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November 17, 2008

STATEMENT OF RICHARD T. SEYMOUR ON RULE 56, FED. R. CIV. PRO., BEFORE THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE CIVIL RULES

Thank you for providing this opportunity to speak on the proposed amendments to Rule 56.
It is clear that some cases or defenses are filed without an adequate basis or that their lack of a basis becomes clear in discovery. Rule 56 is an essential tool for striking untenable claims and defenses. I have used it in employment discrimination cases in seeking and obtaining partial summary judgment on questions of liability and of remedy.

The focus of my statement is on why it seems to me that the Committee should reject the recommendations of some that the use of summary judgment should be increased by making the grant of summary judgment mandatory in some circumstances.

A. Summary Judgment is Being Granted in Close Cases

Yesterday evening, I looked at all of the summary judgment decisions in employment discrimination cases handed down from September 1, 2008, through November 16, 2008. Of the 145 cases produced by my search term, 122 involved grants of summary judgment solely to employers in cases brought by individual employees or the EEOC. There were 98 affirmances, 9 reversals or vacaturs of the grant of summary judgment, and 15 cases in which the grant of summary judgment was affirmed in part and reversed in part. Thus, 24 of the 122 cases—19.7% of the total—involved at least a partial reversal.

When nearly a fifth of summary judgment decisions are reversed at least in part, it is difficult to conclude that summary judgment is not being granted in close cases. Changing the language of the rule to make summary judgment mandatory will increase the number of grants of summary judgment in close cases.

The possibility of appellate reversals is not a good reason to exacerbate the current problems of abuse of Rule 56 by making grants of summary judgment mandatory. Even with an appellate reversal, an improper grant of summary judgment delays the case by a year or more while memories fade. It adds a great deal to the expense of litigation. And many plaintiffs do not have the resources to appeal an improper grant of summary judgment, or cannot obtain counsel. For them, grants of summary judgment in close cases means the ends of their cases despite the possibility that a jury might legitimately find in their favor.

B. Observations of Some Courts of Appeals that Summary Judgment Is Being Used as a Docket-Clearing Device

A further window on the abuse of summary judgment is shown by decisions of the First, Second, and Third Circuits that have criticized the tendency of district courts to use summary judgment as a device to clear their dockets rather than to identify and dispose of hopelessly unmeritorious cases. Delgado-Biaggi v. Air Transport Local 501, 112 F.3d 565, 567 (1st Cir. 1997) (“As we previously have admonished, the ‘[ten day] notice requirement is not merely window dressing’ and the ‘proper province’ of summary judgment is ‘to weed out claims that do not warrant trial rather than simply to clear a court’s docket.’”); Stella v. Town of Tewksbury, 4 F.3d 53, 55 (1st Cir. 1993) (“Although summary judgment is a useful shortcut leading to final adjudication on the merits in a relatively small class of cases, its proper province is to weed out claims that do not warrant trial rather than simply to clear a court’s docket.”); Gallagher v. Delaney, 139 F.3d 338, 343 (2d Cir. 1998) (“The dangers of robust use of summary judgment to clear trial dockets are particularly acute in current sex discrimination cases.”); McMullen v. Bay Ship Management, 335 F.3d 215, 219 (3d Cir. 2003) (“The only virtue in dismissing the case here was clearing the court’s docket. Although promptness in judicial administration is highly desirable, delay may sometimes be necessary to the mission of doing justice. We are all too often reminded that ‘justice delayed is justice denied.’ But, it is equally true that in some situations ‘justice rushed is justice crushed.’”)

C. The Failure of Rule 56 to Deal with Inferences is a Structural Problem Helping to Explain the Grant of Summary Judgment in Close Cases

Rule 56 does not contain any requirement that the moving party show its position does not rely on inferences in its favor, and that no reasonable inference from the record could be drawn to support the nonmoving party with respect to the contention at issue. This omission, and the omission of a requirement that the nonmoving party address the question of inferences, means that the court does not have a developed perspective as to the possible inferences in the case, and can result in the court’s inadvertent drawing of inferences in favor of the moving party.
The examples discussed in Part E below are a demonstration of the ease with which the district courts can slip into the adoption of inferences favoring the moving party when Rule 56 does not require a developed discussion of inferences.

