Opinion ID: 59430
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Specific Methodology

Text: 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.