Opinion ID: 439951
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: issues raised by laffey as cross-appellant

Text: 123 In calculating the amount of backpay due for NWA's post-Act wage violations, the district court held that the women should receive credit only for stewardess service performed subsequent to the Act under which they were recovering. The district court reasoned that the Supreme Court's decisions in United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U.S. 553, 97 S.Ct. 1885, 52 L.Ed.2d 571 (1977), and International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977), precluded crediting the women with pre-Act longevity. Because we find that the district court improperly applied these decisions, we reverse. 124 The back-pay recovery period covers the years 1967 through 1976. During that time NWA had a pay ladder for pursers such that salary rose with increased years of service or longevity. Under this policy a man hired as a purser in 1957 would have accumulated ten years' longevity by 1967 and would have been paid accordingly. The issue facing the district court was whether, for purposes of computing backpay, a woman who had also been hired in 1957 as a cabin attendant and who had worked continuously as such until 1967 should be credited with the same longevity in determining her 1967 salary. Under the district court's holding, the woman in this example would be entitled only to the pay of a purser with three years' longevity if she were recovering under the Equal Pay Act. She would be entitled only to the pay received by a purser with two years' longevity if she were recovering under Title VII. 125 We think that a woman hired in 1957 should today be credited with the same longevity as a man hired in that year. This does not involve finding that discrimination prior to the passage of the Act was somehow illegal. The stewardesses claim no damages for pre-Act pay differentials, nor could they. Their claim is that their current status be the same as that of men who have the same job characteristics, including job longevity. That claim of equal treatment seems to us required by the law. Indeed, the only case authority we have found dealing expressly with this subject holds squarely that a back-pay award should take into account the length of service of the employees, including years of service prior to the effective date of Title VII. Sears v. Atchison, T. & S.F. Ry., 645 F.2d 1365, 1378 (10th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 456 U.S. 964, 102 S.Ct. 2045, 72 L.Ed.2d 490 (1982). 126 United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans and Teamsters v. United States are not to the contrary. In these cases the Supreme Court held that bona fide seniority systems do not violate Title VII even where they perpetuate the effects of prior discrimination. The Court based its decisions on section 703(h) of that Act, which provides that it shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to apply different standards of compensation, or different terms, conditions, or privileges of employment pursuant to a bona fide seniority or merit system ... provided that such differences are not the result of an intention to discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin .... Section 703(h), 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-2(h) (1976). These decisions do not apply to cases, such as the present one, where there is no allegation that a seniority system violates Title VII, but only a claim for an appropriate remedy. 51 The distinction between a remedy issue and a violation issue under Title VII was explained in Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U.S. 747, 96 S.Ct. 1251, 47 L.Ed.2d 444 (1976), and repeated in United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U.S. at 559, 97 S.Ct. at 1889-1890. In Evans the Court stated: 127 The difference between a remedy issue and a violation issue is highlighted by the analysis of Sec. 703(h) of Title VII in Franks. As we held in that case, by its terms that section does not bar the award of retroactive seniority after a violation has been proved. Rather, Sec. 703(h) delineates which employment practices are illegal and thereby prohibited and which are not. 424 U.S. at 758 [96 S.Ct. at 1261]. 128 431 U.S. at 559, 97 S.Ct. at 1889-1890 (footnote omitted) (emphasis added). Clearly, section 703(h) does not preclude the crediting of retroactive pre-Act longevity in the present case. Indeed, Franks v. Bowman Transportation highlights this point by stating: 129 There is no indication in the legislative materials that Sec. 703(h) was intended to modify or restrict relief otherwise appropriate once an illegal discriminatory practice occurring after the effective date of the Act is proved .... 130 424 U.S. at 761-62, 96 S.Ct. at 1262-1263. 131 Having demonstrated that the district court's holding was not required by Evans and Teamsters, we turn to the affirmative reasons for according pre-Act longevity. To deny women longevity credit for their pre-Act service, when men were given such credit for doing what the court has held to be the same work, would differentiat[e] between similarly situated males and females on the basis of sex. Evans, 431 U.S. at 558, 97 S.Ct. at 1889. If NWA unilaterally computed the backpay in this way, its action would violate Title VII; a fortiori, such a method of calculation is not permissible as part of a judicial remedy. Moreover, such a limited remedy would run counter to the make whole purpose of Title VII. Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 419, 421, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2372, 2373, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975). The Supreme Court has stated that Congress' purpose in vesting discretionary powers in the courts to provide relief under Title VII was to make possible the 'fashion[ing] [of] the most complete relief possible.'  Albemarle Paper Co., 422 U.S. at 421, 95 S.Ct. at 2373 (quoting section-by-section analysis accompanying Conference Committee Report on the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972). We therefore reverse the district court's ruling on this issue and instruct the court to credit plaintiffs' pre-Act longevity in calculating backpay for the relevant, post-Act time periods.
