Court Opinion

ID: 9472196
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:52:23.33585+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:42:47.699687
License: Public Domain

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in most of the majority opinion. I agree that the district court’s finding of no racial discrimination in violation of Title VII was not clearly erroneous. I also agree that the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding the testimony of Joseph Beasley and in limiting cross-examination of Rene Thompson and Lorenzo Crawford. I do not agree, however, with the majority opinion’s analysis of the admissibility of the EEOC reasonable cause determination in the § 1981 case. For the reasons discussed below, I would reverse the judgment of the district court entered in favor of appellee with respect to the § 1981 claim only and remand for a new trial.
Appellant brought this action alleging that his discharge was the result of racial discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Civil Rights Act of 1870, 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The Title VII claim was tried to the court; the § 1981 claim was tried to a jury. Appellant sought to introduce the EEOC reasonable cause determination as evidence of discrimination in both cases. The district court admitted the EEOC reasonable cause determination in the Title VII case but sustained appellee’s objection to its admission in the § 1981 case. The majority opinion evaluates appellant’s allegation that the district court erred in excluding the EEOC reasonable cause determination in the § 1981 case under the abuse of discretion standard of review and finds no abuse of discretion because the EEOC reasonable cause determination was cumulative, and therefore of little probative value, and because its admission would have required the presentation of additional evidence to refute its findings and attack its deficiencies, and thus have prolonged the trial.
*1312As an initial matter, I fully agree with the district court’s admission of the EEOC reasonable cause determination in the Title VII case. As noted by the majority opinion, prior administrative proceedings are not binding in federal court but are admissible evidence. Chandler v. Roudebush, 425 U.S. 840, 863 n. 39, 96 S.Ct. 1949, 1961 n. 39, 48 L.Ed.2d 416 (1976). However, unlike the majority opinion, I would hold that EEOC reasonable cause determinations are per se admissible in Title VII cases. Compare Bradshaw v. Zoological Society, 569 F.2d 1066, 1069 (9th Cir.1978) (EEOC determination admissible per se), and Smith v. Universal Services, Inc., 454 F.2d 154, 156-58 (5th Cir.1972) (reversible error to exclude EEOC report in Title VII case), with Walton v. Eaton Corp., 563 F.2d 66, 75 (3d Cir.1977) (banc) (admissibility within discretion of district court), and Cox v. Babcock & Wilcox Co., 471 F.2d 13, 15 (4th Cir.1972) (similar).
The cases cited in the above paragraph are Title VII cases and thus did not involve jury trials. However, in Plummer v. Western International Hotels Co., 656 F.2d 502 (9th Cir.1981), the Ninth Circuit was faced with a fact pattern similar to the one presented here. In Plummer the plaintiff filed a civil rights suit alleging her employer discriminated against her on the basis of race in denying her a promotion in violation of Title VII and § 1981. The Title VII and § 1981 claims were presented together and tried before a jury. The plaintiff sought to introduce the EEOC reasonable cause determination as evidence of discrimination. The district court refused to allow introduction of the EEOC reasonable cause determination. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant on both claims; the plaintiff appealed and the Ninth Circuit reversed, holding that “the [civil rights] plaintiff has a right to introduce an EEOC [reasonable] cause determination in a Title VII lawsuit, regardless of what other claims are asserted, or whether the case is tried before a judge or jury.” Id. at 505.
The employer in Plummer had argued that the district court should have discretion to exclude the EEOC reasonable cause determination in cases where Title VII and § 1981 claims are joined and tried by a jury because of the danger that the jury would give the EEOC reasonable cause determination too much weight in evaluating the § 1981 claim. The court rejected the defendant employer’s jury trial argument, noting that Bradshaw, the case in which the Ninth Circuit had set forth the per se rule of admissibility of EEOC reasonable cause determinations in Title VII cases, see 569 F.2d at 1069, involved claims under both Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and thus “did not foreclose the possibility of jury consideration of the EEOC [reasonable cause] determination.” 656 F.2d at 505. The Plummer court further explained that
[a]n EEOC [reasonable cause] determination, prepared by professional investigators on behalf of an impartial agency, has been held to be a highly probative evaluation of an individual’s discrimination complaint. If we were to adopt the distinction between jury and non-jury trials urged by [the defendant employer], in many cases Bradshaw [’s per se rule of admissibility] could in effect be ignored and the value of EEOC [reasonable cause] determinations wasted. The factual background in a Title VII lawsuit based on racial discrimination will often support a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 as well. We believe that Bradshaw [’s per se rule of admissibility] should apply to such cases even when the plaintiff requests a jury trial.
Id. (citations omitted).
I would follow Plummer and hold that the district court erred in excluding the EEOC reasonable cause determination in the § 1981 case.
In addition, even applying the abuse of discretion standard of review, I cannot agree with the majority opinion that the EEOC reasonable cause determination was cumulative and therefore of little probative value. “The fact that an investigator, trained and experienced in the area of discriminatory practices and the various methods by which they can be secreted, has *1313found that it is likely that such an unlawful practice has occurred, is highly probative of the ultimate issue involved in such cases.” Smith v. Universal Services, Inc., 454 F.2d at 157. The probative value of the EEOC reasonable cause determination clearly outweighed its prejudicial impact. I also do not agree that allowing the defendant an opportunity to refute the findings in the EEOC reasonable cause determination and to attack its deficiencies would unduly prolong the trial. I would hold that the district court abused its discretion in excluding the EEOC reasonable cause determination in the § 1981 case and that its exclusion was not harmless error. I would reverse the judgment on the § 1981 claim and remand for a new trial.