D. Two Case Examples of Highly Improper Grants of Summary Judgment

It is important to put a human face on the abuse of summary judgment. The two illustrative examples discussed below were chosen from many possible examples. Because these cases were both reported, there was enough description of the facts to see that the grant of summary judgment by the lower court was a miscarriage of justice. In the first case, the court of appeals recognized the problem and corrected the error. In the second, the court of appeals failed to recognize the problem and replicated the error.
Many appellate rulings on summary judgment are contained in unreported summary opinions that do not discuss the facts, making it impossible to analyze the true rate at which the dismissals of potentially meritorious cases are being affirmed.
The one certain result of adopting the suggestion that lower courts be mandated to grant summary judgment is that the existing rate of miscarriages of justice, whatever its number, will be increased.

1. A Case in Which the Court of Appeals Saved the Plaintiff’s Claim

Robinson v. Sappington, 351 F.3d 317 (7th Cir. 2003), involved Ms. Robinson’s claim that an Illinois State-court judge with whom she worked had sexually harassed her. The district court granted summary judgment to defendants, holding that plaintiff had failed to meet the objective test for summary judgment. The court of appeals quoted its ruling:

“In context, it is clear that although Sappington’s comments and controlling behavior were undoubtedly inappropriate and sometimes offensive, they did not rise to the level of being pervasive or severe. Sappington did not proposition Plaintiff and he did not initiate uninvited physical contact of a sexual nature. He never made advances toward her. He did not attempt to kiss her or touch her in a sexual way…. Sappington’s conduct was not threatening. Nor can it be said that the workplace was permeated with “discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult.” … Thus the Court concludes that the sum total of the evidence …, however offensive one might consider it, falls short of creating the kind of “hellish” environment that the Seventh Circuit has established as a standard for liability under Title VII.”

Id. at 327, quoting the lower court’s opinion at 20. The Seventh Circuit reversed the grant of summary judgment to defendants, held that plaintiff had met the objective test for sexual harassment, and set forth the facts that would have made it clear to any reasonable jury that this was not remotely a close case as to the objective test:

“First, we note that there were several overtly sexual comments made by Judge Sappington to Ms. Robinson including Judge Sappington’s offer to purchase Ms. Robinson a sexual device . . .; Judge Sappington’s comment that the attorneys were only speaking to her because she was wearing revealing clothing . . . and the twice-repeated comment that Judge Sappington would like Ms. Robinson to “sit on his face” . . . . In addition to these comments, there is strong evidence that Judge Sappington took an inappropriate interest in Ms. Robinson’s relationships with men, first inquiring as to the status of her marriage and later, on two occasions, expressing outrage at the possibility of her romantic involvement with anyone else.”

“Second, we believe that much of Judge Sappington’s conduct reasonably could be construed as intimidating and threatening. Judge Sappington monitored Ms. Robinson’s actions both within the courthouse and after hours, going so far as to fly an aircraft over the farm of Ms. Robinson’s mother when he knew Ms. Robinson was visiting there. Judge Sappington exhibited anger when he believed other men showed interest in Ms. Robinson. He also subjected Ms. Robinson to hearing the details of a gruesome murder and suggested that she might face a similar fate. Finally, on one occasion, Judge Sappington grabbed Ms. Robinson’s face and told her point-blank that, if she “shacked up” with anyone else, he would kill her.”

“Finally, Ms. Robinson was the recipient of other gestures that, although innocuous in themselves, when put in the larger context, served as constant reminders of Judge Sappington’s interest in her and in exercising control over her. Specifically, Judge Sappington called her beautiful, a ‘blonde Demi Moore’ or a golden goddess on a daily basis. He took her to lunch and became angry if Ms. Robinson did not eat lunch with him. Additionally, for a period of several weeks, he shook Ms. Robinson’s hand on a daily basis to experience physical contact with her.”

