Opinion ID: 3031374
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Corporate Plaintiff

Text: ARCO argues that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law because, to establish a § 1981 claim, a plaintiff must establish that it is a member of a racial group, and Flying B cannot meet this requirement because a corporation “has no racial identity.”4 We review a denial of a renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law de novo.5 [1] Contrary to ARCO’s interpretation of § 1981, our decisions hold that a corporation has standing to bring a § 1981 claim against a defendant that employs the corporation as a contractor, but imposes ethnic discrimination against the corporation’s employees. In Parks School of Business, Inc. v. Symington6 we held that a school, which was organized as a 3 42 U.S.C. § 1981(a)-(b) states:
All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.
For purposes of this section, the term “make and enforce contracts” includes the making, performance, modification, and termination of contracts, and the enjoyment of all benefits, privileges, terms, and conditions of the contractual relationship. 4 See Vill. of Arlington Heights v. Metro. Hous. Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 263 (1977). 5 White v. Ford Motor Co., 312 F.3d 998, 1010 (9th Cir. 2002). 6 Parks Sch. of Bus., Inc. v. Symington, 51 F.3d 1480, 1488 (9th Cir. 1995); cf. Monterey Mech. Co. v. Wilson, 125 F.3d 702, 707-08 (9th Cir. 1997) (holding that a corporation, even if it had no ethnic identity, had standing to bring an antidiscrimination claim if compelled to discriminate by race or sex when it hired subcontractors). 4372 BAINS LLC v. ARCO PRODUCTS CO. corporation and mostly enrolled minority students, had standing to bring a § 1981 claim because racial discrimination against its students would damage the corporation’s business by interfering with its right to contract with minority students. We went even further in Thinket Ink Information Resources, Inc. v. Sun Microsystems, Inc.,7 where Thinket, a corporation owned entirely by African Americans, alleged that Sun Microsystems had deliberately refused to contract with Thinket based solely on its status as an African-American business.8 We found that when a corporation has acquired an “imputed” racial identity, it can be the direct target of discrimination and has standing to pursue a claim under § 1981.9 Here, as in Thinket, the corporation is owned entirely by Sikh shareholders, and while not all of its drivers were Sikhs, even the nonSikh drivers testified that they were treated poorly by Davis based on their association with what Davis saw as a Sikh company. Flying B undoubtedly acquired an imputed racial identity, and its allegation that its contract with ARCO was terminated due to the effects of racial discrimination clearly gives it standing to pursue a § 1981 claim against ARCO.