Court Opinion

ID: 9460401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 21:49:13.431618+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:36:36.108768
License: Public Domain

ADAMS, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
Inasmuch as there was a finding of racial discrimination in the selection of police officers by public officials in Erie and the district court restricted the mandated hiring procedure to persons qualified to act as police officers, I agree with the majority that the district court did not abuse its equitable discretion in ordering the city officials to hire one black person for any white person hired until the twenty new police positions created by a specially financed program are filled.
*376However, I would reverse the district court’s failure to dismiss the Erie Human Relations Commission as a party for a different reason than that set forth by the majority. Rule 17 (b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides, in part, that “[t]he capacity of a corporation to sue . . . shall be determined by the law under which it was organized” and that “[i]n all other cases capacity to sue . . . shall be determined by the law of the state in which the district court is held, except . . . that a partnership or other unincorporated association, which has no such capacity by the law of such state, may sue ... in its common name for the purpose of enforcing ... a substantive right existing under the Constitution or laws of the United States. if
Before dealing with the intricate matrix of rules relating to the standing of representative plaintiffs, it would seem appropriate to inquire whether the Commission has the capacity, pursuant to “the law under which it was organized,” to bring this suit. For if the Commission is without such capacity, the need to determine its standing to sue is foreclosed,
The Commission was established by city ordinance, and the enforcement section of the ordinance does not authorize the Commission to bring suit, but rather to refer the initiation of suit to the City Solicitor.1 *If, however, a city agency like the Commission is to be treated like “a partnership or other unincorporated association” for the purposes of Rule 17(b), the absence of statutory authorization would not be dispositive. It would appear from the background of Rule 17(b) that the relaxation of the requirement that an organization have “capacity [under state law] to sue” was designed to permit private entities that are well-established representatives of groups of people with common social and economic concerns to sue or be sued.2 There is no indication that Rule 17(b) was intended to diminish a city’s power to control, in furtherance of municipal policy, resort to the courts by its subdivisions and agencies,3 ****as distinguished from permitting a city to designate its Solicitor to bring such suits.
I would, therefore, reverse the district court’s failure to dismiss the Erie Human Relations Commission without reaching the question of the Commission’s standing to sue as a representative plaintiff.
Since individuals alleging that discrimination impairs their ability to secure positions with the Erie Police Department have joined with the Commission as individual plaintiffs in this action, dismissal of the Commission as a party would not affect the substantive outcome of this appeal.

. 151.09 Enforcement
(a) On and after September 1, 1963, m the event any person refuses or fails to comply with any cease and desist order issued by the Commission, for a period of ten days from the service of the order by registered mail or personally, the Commission shall certify the case and the entire record of its proceedings to the City Solicitor who shall invoke the aid of an appropriate court to impose the penalties provided in Section 151.99 and by appropriate action secure enforcement of the order.
(b) Whenever the Commission finds that any official, agent or employee of the city, or any contractor or subcontractor doing work for the city, has engaged in any discriminatory practice, it shall make a report thereof to the Mayor and Council.

. See United Mine Workers v. Coronado, 259 U.S. 344, 385-392, 42 S.Ct. 570, 66 L.Ed. 975; Hart & Wechsler, The Federal Courts and the Federal System 1123-24 (2d ed. 1973).

. Cf. Gates v. Council of City of Huntington, 93 F.Supp. 757 (S.D.W.Va.1950).