Id. at 330. The court also relied on the fact that, as Judge Sappington’s secretary and court clerk, plaintiff had to work closely with him. Id. at 331.

2. A Case in Which the Court of Appeals Replicated the Lower Court’s Plain Mistake

Fitzgerald v. Action, Inc., 521 F.3d 867, 876-77, 103 FEP Cases 30, 44 EB Cases 1096 (8th Cir. 2008), affirmed the grant of summary judgment to the ADEA defendant despite discriminatory remarks. “According to Fitzgerald, during the course of his employment, Easley told him they were getting ‘too old for that type of work’ and ‘needed to retire.’” . . . Fitzgerald claims after the incident with Yandell, Easley’s ‘mood changed.’ . . . Instead of referring to both of them, Easley began to comment Fitzgerald was getting ‘too old for the job’ and ‘needed to retire.’ . . . In addition, when asked who Action hired to replace Fitzgerald, Easley stated he could not remember exactly who, but he ‘usually [didn’t] hire older guys … because [younger guys] are cheaper to work, cheaper labor.’” Id. at 876. The court continued:

“’Stray remarks’ standing alone do not give rise to an inference of discrimination. . . . But, neither are they irrelevant. . . . ‘[S]uch comments are ‘surely the kind of fact which could cause a reasonable trier of fact to raise an eyebrow, thus providing additional threads of evidence that are relevant to the jury.’ . . . When combined with other evidence, stray remarks ‘constitute circumstantial evidence that … may give rise to a reasonable inference of age discrimination.’ . . . ”

Id. at 876-77. The court held that no inference of age discrimination could be drawn because plaintiff’s ERISA comparator, an employee three years younger with far worse conduct who had no pending surgery and was retained, was in the protected age group, and because of a “same company” extension of the “same decisionmaker” rule. “Further, Action hired Fitzgerald when he was fifty and terminated him when he was fifty-two. We have noted it is unlikely a supervisor would hire an older employee and then discriminate on the basis of age, and such evidence creates a presumption against discrimination.” (Citation omitted) The court concluded: “Under different circumstances, the remarks attributed to Easley might create an inference of discrimination. In this instance, however, they are insufficient to overcome the presumption created by the fact Action hired Fitzgerald at age fifty.” Id. at 877.

It seems to me that the court clearly went off the rails on the age discrimination claim. The derailment was in several steps. First, it classified the clear indications of age bias as “stray,” without ever identifying any facts or law that would bar the remarks from being considered as direct evidence of discrimination. Second, the court never addressed the fact that Easley seems to have been speaking to plaintiff within the scope of his employment, making his remarks admissions of discrimination. Third, the court never analyzed the permissibility of its rejection of probative evidence in light of Reeves. Its one cited decision that mentioned Reeves found that it was unnecessary to consider the permissibility of drawing the inference of discrimination based only on discriminatory remarks because there was other evidence suggesting discrimination. Fourth, the court never analyzed the fact that plaintiff’s comparator was three years younger than plaintiff. Fifth, the court never considered the claim as a combined age-plus-ERISA discrimination claim. Sixth, the court’s extension of the “same-actor” inference to a “same company” inference was unsupported by any analysis. Seventh, the court sat as a jury without even realizing it.

E. The Excessive Use of Summary Judgment Has Distorted the Law

When one steps back from the details of individual cases and looks at the rules of decision that have come into being in order to take close cases away from juries, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that defendants have offered to the courts as rules of thumb concepts that would be perfectly proper in jury arguments, and that the courts have fairly routinely accepted the jury arguments and hardened them into “no reasonable jury could disagree” rules of law. The rule of thumb concepts are then relied upon to destroy countless close cases until the Supreme Court disapproves them.
It is important to bear in mind that the disapproved concepts/rules of law are not simply substantive developments in the law that were ultimately disapproved; they were developed and accepted in order to allow evidence to be discarded. Discarded evidence cannot create a genuine dispute of material fact, and thus cannot stand in the way of granting summary judgment. Thus, these concepts/rules of law enable summary judgment to be granted in ever more close cases, depriving jurors of the opportunity to use common sense in weighing such concepts or rules of thumb against all the evidence in the case, and giving judges a standard that is then too often used indiscriminately.
There are numerous examples:

