Court Opinion

ID: 9427008
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:26.963089+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:04.486338
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Powell,
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan and Mr. Justice Marshall join,
concurring in the result and concurring in part.
I join Part I of the opinion of the Court affirming the decision of the Court of Appeals that petitioner’s policy denying *147accumulated seniority for job-bidding purposes to female employees returning from pregnancy leave violates Title VII.1
I also concur in the result in Part II, for the legal status under Title VII of petitioner’s policy of denying accumulated sick-pay benefits to female employees while on pregnancy leave requires further factual development in light of General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U. S. 125 (1976). I write separately, however, because the Court appears to have constricted unnecessarily the scope of inquiry on remand by holding prematurely that respondent has failed to meet her burden of establishing a prima facie case that petitioner’s sick-leave policy is discriminatory under Title VII. This case was tried in the District Court and reviewed in the Court of Appeals before our decision in Gilbert. The appellate court upheld her claim in accord with the then uniform view of the Courts of Appeals that any disability plan that treated *148pregnancy differently from other disabilities was per se viola-tive of Title VII.2 Since respondent had no reason to make the showing of gender-based discrimination required by Gilbert, I would follow our usual practice of vacating the judgment below and remanding to permit the lower court to reconsider its sick-leave ruling in light of our intervening decision.
The issue is not simply one of burden of proof, which properly rests with the Title VII plaintiff, Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405, 425 (1975); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792, 802 (1973), but of a “full opportunity for presentation of the relevant facts,” Harris v. Nelson, 394 U. S. 286, 298 (1969). Given the meandering course that Title VII adjudication has taken, final resolution of a lawsuit in this Court often has not been possible because the parties or the lower courts proceeded on what was ultimately an erroneous theory of the case. Where the mistaken theory is premised on the pre-existing understanding of the law, and where the record as constituted does not foreclose the arguments made necessary by our ruling, I would prefer to remand the controversy and permit the lower courts to pass on the new contentions in light of whatever additional evidence is deemed necessary.
For example, in Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, supra, the Court approved the Court of Appeals’ conclusion "that the employer had not proved the job relatedness of its testing program, but declined to permit immediate issuance of an *149injunction against all use of testing in the plant. The Court thought that a remand to the District Court was indicated in part because “[t]he appropriate standard of proof for job relatedness has not been clarified until today,” and the plaintiffs “have not until today been specifically apprised of their opportunity to present evidence that even validated tests might be a 'pretext’ for discrimination in light of alternative selection procedures available to the Company.” 422 U. S., at 436.
Similarly, in Teamsters v. United States, 431 U. S. 324 (1977), we found a remand for further factual development appropriate because the Government had employed an erroneous evidentiary approach that precluded satisfaction of its burden of identifying which nonapplicant employees were victims of the employer’s unlawful discrimination and thus entitled to a retroactive seniority award. "While it may be true that many of the nonapplicant employees desired and would have applied for line-driver jobs but for their knowledge of the company’s policy of discrimination, the Government must carry its burden of proof, with respect to each specific individual, at the remedial hearings to be conducted by the District Court on remand.” Id., at 371.3 Cf. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U. S. 590, 613-616 (1975) (Powell, J., concurring in part).
Here, respondent has abandoned the theory that enabled her to prevail in the District Court and the Court of Appeals. Instead, she urges that her case is distinguishable from Gilbert:
“Respondent submits that because the exclusion of sick pay is only one of the many ways in which female *150employees who experience pregnancy are treated differently by petitioner, the holding in Gilbert is not controlling. Upon examination of the overall manner in which female employees who experience pregnancy are treated by petitioner, it becomes plain that petitioner’s policies are much more pervasive than the mere under-inclusiveness of the Sickness and Accident Insurance Plan in Gilbert.” Brief for Respondent 10.
At least two distinguishing characteristics are identified by respondent. First, as found by the District Court, only pregnant women are required to take a leave of absence and are denied sick-leave benefits while in all other cases of nonoccupational disability sick-leave benefits are available. 384 F. Supp. 765, 767, 771 (MD Tenn. 1974). Second, the sick-leave policy is necessarily related to petitioner’s discriminatory denial of job-bidding seniority to pregnant women on mandatory maternity leave, presumably because both policies flow from the premise that a female employee is no longer in active service when she becomes pregnant.
Although respondent’s theory is not fully articulated, she presents a plausible contention, one not required to have been raised until Gilbert and not foreclosed by the stipulated evidence of record, see Gilbert, 429 U. S., at 130-131, n. 9, and 131 n. 10, or the concurrent findings of the lower courts, see Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U. S. 252, 270 (1977). It is not inconceivable that on remand respondent will be able to show that the combined operation of petitioner’s mandatory maternity-leave policy4 *151and denial of accumulated sick-pay benefits yielded significantly less net compensation for petitioner’s female employees than for the class of male employees. A number of the former, but not the latter, endured forced absence from work without sick pay or other compensation. The parties stipulated that between July 2, 1965, and August 27, 1974, petitioner had placed 12 employees on pregnancy leave, and that some of these employees were on leave for periods of two months or more. App. 33. It is possible that these women had not exhausted their sick-pay benefits at the time they were compelled to take maternity leave, and that the denial of sick pay for this period of absence resulted in a relative loss of net compensation for petitioner’s female work force. Petitioner’s male employees, on the other hand, are not subject to a mandatory leave policy, and are eligible to receive compensation in some form for any period of absence from work due to sickness or disability.
In short, I would not foreclose the possibility that the facts as developed on remand will support a finding that “the package is in fact worth more to men than to women.” Gilbert, supra, at 138. If such a finding were made, I would view respondent’s case as not barred by Gilbert.5 In that case, the Court related: “The District Court noted the evidence introduced during the trial, a good deal of it stipulated, concerning the relative cost to General Electric of providing benefits under the Plan to male and female employees, all of which indicated that, with pregnancy-related disabilities excluded, the cost of the Plan to General Electric per female employee was at least as high as, if not substantially higher than, the cost per male employee.” 429 U. S., at 130 (footnotes omitted). The District Court also “found that the inclusion of pregnancy-related disabilities within the scope of the Plan would 'increase G. E.’s [disability-benefits plan] costs *152by an amount which, though large, is at this time undeter-minable.’ 375 F. Supp., at 378.” Id., at 131. While the District Court declined to make an explicit finding that the actuarial value of the coverage was equal between men and women, it may have been referring simply to the quantum and specificity of proof necessary to establish a “business necessity” defense. See Gilbert v. General Electric Co., 375 F. Supp. 367, 382-383 (ED Va. 1974). In any event, in Gilbert this Court viewed the evidence of record as precluding a prima facie showing of discrimination in “compensation” contrary to § 703 (a)(1). “Whatever the ultimate probative value of the evidence introduced before the District Court on this subject ... , at the very least it tended to' illustrate that the selection of risks covered by the Plan did not operate, in fact, to discriminate against women.” 429 U. S., at 137-138. As the record had developed in Gilbert, there was no basis for a remand.
I do not view the record in this case as precluding a finding of discrimination in compensation within the principles enunciated in Gilbert,6 I would simply remand the sick-pay *153issue for further proceedings in light of our decision in that case.

