Court Opinion

ID: 9458423
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:51:47.662627+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:45.700718
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I join in the reversal and remand. I do so for the reasons stated by Judge Bright and some others as well.
The court’s order refusing plaintiff leave to amend his complaint and utilize discovery on the issue of racial discrimination because the E.E.O.C. had not based its finding of probable cause on this ground is conceded error. Argument is made that nevertheless the issue was tried by consent and that the trial judge found there was insufficient evidence to support plaintiff’s claim. The ancient Hebrew expression, “They tie *345our hands and then reproach us that we do not use them,” gives sufficient response here.
Trial counsel who is foreclosed from pleading and pursuing discovery of facts relating to a particular legal theory is scarcely prepared to try the case on that theory. It is not realistic to urge that thereafter where facts pertaining to that theory are drawn into the case, the issue has been tried by consent and the party has no cause for complaint. If the adversary system means anything at all it is that lawsuits and issues are not designed to be tried by happenchance. To make inquiry as to what additional facts could have been shown is remote to the practicalities of the trial of any lawsuit. Preparation is the guts and heart of effective representation in any litigation. The very contemplation of trying a specific legal issue can trigger mental processes as to strategy in building documentary and testimonial proof of the case. The order of proof, as well as the direct and cross-examination, may well vary as the strategy to present the issues as planned. Without adequate preparation by interviewing the winesses, by discovery of facts unknown, by collation of the facts, by marshalling the documentary evidence, by investigating the law as to the particular issue to be tried, it is little wonder that a trial court dismisses a suit for insufficient evidence. Here, the trial court passed on a claim that it earlier foreclosed from being raised in the pleadings and on which it had refused discovery. For the above stated reasons that finding must be reversed.
Turning to the issues tried, the record presents no evidence whatsoever that the plaintiff actively and illegally participated in the so-called “lock-in.” Yet the company used this reason to' support their rejection of Green as an employee. I deem this reason pretextual.
The record shows that one of the grounds stated by Mr. Windsor, defendant’s Director of Personnel Services, for the refusal to hire Green was because he had “chained the doors of the Roberts Building.” There is no evidence which supports this charge. On the day of the lock-in Green was engaged in protected picketing activities. He was told by one member of the picketing group that someone was going to chain the doors of the Roberts Building. When Green arrived at the scene, the chain had either already been removed or officials were in the process of removing it. A complete stranger to this litigation did the chaining. Evidence of mere subjective approval of this incident at the time of trial is not proof of Green’s direction or authorization of it. Only if it could be shown that a principal-agent relationship existed between Green and the active participants can their wrongdoing be imputed to him. Cf. International Ladies Garment Workers Union A.F.L. v. N.L.R.B., 99 U.S.App.D.C. 64, 237 F.2d 545 (1956). Since the company erroneously imputed the wrongdoing to Green, it would be compounding the error to allow the company to use these facts as a basis for refusal to hire. Thus the district court’s reliance on this fact is clearly erroneous.
The trial court held that the “stall-in’’ and “lock-in” were “unprotected” activities on which the company based its refusal to hire. The trial court’s opinion gives little analysis as to why these reasons were singled out to be the sole cause when the record is undisputed that the company was disturbed over Green’s lawful picketing activities as well. These activities were cited by company officials to the E.E.O.C. as part of their motive for refusing to rehire Green as an employee. One has grave difficulty in coming away from analysis of the present record without the belief that the company’s rejection of Green was based not so much on an isolated illegal protest but on Green’s prolonged activity in bringing public attention to the company’s alleged discriminatory practices. Blind acceptance of any non-diseriminatory reason offered by an employer in a fair employment case would always preclude correction of any discriminatory practices otherwise existing. It has generally been said that an employer may *346refuse to hire or decide to fire any employee for any reason he chooses. Civil rights legislation and case law dealing with discriminatory employment practices have added modification to these principles. Discriminatory motives even though they constitute only a partial basis for an employer’s refusal to hire are not sanctioned. Smith v. Sol D. Adler Realty Co., 436 F.2d 344 (7 Cir. 1970); Armstead v. Starkville Municipal Separate School Disk, 325 F.Supp. 560 (N.D.Miss.1971); Stebbins v. Keystone Ins. Co., 2 F.E.P. Cases 861 (D.D.C. 1970). In other words the protected activities of Green cannot give the employer even partial cause to deny the employment. It is argued that it is unrealistic to think that an employer must hire an individual who vigorously, and at times even unlawfully, challenges the company’s fairness and integrity. The syllogistic conclusion is that the applicant has bit the hand he asks to feed him. Yet to the limit that the law protects an individual’s right to protest unlawful discrimination, by exercise of free speech and free assembly, an employer is precluded from the use of coercive or intimidating sanctions to circumvent the law’s protective cloak. The hard nut of it all is that the public interest to be carried out in the legislative requirement of fair and equal employment practices possesses a higher value than the likes or dislikes of a particular employer.
Thus, when an employee challenges his rejected employment as a violation of the civil rights law and makes a prima facie case of discrimination as has been done here,1 the record must demonstrate more than a mere subjective reason, as Judge Bright authoritatively demonstrates, for the employer’s action. The evidence must show that the employee’s lawful activities under § 2000e-3a were in no part a motivating factor in the employer’s decision and that the reason for the rejection is objectively related to job performance. Without this showing any reason could otherwise be used to mask the denial of protected rights.

. Cf. Marquez v. Omaha, Ford Motor Co., 440 F.2d 1157 (8 Cir. 1971).