 The rulings that calling an adult African American man “boy” is not probative of racial discrimination unless it is accompanied by a derogatory adjective. This was disapproved in Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 546 U.S. 454, 456 (2006) (per curiam) (“Although it is true the disputed word will not always be evidence of racial animus, it does not follow that the term, standing alone, is always benign. The speaker’s meaning may depend on various factors including context, inflection, tone of voice, local custom, and historical usage. Insofar as the Court of Appeals held that modifiers or qualifications are necessary in all instances to render the disputed term probative of bias, the court’s decision is erroneous.”)

 The rulings that comparing the qualifications of the plaintiff and the successful candidate is not probative of discrimination unless the difference is extreme. This was disapproved in Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 546 U.S. 454, 457 (2006) (per curiam) (“Under this Court’s decisions, qualifications evidence may suffice, at least in some circumstances, to show pretext.”)

 The rulings that comparators must be virtually identical to the plaintiffs before the comparison can be probative of discrimination. This was disapproved in Miller-El v. Dretke, 545 U.S. 231 (2005), which reversed the denial of habeas corpus and held that petitioner had shown racial discrimination in the prosecutor’s peremptory challenges by clear and convincing evidence. The Court cited Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, id. at 241, underscoring the relevance of this decision to employment law. The Court stated: “None of our cases announces a rule that no comparison is probative unless the situation of the individuals compared is identical in all respects, and there is no reason to accept one. Nothing in the combination of Fields’s statements about rehabilitation and his brother’s history discredits our grounds for inferring that these purported reasons were pretextual. A per se rule that a defendant cannot win a Batson claim unless there is an exactly identical white juror would leave Batson inoperable; potential jurors are not products of a set of cookie cutters.” Id. at 247 n.6.

 The rulings that biased remarks are not probative of discrimination unless they are made by the decisionmaker, about the plaintiff, at the same time as the challenged employment action, and with specific reference to the challenged employment action. This was disapproved in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 151–53 (2000). The Court held that the following remarks, as well as more favorable treatment of a younger employee, were probative of “age-based animus” by Chesnut, a key decisionmaker: “Petitioner testified that Chesnut had told him that he ‘was so old [he] must have come over on the Mayflower’ and, on one occasion when petitioner was having difficulty starting a machine, that he ‘was too damn old to do [his] job.’” Id. at 151. The Court disapproved of the Fifth Circuit’s holding that these remarks were stray remarks that were not probative of discrimination:

In holding that the record contained insufficient evidence to sustain the jury’s verdict, the Court of Appeals misapplied the standard of review dictated by Rule 50. Again, the court disregarded critical evidence favorable to petitioner—namely, the evidence supporting petitioner’s prima facie case and undermining respondent’s nondiscriminatory explanation. . . . The court also failed to draw all reasonable inferences in favor of petitioner. For instance, while acknowledging “the potentially damning nature” of Chesnut’s age-related comments, the court discounted them on the ground that they “were not made in the direct context of Reeves’s termination.”
Id. at 152 (citation omitted.)

 The rulings that there is a strong presumption against discrimination if the plaintiff was hired or promoted by the same person who later fired or demoted the plaintiff. This is the strong form of the rule, exemplified in Proud v. Stone, 945 F.2d 796 (4th Cir. 1991).

 The rulings that no plaintiff can claim sexual harassment unless the harassment was so severe that it would be expected to affect seriously the plaintiff’s psychological well-being. This was disapproved in Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 22 (1993) (“But Title VII comes into play before the harassing conduct leads to a nervous breakdown. A discriminatorily abusive work environment, even one that does not seriously affect employees’ psychological well-being, can and often will detract from employees’ job performance, discourage employees from remaining on the job, or keep them from advancing in their careers.”).