132
133 In paragraph 19 of its 1974 order, the district court made the following ruling on pre-judgment interest: 134 19. INTEREST--With respect to all monies to be paid under the foregoing provisions of this Order, the Company shall pay six percent interest per annum from the date the violation occurred giving rise to said liability through the date upon which payment is made in accordance with this Order. 135 1974 Remedial Order, 374 F.Supp. at 1389. In 1974, the district court believed that the judgment it was entering was a final one (R. 7, at 4; R. 115, at 25, 26). The panel in Laffey II, however, ruled in 1980 that the 1974 order was not a final judgment, 642 F.2d 578, 583-84 (1980). This ruling had the effect of extending the prejudgment period from May 20, 1974 through the entry of final judgment on November 30, 1982. 136 Following the decision in Laffey II, plaintiffs moved for a determination of the pre-judgment interest that should apply to this additional period. Plaintiffs noted that interest rates generally had risen greatly after 1974 and recommended that the rate for each year of the 1974-82 period be 90% of the average prime rate for that year, compounded quarterly. At the hearing on plaintiffs' motion, the district court concluded that its prior ruling should not be revised. We affirm. 137 We are unpersuaded by plaintiffs' argument that the district court did not make a decision as to the rate of interest that should be awarded from 1974 to 1982. In rejecting plaintiffs' contention, the district judge stated that he had determined the interest to be awarded without regard to the length of the pre-judgment period. R. 120; Laffey v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 29 Empl.Prac.Dec. (CCH) 25,330, 25,332 (D.D.C. Oct. 6, 1981). Moreover, the express terms of the 1974 order set no limit on the length of the pre-judgment period. We stress that although the 1974 judgment was ultimately declared non-final, we entertained in Laffey I all objections to dispositive rulings that the parties placed before us. See Laffey II, 642 F.2d at 584 n. 49. We have discussed above the salutary purposes served by the doctrine of the law of the case. According to that doctrine, 138 a decision on an issue of law made at one stage of a case becomes a binding precedent to be followed in successive stages of the same litigation. 139 1B J. Moore, Moore's Federal Practice p 0.404 (1983). Reconsideration of a prior decision, unappealed at an earlier stage although the opportunity to do so was present, is justified only in a limited number of circumstances: 140 [The law of the case] must be followed in all subsequent proceedings in the same case in the trial court or on a later appeal in the appellate court, unless the evidence on a subsequent trial was substantially different, controlling authority has since made a contrary decision of the law applicable to such issues, or the decision was clearly erroneous and would work a manifest injustice. 141 White v. Murtha, 377 F.2d 428, 431-32 (5th Cir.1967). See also Pettway v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 576 F.2d 1157, 1189-90 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1115, 99 S.Ct. 1020, 59 L.Ed.2d 74 (1979); Jennings v. Patterson, 488 F.2d 436, 441 n. 4 (5th Cir.1974). None of the above criteria for reopening the district court's decision obtains here. We therefore affirm the district court's holding that plaintiffs are entitled to pre-judgment interest at six percent simple for the 1974-82 period. 142
143 In 1981 the district court held that the law of the case precluded it from awarding post-judgment interest on liquidated damages. In paragraph 19 of its 1974 order, the district court noted, it had not awarded post-judgment interest on pre-judgment interest. By analogy, it reasoned, that ruling is fully applicable to liquidated damages since liquidated damages are a substitute for pre-judgment interest (R. 119, at 2). We do not believe that law of the case settles this issue. Our evaluation of the merits leads us to conclude that plaintiffs are entitled to post-judgment interest on liquidated damages. Consequently, we reverse. 144 The district court did not award liquidated damages until 1980; it thus had no occasion to decide in 1974--and it did not decide in 1974--whether plaintiffs were entitled to post-judgment interest on liquidated damages. That question did not arise until 1981, following our Laffey I decision. Since the district court had not previously decided this question, it was free to rule thereon as it thought proper. Salvoni v. Pilson, 181 F.2d 615, 619 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 339 U.S. 981, 70 S.Ct. 1030, 94 L.Ed. 1385 (1950). 145 The district court's 1974 ruling refusing to award post-judgment interest on pre-judgment interest does not apply by analogy here, for liquidated damages are not merely a substitute for pre-judgment interest (R. 119, at 2). As defined by this court in Thompson v. Sawyer, 678 F.2d 257, 281 (1982), liquidated damages are compensatory, intended to reimburse workers for intangible losses--difficult to prove but nonetheless the very real consequences of unfair wages. Liquidated damages differ in amount and, to some extent, in kind from pre-judgment interest. Inasmuch as the law of the case did not control the question whether post-judgment interest should accrue on liquidated damages, that issue was and is open for determination on the merits. 146 The federal post-judgment interest statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1961 (1982), provides, in relevant part: 147 Interest shall be allowed on any money judgment in a civil case recovered in district court .... 148 This statute has been interpreted to mean that 149 once a judgment is obtained, interest thereon is mandatory without regard to the elements of which that judgment is composed. 150 Perkins v. Standard Oil Co., 487 F.2d 672, 675 (9th Cir.1973); see R.W.T. v. Dalton, 712 F.2d 1225 (8th Cir.1983). The law requires the awarding of post-judgment interest on all elements of the judgment, including liquidated damages. We therefore reverse the determination below and hold that plaintiffs are entitled to post-judgment interest on liquidated damages.