Court Opinion

ID: 9469695
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:46:56.028941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:31.163654
License: Public Domain

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I believe, essentially for the reasons set forth in the dissenting opinion of Judge Gibbons, that the Pennsylvania Supreme *193Court would not treat the judgment in the Commonwealth Court as res judicata so as to bar an action by Ms. Davis under 42 U.S.C. 1981 and that on this record there is no basis for application of any collateral estoppel against Ms. Davis. I also agree with Judge Gibbons that section 1738 should not be interpreted to preclude Ms. Davis’ suit under section 1981. I write separately because I believe that in the scholarly discussion in the majority opinion and the irony of its result, public policy considerations which militate against the result it reaches are overlooked.
After her termination by U.S. Steel, Ms. Davis had various options. She could have immediately filed a section 1981 suit in federal court or she could have followed the administrative procedure necessary before filing a Title VII suit in federal court. She promptly chose to seek relief before the City of Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations which is authorized to attempt to eliminate the alleged racial discrimination by means of private conferences or meetings with all parties. See section 13(e), Pittsburgh Human Relations Ordinance. The advantages of resorting in the first instance to a procedure whereby disputes may be resolved by conference, conciliation and persuasion are evident: an unrepresented claimant may seek and sometimes be awarded relief; the parties may informally resolve their differences without the bitterness engendered by litigation; and the courts are spared the additional burden of yet more lawsuits.
Had Ms. Davis chosen to pursue her Title VII remedy, prior resort to either the state or the local Commission on Human Relations would have been mandatory. The decision of that agency, even if unfavorable to Ms. Davis, would not have precluded her Title VII suit in federal court, see Kremer v. Chemical Construction Corp.,--U.S. -,-, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 1889, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982), and presumably would not have precluded a section 1981 suit in federal court, unless she had chosen to appeal to the state courts.
Ironically, Ms. Davis was not unsuccessful in her claim before the administrative tribunal. Indeed, the PCHR ordered U.S. Steel to cease and desist from racial discrimination, to reinstate Davis and to award her backpay. Thereafter, according to the logic of the majority opinion, the die was cast. Her well-financed employer appealed, first to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas, and when unsuccessful there, continued the appeal process to the Commonwealth Court where, at this third stage, it received a favorable decision. According to the majority, this decision by the Commonwealth Court now bars Ms. Davis’ suit in federal court for race discrimination in employment under section 1981.
Had Ms. Davis been unsuccessful before the local agency, U.S. Steel could not have appealed to the state courts and Ms. Davis could have proceeded as she did by filing her section 1981 suit in federal court and would not be deprived of the $50,736.11 judgment awarded her by the district court because of the Commonwealth Court decision. On the other hand, had Ms. Davis bypassed the state or local administrative procedure entirely and filed her section 1981 suit immediately in federal court, she would not be deprived of the $50,736.11 judgment awarded her by the district court because of the Commonwealth Court decision. Therefore, because she sought to utilize the informal procedure which the State of Pennsylvania provides for persons who believe themselves to be victims of racial discrimination, because she chose to conciliate rather than litigate in the first instance, and because she was successful in that effort, thereby giving U.S. Steel the opportunity to invoke the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania courts, Ms. Davis will lose the $50,-736.11 judgment awarded to her by the district court.
This leads to the patently unsatisfactory conclusion that complainants will be well-advised to bypass the state administrative machinery. I cannot believe that any of the legislative history utilized by the majority in discussing public policy can mandate this result. The courts and judges of this country, from the Chief Justice of the Unit*194ed States down, have repeatedly spoken of the need to seek dispute resolution mechanisms outside of litigation. There is also a public policy, reflected in various statutes requiring initial resort to state administrative procedures, to use that procedure whenever possible. The majority opinion, howsoever logical on the surface, will instruct claimants in Ms. Davis’ position to file their claims as suits under section 1981 directly in federal court, which, it appears to me, contravenes current public policy. I dissent from this example of what one of our colleagues frequently refers to as “mechanical jurisprudence.” See United States v. Jannotti, 673 F.2d 578, 615 (3d Cir. 1981) (Aldisert, J., dissenting).