 The rulings that after-acquired evidence of the plaintiff’s wrongdoing automatically bars all relief and requires dismissal of the case, in a sort of trespasser-in-the-workplace approach. This was disapproved in McKennon v. Nashville Banner Pub. Co., 513 U.S. 352 (1995).
These distortions in the law injure countless numbers of plaintiffs with meritorious claims, and it can take years or decades before such jury arguments/concepts are dethroned from their positions as no-reasonable-jury rules of law.
These distortions will only increase if the grant of summary judgment is made mandatory in any circumstances.

F. The Abuse of Summary Judgment Threatens Respect for the Courts

The courts are the branch of government most respected by the people of our country, and are important in maintaining a strong shared sense of the legitimacy of all of our institutions.

The image of the courts is thus important to the country as a whole. Much of the high regard in which the courts are held stems from the basic concept that every person is entitled to his or her day in court, where they can testify in the sight of all, present evidence, and stand on the same footing as even the most powerful of defendants. Bureaucrats who toil out of sight, and hand down their decisions based on the papers presented to them, enjoy no such respect.

When a major part of the business for which our judicial system was established is no longer done in open court, where all can hear the witnesses and see the evidence presented, and is instead done in bureaucratic fashion without live testimony in open proceedings, there may be a major price to pay, in terms of diminished respect for the courts and their rulings, and diminished retention of judges. The nation as a whole would suffer from such a result, and it is important to keep in mind the price to be paid when we abandon jury trials open to all for resolutions arrived in chambers closed to the public.
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On September 10, 2007, the American Arbitration Association added Richard Seymour to its roster of Commercial Arbitrators and its roster of Employment Panel arbitrators. As a result, he is now available to arbitrate cases under the AAA Commercial Rules and under its Employment Rules.

Here are some of the obvious questions and his perhaps less obvious answers:

Question: Why?

Answer: I’ve been representing plaintiffs in individual cases and class actions, and have sometimes been aligned with employers defending affirmative action, for almost 38 years since I left the government. In that time, I’ve had some class cases that took more than 20 to 25 years to resolve. I’ve had some individual cases that took three or more years to resolve. I read a lot of appellate cases for the book I do for the American Bar Association, and have seen individual cases take ten or more years to resolve through appeals and remands to the trial court, and retrials and new appeals and new remands to the trial court, and on and on.

Many cases take less time to resolve, but still take a lot of time. The average case takes about a year to resolve in the Federal trial courts, but an appeal can add a year or two and a substantial number of appeals now result in new proceedings in the trial court.

That amount of time sounds bad in the abstract, but for some cases is even worse than it sounds. Delay eats away at the plaintiff in the dispute, and occupies the time of managers for far too long. If there are any lessons to be learned about doing things differently, the lessons are taught too late to avoid the same kinds of mistakes from happening during the years the lawsuit is alive.

Some disputes involve issues that should be resolved in public, with judges and juries. Some disputes need to be resolved in a way that sets a clear standard for everyone’s conduct, so those parties and many others can guide their conduct by the result.

For ordinary disputes that just need to get resolved, however, the speed of reaching a just outcome is very important.

Question: You’re on record as opposing mandatory arbitration required as a condition of employment or of purchasing a consumer product. How do you reconcile that with becoming an arbitrator?

Answer: The courts enforce such clauses, so it is important that there be balanced panels of arbitrators to resolve the disputes. In addition, I think the future of arbitration is best assured if all sides come to see it—for at least some types of cases—as faster and cheaper than litigation while being at least as just. I would like to help bring that about.

Question: But why you?

Answer: If close to four decades at the bar have taught me anything, it is how to get to the essential parts of a case fairly quickly. If my activities with the American Bar Association, my co-authorship with defense lawyers, my occasional service as a mediator, and my shaping complex consent decrees with opposing counsel have taught me anything, it is how to understand the perspectives of both sides, and how to see both sides of an argument.

In addition, I think the experience will be enjoyable.

Question: Enjoyable for whom?

Answer: The goal would be to make it as enjoyable as possible for all the participants, given that there is a real dispute that has to be resolved. Attorneys will immediately recognize what I’m saying. Some judges have great judicial demeanor, and leave everyone who has appeared before them—parties, witnesses, and counsel—feeling valued and listened to, and feeling that their side received a “fair shake.” The sting of a loss is much less when administered by that kind of person. I know some arbitrators who I think do the same, and that’s the model I want to follow.

