Court Opinion

ID: 9457055
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 20:11:03.361845+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:35:12.129835
License: Public Domain

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge
(dissenting) :
I think this case is moot. The fact that the decision is intended only to have prospective application confirms this view. (There is no indication that Southern Pacific eliminated the Thermal position purposely to moot this case.) That Congress did not intend the Civil Rights Act to abrogate traditional mootness concepts, thereby allowing what amount to advisory opinions, is clear from 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g), which allows an employee damages measured by back pay. Legislatures often use this device in the private enforcement of public rights context to prevent defendants from easily mooting cases. In her complaint Rosenfeld sought as damages an amount that would compensate her for the wages (including overtime) she missed as a result of being denied the Thermal position. The court below found that she was not entitled to damages and she filed no cross appeal on this point. Thus, she has no monetary issue before this court.
With the Thermal position out of the way, there is nothing left for the judgment to operate on, no more “actual con*1228troversy.” Rosenfeld still works for Southern Pacific as an agent telegrapher, and whether she might in the future seek a job that might be denied her by Southern Pacific rules and state law is pure speculation. The personal stake and degree of adverseness traditionally thought necessary to adequately sharpen legal issues are just not present here.
See generally Brockington v. Rhodes (1969), 396 U.S. 41, 90 S.Ct. 206, 24 L.Ed.2d 209; Golden v. Zwickler (1969), 394 U.S. 103, 89 S.Ct. 956, 22 L.Ed.2d 113; United States v. W. T. Grant (1953), 345 U.S. 629, 73 S.Ct. 894, 97 L.Ed. 1303; United States v. Alaska Steamship Co. (1920), 253 U.S. 113, 40 S.Ct. 448, 64 L.Ed. 808; Cash v. Swifton Land Corp. (6th Cir. 1970), 434 F.2d 569; Caldwell v. Craighead (6th Cir., 1970) 432 F.2d 213; Comment, Mootness on Appeal in the Supreme Court (1970), 83 Harv.L.Rev. 1672.
In this case it was disclosed at oral argument that counsel for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “selected” Mrs. Rosenfeld’s counsel to bring the case. So the plaintiff’s counsel makes a frontal attack. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission comes in with a flank attack by way of an amicus brief.
The Southern Pacific takes a passive position of, “We do not care what the result is: Just tell us what to do.” For the first time, the Southern Pacific gets really concerned with the case when it decides the trial court “overfound” in its findings. But that seems to be its only real concern.
This is not the stuff of which a real controversy is made. The issues should be decided in a case where both sides are really trying to win.
We should abstain from a “dead fall,” which I think is a wrestling term.