Court Opinion

ID: 9454471
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:47:30.102481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:07.918967
License: Public Domain

SEITZ, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The original complaint filed in this action on March 9, 1966, was based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It explicitly sought declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to the defendant’s then pension plan. The gravamen of the complaint was that the plan violated the Act because it discriminated in several respects in favor of female employees and in others, in favor of male employees. After the action was commenced, the defendant company revised the plan. Thereafter the plaintiffs *783amended their complaint1 to challenge the plan as revised and to assert a class action. Still later defendant filed a motion for summary judgment on several grounds. In amending their complaint plaintiffs made it clear that they were not withdrawing the original complaint, even though they conceded that the bulk of the specific grievances alleged may have been rectified by the adoption of the revised plan.
The district court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment. Apparently the district court believed that the subject matter of the original complaint had been rendered moot by the revision of the pension plan and that only the amended complaint was before it. The amended complaint was dismissed on the ground that the court did not have jurisdiction over its subject matter, because plaintiffs had not complied with the procedural requirements of the Act by first requesting relief from the EEOC.
As I understand the majority opinion, the court is remanding the subject matter of the original complaint to the district court to have it determined if there are any employees, apparently treated as a class, who were injured by the alleged violation of the Act in the period prior to the modification of the plan. If not, then presumably under the majority decision, the district court properly viewed the original complaint as moot. If so, then the majority would direct the district court to decide whether plaintiffs have otherwise stated a legally cognizable claim. Although I agree with the majority that there should be a remand, I think their remand is too restrictive.
By their original complaint the plaintiffs sought, inter alia, a declaratory judgment that the plan violated the Act. The defendant raised many defenses, in-eluding the contention that Title VII of the Act did not apply to pension retirement plans. I think plaintiffs were entitled to have a declaration as to whether Title VII was applicable to the plan and, if so, whether the plan violated the Act. The revision of the plan did not render these important issues moot; the parties were still very much concerned with their resolution. Indeed, the issue of the applicability of Title VII was reasserted by the defendant after the plaintiffs amended the complaint. Moreover, it was a particularly appropriate subject for a declaratory judgment in view of the public policy overtones involved.2
Plaintiffs also sought injunctive relief. Were the district court to decide that Title VII applies to pension plans and that the revised plan was in violation of the Act then the court would be obliged to consider the need for an injunction. Contrary to the majority’s approach, I think that it is premature to consider the propriety of injunctive relief in view of the fact that the question was not presented or decided below, and because the basis for such a determination has not been developed.
I next consider the dismissal of the amendment to the complaint by the district court on the ground that plaintiffs had not exhausted their remedies before the Commission as was said to be required by the Act. 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(e). The majority decided that this issue need not be resolved. I am forced to disagree.
Preliminarily, although the district court posed the issue in terms of its jurisdiction, it had jurisdiction and the issue is whether the statutory prerequisite had been satisfied.
Considering the discrimination charged in the amendement with that in the original complaint,3 I conclude that *784the subject matter is so interrelated that the Act does not require plaintiffs to again petition the Commission in order that the district court might properly consider the amendment. A purpose for first proceeding before the Commission in this type of case is to permit an amicable settlement without litigation. When grievances are obviously independent, that statutory purpose is best served by first resorting to conciliation -before the EEOC. However, and as the EEOC urges, where, as here, the basic grievance had been “processed” by the Commission and litigation recommended, no statutory purpose is served by forcing further conciliation efforts. I therefore believe that it was error to grant summary judgment on the ground relied upon by the district court.

. I agree with the majority’s decision to treat the complaint as if an amendment had been filed.

. Compare Wirtz v. Local 153, Glass Bottle Blowers, 389 U.S. 463, 88 S.Ct. 643, 19 L.Ed.2d 705 (1968).

. In substance both the original and the amended complaints charge unlawful discrimination because women employees, when electing early retirement, are treated more favorably than their male counterparts.