Court Opinion

ID: 9464850
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:44:42.410944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:51.211498
License: Public Domain

LYNNE, Senior District Judge,
dissenting.
This appeal involves only tangentially the familiar right-remedy dichotomy inherent in cases arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.1 Primarily, appellants contend for reversal that the district judge misconstrued the terms of a consent decree,2 entered on the 11th day of January, 1973, in concluding that it had not been violated by defendants. I would affirm.
As of the date of the consent decree, Mr. Freddie Eaton (Eaton) and Mr. Willie Sullivan (Sullivan), both black employees of defendant in its textile manufacturing plant in Mobile, Alabama, each occupied job number 3 (from the bottom) in the Spinning Line of Progression. Thereafter, each advanced to job number 6 therein. Shortly prior to November 26, 1974, in the course of a reduction in force, defendant company, by applying the seniority provisions of its contract3 with the union4 as the bargaining representative of its employees rolled back Eaton and Sullivan to the position of Utility Operators (job number 3).
There followed grievances, denied by the company, arbitration, which resulted in vindication of the company’s position, and, finally, a motion filed with the court for “declaration of rights and enforcement of the decree,” which was denied, engendering this appeal. The focus at each of these stages was on the following provisions of Section VII of the decree:
D. 1. When members of the affected class compete' with each other or with employees not of the affected class as to layoff, demotion and recall, Court Seniority shall be the applicable seniority for such purposes and may be utilized by affected class employees and any other employees so competing. Court Seniori*93ty5 for the purposes of demotion, layoff and recall shall not be lost by failure either to bid or to accept an entry level job as is set forth in preceding Paragraph “C”.
2. Subject to the express exception in Paragraph III.(F) above, an affected class employee or any other person can only use his Court Seniority in the case of demotion, layoff or recall from his position in the line of progression in which he is as of the date of his Settlement Agreement downward to the entry job in that same line of progression. He can at no time use Court Seniority to jump from section to section or from department to department. (Emphasis added).
As though it were a simple exercise in syntax, the parties mightily contest the juxtaposition of the prepositional phrase, “in which he is as of the date of this Settlement Agreement,” to the nouns, “position” and “line” [of progression].6
The arbitrator held that there was no ambiguity present in Paragraph 2 of the decree and that neither Eaton nor Sullivan “had the right to use the expanded court or plant-wide seniority to compete with all others at the time of layoff but rather had to wait until they reached their base job possessed ‘as of the date of this Settlement Agreement’ before utilizing the Court Seniority.”
I do not disagree' that ambiguity is present in the naked language quoted above. However, the conscientious district judge did not mechanically or casually accept the result of the arbitration award. There is implicit in his well-reasoned opinion that he recognized that there is indeed ambiguity when Paragraphs VII(D)(1) and VII(D)(2) are read in pari materia. He resolved this patent ambiguity by reference to the concluding language of Paragraph III(F) of the decree7 and reasoned that the introductory clause of Paragraph VII(D)(2), which refers to Paragraph III(F), removes any ambiguity between the unrestricted use of Court Seniority under Paragraph VII(D)(1) and the restricted use of Court Seniority under Paragraph VII(D)(2).
I agree that the clearly erroneous rule is not to be applied in reviewing the judgment of the district court. It is the settled rule in this circuit that:
Since this Court is in as good position to interpret the 190-page written contract as was the district court, we cannot rely upon the clearly erroneous rule, but must ourselves construe the contract without any presumption in favor of the judgment of the district court. Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S. C.A.; Galena Oaks Corporation v. Sco-field, 5 Cir., 1954, 218 F.2d 217.8 Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Gulf, Mobile & Ohio R. Co., 308 F.2d 374, 375 (5th Cir. 1962).
The governing rule of construction of a consent decree was stated by the Supreme Court in United States v. Armour & Co., 402 U.S. 673, 681-682, 91 S.Ct. 1752, 1757, 29 L.Ed.2d 256 (1971);
*94Consent decrees are entered into by parties to a case after careful negotiation has produced agreement on their precise terms. The parties waive their right to litigate the issues involved in the case and thus save themselves the time, expense, and inevitable risk of litigation. Naturally, the agreement reached normally embodies a compromise; in exchange for the saving of cost and elimination of risk, the parties each give up something they might have won had they proceeded with the litigation. Thus the decree itself cannot be said to have a purpose; rather the parties have purposes, generally opposed to each other, and the resultant decree embodies as much of those opposing purposes as the respective parties have the bargaining power and skill to achieve. For these reasons, the scope of a consent decree must be discerned within its four corners and not be reference to what might satisfy the purposes of one of the parties to it. Because the defendant has, by the decree, waived his right to' litigate the issues raised, a right guaranteed to him by the Due Process Clause, the conditions upon which he has given that waiver must be respected, and the instrument must be construed as it is written, and not as it might have been written had the plaintiff established his factual claims and legal theories in litigation.” (Emphasis added; footnote omitted).9
After careful review of the consent decree, aided by the briefs and oral arguments of able and experienced counsel, I cannot say that the district judge erred in the construction he placed upon the terms of such decree after critical analysis.
My profound disagreement with the opinion for the Court arises from the rigidity of its mandate that, upon remand, the district judge, stripped of his discretion, must construe ambiguous language precisely as this Court prefers. I could understand a remand which proceeds upon the premise that the consent decree is ambiguous; the ambiguity must be recognized, and it must be resolved forthrightly. How? Appropriately, the Court, relying upon I. T. T. Continental Baking Co., note 9, infra, replies: “Where ambiguities exist in the language of a consent decree, the court may turn to other ‘aids to construction,’ such as other documents to which the consent decree refers, as well as legal materials setting the context for the use of particular terms,” yet the Court, without resort to such other aids,10 proceeds to a construction which is apparently binding upon the district court. I must confess that “[t]he more you explain it, the less I understand it.”
I respectfully dissent.

. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq.

. On May 10, 1971, thirteen named employees brought a Title VII class action against defendants, company and union, broadly claiming racial discrimination in employment. On December 4, 1972, the parties submitted to the court a proposed settlement agreement subscribed by able counsel. Having analyzed the agreement and found it to be fair, adequate, reasonable and not the product of collusion between the parties, the district judge expressly approved it on January 11, 1973. Thus, the settlement agreement became in fact and in law a consent decree.

. Sometimes referred to as contract seniority.

. Textile Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO.

. “Court Seniority” is an artificial term, the equivalent of the more common “company” or “plant” seniority (the date of first employment by the company). It denotes seniority superimposed by the decree for stated purposes upon contract seniority.

. Parsing the sentence structure of Paragraph 2, supra, appellants would have it read: “. . .an affected class employee . can only use his Court Seniority in case of demotion, layoff or recall from [the] position which he occupied at the time of demotion or layoff.” Thus, they contend “the effective date of this agreement” modifies only the line of progression originally selected by him to reach his rightful place.
For its part, appellee would have it read: “. . .an affected class employee . can only use his Court Seniority in case of demotion, layoff or recall from [the] position (base job) which he occupied in the line of progression as of the date of this settlement agreement.”

. “Any of said named employees accepting the tendered opportunity to advance into said entry level job shall thereafter have Court Seniority for purposes of promotion, demotion, layoff and recall in accordance with Paragraphs VII, (C) and (D)(1) hereof respectively.” (Emphasis added).

. Accord: Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Cleburne, 363 F.2d 465 (5th Cir. 1966).

. In our case we squarely face the question as to whether the trial court erred in concluding that defendant had not violated the consent decree.
In United States v. I. T. T. Continental Baking Co., 420 U.S. 223, 95 S.Ct. 926, 43 L.Ed.2d 148 (1975), the Court observed at p. 237, 95 S.Ct. at p. 935:
“We note that this case differs from Armour, Hughes, and Atlantic Refining in a most important respect. In each of those cases the question of whether or not the consent decree was violated was the question for decision; in this case respondent was found to have committed violations, and the issue before us affects only the manner of assigning penalties for each violation found.”
At page 238, 95 S.Ct. at page 935 the Court proceeded:
“Since a consent decree or order is to be construed for enforcement purposes basically as a contract, reliance upon certain aids to construction is proper, as with any other contract. Such aids include the .circumstances surrounding the formation of the consent order, any technical meaning words used may have had to the parties, and any other documents expressly incorporated in the decree. Such reliance does not in any way depart from the ‘four corners’ rule of Armour.” (Emphasis added).

. We are not told what “other aids to construction” may be available, e. g., proposed drafts of a consent decree exchanged by the parties or correspondence which may illuminate their mutual intent.