against these plaintiffs as a group. Taken individually, some of these cases present additional grounds for reversal. 85 First, the district court erred as a matter of law in applying an incorrect burden of proof to the defendant in each of these individual cases. Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981), provides that in the typical Title VII disparate treatment case, once the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of disparate treatment, the burden shifts to the defendant to rebut the inference of discrimination by articulating legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for its job decision. As we noted in Eastland v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 704 F.2d 613, 618-619 (11th Cir.1983), the defendant's burden is production, not persuasion. Although the trial judge here did not expressly say that he followed Burdine in the mini-trials, his repeated observation that plaintiffs failed to prove their claims of discrimination or that ACIPCO successfully articulated reasons for its job decisions indicates that he used the Burdine standard. 86 This standard was incorrect. In a pattern and practice case, if the plaintiff can establish that [sex] discrimination was the company's standard operating procedure, see Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 336, 97 S.Ct. at 1855, the burden shifts to the employer to prove that the plaintiff was not, in fact, the victim of discrimination. Id. at 359, 97 S.Ct. at 1866. See also Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U.S. 747, 772, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 1268, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976). In other words, once a pattern and practice of discrimination is established, a rebuttable presumption that plaintiff was discriminated against because of her sex and is entitled to recovery obtains. The employer may overcome this presumption only with clear and convincing evidence that job decisions made when the discriminatory policy was in force were not made in pursuit of that policy. See Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 362, 97 S.Ct. at 1868. 87 We are conscious that Teamsters and Franks both involved large classes rather than individual plaintiffs. But the plaintiffs here are not, as in McDonnell Douglas, simply individual complainant[s] seeking to prove one instance of unlawful discrimination. Id. at 358 n. 44, 97 S.Ct. at 1866 n. 44. Once the trial court found that ACIPCO in fact had a policy of reserving plant clerical jobs for men, these individuals were in substantially the same position as the Teamsters and Franks plaintiffs--that is, they had proven that sex discrimination was the company's standard operating procedure, and they were entitled to the presumption that the complained-of employment practices violated Title VII. 88 Although the district court points to a gradual withering of this discriminatory policy triggered by the filing of EEOC claims in 1973, it made no finding as to when this pattern and practice was withered sufficiently to have no effect on plaintiffs. 4 Thus, we cannot determine from the district court's opinion exactly which individuals at which times should have had the benefit of a presumption of discrimination. Nor can we conclude in any case that the employer clearly met its burden of proving that its actions were undertaken for lawful reasons. For this reason alone, we must reverse the judgments against all the losing plaintiffs. 89 We note secondly that the district court erred as a matter of law in requiring plaintiffs to show that they had in fact applied for the jobs or promotions in question. Teamsters holds that nonapplicants may be entitled to relief where the employer's clear policy of exclusion would make an application a useless exercise. See id. at 367-68, 97 S.Ct. at 1870-71. Such a claim requires two distinct determinations: that [the nonapplicant] would have applied but for discrimination and that he would have been discriminatorily rejected had he applied. Id. at 368 n. 52, 97 S.Ct. at 1871 n. 52. 90 Where no policy of exclusion is actually in place, but the employer continues to hire by word of mouth or other informal methods, a nonapplicant may still recover. In Carmichael v. Birmingham Saw Works, 738 F.2d 1126, 1133 (11th Cir.1984), we held that 91 when there is no formal notice of the job's availability, the plaintiff may have no means, within his own knowledge, of showing whether the employer considered him or not. Furthermore, when an employer uses such informal methods it has a duty to consider all those who might reasonably be interested as well as those who have learned of the job opening and expressed an interest. Accordingly, a plaintiff makes out a prima facie case--that is, he creates a presumption of discrimination and forces the employer to articulate legitimate reasons for his rejection--as long as he establishes that the company had some reason or duty to consider him for the post. 92 The record indicates that the defendant did use informal application procedures. Thus, under Carmichael, the employer should have considered each of the losing plaintiffs for any and all positions for which they could show that ACIPCO was on notice that they might reasonably be interested. Again, since none of the plaintiffs had an opportunity to make such a showing, we are compelled to reverse the judgments against these claimants. 93 Apart from these across-the-board errors, we note a number of other misinterpretations of law that further taint the judgments against several individual plaintiffs. Two such errors are (1) the court's repeated observation that some of these women have no claim if the jobs they sought were filled by other women and (2) the court's insistence that many of these are non-cognizable comparable worth claims in any case. We have settled the former issue in this Circuit. The fact that a member of the protected class received the job in question does not necessarily mean that there is no Title VII violation. See Nix v. Radio/Rahall Communication, 738 F.2d 1181, 1185-86 (11th Cir.1984). 