Court Opinion

ID: 9843080
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:26:06.075509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:27.476207
License: Public Domain

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent from Part V of the majority opinion that individuals (employees of the employer) cannot be individually liable under either Title VII or the ADEA.
In respect to Title VII, the majority relies on Padway v. Palches, 665 F.2d 965 (9th Cir.1982), which held that an “employer,” not an employee, may be liable for an award of back pay. Id. at 968. Part of the rationale in Padway was that the employer, not a mere employee (regardless of that employee’s supervisory powers), should pay back wages. General or punitive damages were not available under Title VII because the statute limited remedies to back pay and injunctive relief. Id. Employees, however, can be sued in their official capacities, allowing a successful plaintiff to obtain injunctive relief. See, e.g., Harvey v. Blake, 913 F.2d 226, 227-28 (5th Cir.1990); Sparks v. Pilot Freight Carriers, Inc., 830 F.2d 1554, 1557-59 (11th Cir.1987); Canada v. Boyd Group, Inc., 809 F.Supp. 771, 779 & n. 3 (D.Nev.1992); Weiss v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co., 772 F.Supp. 407, 410-11 (N.D.Ill.1991).
*589I am concerned that the majority’s over-broad language may unnecessarily cloud decisionmaking under-the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which now permits compensatory and punitive damages for intentional discrimination. 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981a (1992 Supp.). This significant revision may permit suits against individuals for compensatory and punitive damages where the discrimination was intentional. But see id. at § 1981a(b)(3)(A)-(D) (establishing compensatory damage sum limitations by categories determined by “respóndenos’]” number of employees). What can be said, and all that should be said, is that under Title VII prior to its amendment, an employee could not be held individually liable for back pay.
As for individual employee liability under the ADEA, I do not believe Miller’s claims can be dismissed on the basis that “[t]he liability schemes under Title VII and the ADEA are essentially the same in aspects relevant to this issue.” Maj.Op. at 587. Notwithstanding the many similarities between the two statutory schemes, at the time of the enactment of the ADEA its “scope of relief [wa]s much broader” than that afforded by Title VII.1 See House v. Cannon Mills Co., 713 F.Supp. 159, 160 (M.D.N.C.1988). The difference in the scope of relief, in the House court’s view, foreclosed reliance on Padway in determining individual liability under the ADEA. Id.
Perhaps a more significant difference between the two statutory regimes is that “the ADEA incorporates the remedies and procedures of the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FSLA”), which differ from those under Title VII.” See id. (citing, inter alia, Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 582, 98 S.Ct. 866, 871, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978)). The Supreme Court in Lorillard noted that it was Congress.’ selectivity “in incorporating provisions and in modifying certain FLSA practices [that] strongly suggests that but for those changes Congress expressly made, it intended to incorporate fully the remedies and procedures of the FLSA.” Lorillard, 434 U.S. at 582, 98 S.Ct. at 871 (emphasis added). There is no question that an individual can be personally liable as an employer under the FLSA; adverse employment actions attributable to individuals as a consequence of their authority over employment decisions can lead to individual liability where those actions violate the FLSA. House, 713 F.Supp. at 160-61 (citing cases). The same result should apply to actions brought under the ADEA.
In House, the key inquiry centered on whether the employer’s agents “had authority and discretion over [p]laintiff s discharge for allegedly discriminatory reasons.” Id. at 161; see also Wanamaker v. Columbian Rope Co., 740 F.Supp. 127, 135 (N.D.N.Y.1990) (individual liability claim under ADEA possible where plaintiff contended that individual defendants “ ‘participated in the decision making process that forms the basis of the discrimination’ ”). According to the court in House, “the clear import of the statutory language [in the ADEA], including the incorporation of the FLSA provisions and their accompanying case law, is imposition of personal liability on all ‘employers,’ ” including supervisors. House, 713 F.Supp. at 161-62.
We should not dismiss House as simply a district court decision from another circuit with little persuasive force in our circuit. It is a thorough and well-reasoned opinion. Judge Posner, in Shager v. Upjohn Co., 913 F.2d 398, 404 (7th Cir.1990), has cited it with approval.2 I conclude Miller should not be precluded from bringing an ADEA claim against those supervisors who took *590part in the termination decisions; those supervisors can be held liable, in their individual capacities, if their actions violated the ADEA. I would reverse.

. 29 U.S.C. § 626(b) provides as a remedy “liquidated damages” “in cases of willful violations.” As discussed above, the 1991 amendments to Title VII may or may not have brought Title VII’s scope of relief nearer to that available under the ADEA. If they did not, as appears likely given the construction of the limitations categories, ADEA still affords more expansive relief possibilities.

. The point that Posner makes is that although both Title VII and the ADEA define "employer” to include “agent of employer,” there are limits to the imposition of employer liability under respondeat superior. Outrageous conduct by one employee to another unknown to the employer should not automatically be ascribed to the employer. Shager, 913 F.2d at 404.