 I would add, however, that petitioner’s seniority policy, on its face, does not “appea[r] to be neutral in its treatment of male and female employees.” Ante, at 140. As the District Court noted below, “only pregnant women are required to take leave and thereby lose job bidding seniority and no leave is required in other non-work related disabilities . . . .” 384 F. Supp. 765, 771 (MD Tenn. 1974). This mandatory maternity leave is not “identical to the formal leave of absence granted to employees, male or female, in order that they may pursue additional education.” Ante, at 140 n. 2.

 See cases cited in General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U. S. 125, 147 (1976) (Brennan, J., dissenting).
Gilbert held that the rationale articulated in Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U. S. 484 (1974), involving a challenge on equal protection grounds, also applied to a Title VII claim with respect to the treatment of pregnancy-in benefit plans. See 429 U. S., at 133-136. Since Geduldig itself was silent on the Title VII issue, the Courts of Appeals not unreasonably failed to anticipate the extent to which the Geduldig rationale would be deemed applicable in the statutory context. See Washington v. Davis, 426 U. S. 229, 246-248 (1976).

 The Court also declined to “evaluate abstract claims concerning the equitable balance that should be struck between the statutory rights of victims and the contractual rights of nonvictim employees,” preferring to lodge this task, in the first instance, with the trial court which would be best able to deal with the problem in light of the facts developed at the hearings on remand. 431 U. S., at 376.

 The majority places some reliance on respondent’s failure to appeal from the part of the District Court’s ruling which found petitioner’s mandatory leave policy to be lawful under Title VII. Ante, at 138 n. 1, and 145. For the reasons stated in the text, however, petitioner’s maintenance of a mandatory maternity-leave policy, even if entirely lawful, may have a bearing on the question whether the sick-pay policy “is in fact worth more to men than to women,” Gilbert, 429 U. S., at 138.

 Also, if the theory left open by the Court’s remand is demonstrated, Gilbert will present no bar.

 The Court’s opinion at one point appears to read Gilbert as holding that a Title VII plaintiff in a § 703 (a) (1) case must demonstrate that “exclusion of pregnancy from the compensated conditions is a mere ‘pretex[t].’” Ante, at 144. Later in its opinion, the Court states that we need not decide “whether, when confronted by a facially neutral plan, it is necessary to prove intent to establish a prima facie violation of §703 (a)(1).” Ibid. As noted in n. 1, supra, I cannot assume that petitioner’s seniority policy in this case is facially neutral. Moreover, although there may be some ambiguity in the language in Gilbert, see concurring opinions of Mr. Justice Stewart and Mr. Justice Blackmun, 429 U. S., at 146, I viewed our decision in that case as grounded primarily on the emphasized fact that no discrimination in compensation as required by § 703 (a) (1) had been shown. Indeed, a fair reading of the evidence in Gilbert demonstrated that the total compensation of women in terms of disability-benefit plans well may have exceeded that of men. I do not suggest that mathematical exactitude can or need be shown in every § 703 (a) (1) case. But essential equality in compensation for comparable work *153is at the heart of §703 (a)(1). In my view, proof of discrimination in this respect would establish a prima facie violation.