94 As to the question of comparable worth, we conclude that the lower court has confused the issue. These plaintiffs do not seek what the Supreme Court called, in explaining comparable worth, increased compensation on the basis of a comparison of the intrinsic worth or difficulty of their jobs with that of other jobs in the same organization or community. County of Washington v. Gunther, 452 U.S. 161, 166, 101 S.Ct. 2242, 2246, 68 L.Ed.2d 751 (1981). Instead they argue that ACIPCO's policy of paying men's clerical jobs and women's clerical jobs on two entirely different compensation schemes is discriminatory. They maintain that the traditionally male jobs in the manufacturing division are compensated objectively based on a system of detailed job descriptions, standardized evaluations, and publicly-known job classifications, pay scales and review provisions, while compensation for non-manufacturing women's jobs is subjectively determined. At a minimum, this claim if proved entitles plaintiffs to injunctive relief against the disparate compensation schemes, and the trial court erred in failing to grant such an injunction. In cases presenting abundant evidence of consistent past discrimination, injunctive relief is mandatory absent clear and convincing proof that there is no reasonable probability of further noncompliance with the law. NAACP v. City of Evergreen, Ala., 693 F.2d 1367, 1370 (11th Cir.1982). The maintenance of the separate pay schemes alone conceivably might also entitle plaintiffs to back pay. This issue must be thoughtfully considered, rather than rejected out of hand. 95 Several further errors appear in the judgments against individual plaintiffs. First, the district court erred in its determination that the injury appellant Mary Jane Seabury suffered from a brief denial of a transfer to the plant was de minimis. We cannot accept this characterization. Title VII gives us no license to decide that any injury, however insignificant, 5 may be regarded as de minimis. As appellant argues, [w]hat is small in principal is often large in principle. Jenkins v. United Gas Corp., 400 F.2d 28, 32-33 (5th Cir.1968). 96 Second, the district court improperly rejected the claim of appellant Bernice Huffman that she was demoted to an inferior job title and duties (although with the same salary) because she was female. The court was mistaken in assuming that this claim was not cognizable under Title VII. The former Fifth Circuit held in Swint v. Pullman Standard, 539 F.2d 77, 89 (5th Cir.1976), that a Title VII plaintiff does not have to show economic loss to prove discrimination. Job titles and duties themselves are conditions of employment protected by Title VII. 97 Third, we question the district court's holding that the two black plaintiffs, Velma Waldrop and Patricia Ann Terry, could not recover for sex discrimination at ACIPCO because they were of necessity parties to a July 1980 consent decree in the Pettway race discrimination suit against the same defendant. The lower court seems to have made this determination sua sponte, although the defendant did not raise preclusion as an affirmative defense and the issue was apparently not briefed or argued before the court. This is a difficult question that deserves more than peremptory treatment. We are not satisfied from the lower court's conclusory findings of fact (no indication of whether or what Waldrop and Terry would recover under either claim, or calculation of any difference between the awards) and its sketchy conclusions of law (no thorough exploration of the preclusion problem) that this issue was properly considered and decided. In our view, the district court stopped short of the fact finding and legal analysis required for resolution of this case. Corley v. Jackson Police Dept., 566 F.2d 994, 1001 (5th Cir.1978). 98 For the reasons set out above we must reverse the lower court's judgments against the losing plaintiffs. We note that we base our reversal on matters of law subject to plenary review by this Court. Cathbake Inv. Co., Inc. v. Fisk Elec. Co., Inc., 700 F.2d 654, 656 (11th Cir.1983). However, appellants also allege a number of factual errors in the decisions of the district court. We find it unnecessary to explore these here, given the extent of the legal error coloring these factual judgments. This Court has long adhered to the rule that 99 findings induced by or resulting from, a misapprehension of controlling substantive principles lose the insulation of F.R.Civ.P. 52(a) and a judgment based thereon cannot stand. [Citation omitted.] 100 Corley, 566 F.2d at 1001. Further, in some instances the lower court's findings of fact here on their own lack the sufficiency of detail and exactness required by Rule 52(a). See id. at 1003. 101 Our determination that the court below applied incorrect principles of law and made tainted or insufficient findings of fact determines our disposition of the appeals of the 18 losing plaintiffs. We hold, with the Corley Court, that a remand solely for the purpose of making additional findings of fact and conclusions of law would not suffice to rectify the errors of the district court. Id. at 1005. We regret the necessity of drawing this proceeding out further, but in the interest of justice a new trial is clearly required for these plaintiffs. Since in Section II of this opinion we reversed the class decertification that led to much of this confusion and delay, we now REMAND these actions with instructions that the plaintiff class be recertified and that the trial proceed as a Title VII pattern and practice suit. 102 As to ACIPCO's cross-appeal challenging the award of attorney's fees and costs to the 18 losing plaintiffs as prevailing parties, we VACATE these awards to await appropriate adjustment after remand. 103