Question: Why the American Arbitration Association in particular?

Answer: Two reasons. First, I really want there to be a buffer between me and any counsel or party to an arbitration. The AAA case managers provide that buffer for communications and financial matters.

Second, last February I went through the Commercial Arbitrator training offered by the American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution. We spent three days largely going through the American Bar Association’s Commercial Rules, with some time on the Employment Rules. I was impressed by their usefulness.

Before going through that training, I had been thinking of a number of arbitration providers. After the training and further research, I thought the AAA would be the best match.

Question: Are you available to arbitrate anywhere?

Answer: Yes. If the parties want me in particular and jointly request me, I am willing to travel.

Question: Minnesota in December? Alaska in January? Texas in August?

Answer: Yes (gulp).

Question: Are you going to continue to represent employees and executives?

Answer: Certainly. That part of my practice is much too enjoyable to think of leaving it. In addition, I think that continuing to practice will help keep me current.

Question: Do you have a short resume?

Answer: See below. More information can be found on my web site,

www.rickseymourlaw.com

.

Question: How does one contact the AAA?

Answer: The web site of the American Arbitration Association is

www.adr.org

. The site contains a lot of information, including contact information.

RESUME OF RICHARD SEYMOUR

LAW OFFICE OF RICHARD T. SEYMOUR, P.L.L.C.
1150 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20036-4129
E-Mail: rick@rickseymourlaw.net
Voice: 202-862-4320 Fax: 800-805-1065 Cell: 202-549-1454

Curriculum Vitae of Richard T. Seymour

Education:

A.B., Aquinas College, 1965
J.D., Harvard University, 1968

Awards:

Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association, Lawyer of the Year 2007

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Edwin Wolf Award

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Houston Chapter, Int’l Association of Black Professional Firefighters

Boards:

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Board of Directors, 2006-present; former member, Board of Trustees

College of Labor and Employment Lawyers, Board of Governors, 1996-2002; Fellow

American Bar Association, Section of Labor and Employment Law (former member of governing Council; currently elected Liaison to ABA for Governance)

American Association for Justice (formerly ATLA):

Elected officer, then Chair, Employment Rights Section, 2003-2004

Elected Vice-Chair, Section Leaders Council, 2003-2004

Elected Chair, Section Leaders Council, 2004-2005

Appointments:

American Bar Association, Presidential Appointment, Class Action Task Force, 2002-2004

American Association for Justice (formerly ATLA), Presidential Appointments:

Vice-Chair, Section and Litigation Group Coordination Committee, 2004-2005

Chair, Section and Litigation Group Coordination Committee, 2005-2006,
2006-2007, and 2007-present

Other Bar Positions:

Plaintiffs’ Co-Chair, ABA Labor and Employment Law Section CLE Committee, 1995-1998

Plaintiffs’ Co-Chair, Annual Meeting Committee of CLE Committee, ABA Labor and Employment Law Section, 1994-1995

Plaintiff’s Co-Chair, Equal Employment Opportunity Committee, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law, 1991-1994

Former member, ABA Labor and Employment Law Section Task Force on Providing Training to Incoming Federal Judicial Law Clerks

Teaching:

Former Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, 1991-1993

Employment:

Law Office of Richard T. Seymour, P.L.L.C. , Washington, D.C., June 2005-present
(Class actions in employment law and collective wage & hour actions; individual cases; representation of executives)

Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, Washington, D.C., Feb. 2001-May 2005 (Class actions in employment law and collective wage & hour actions)

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Director, Government Employment Project and then Employment Discrimination Project, Jan. 1977-Feb. 2001 (Class actions in employment law, and some individuals)

Solo practice, Oct. 1973-Jan. 1977 (Class actions in employment law)

Washington Research Project, Inc., staff attorney, Oct. 1969-Sept. 1973 (Class actions in employment law; school desegregation)

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Attorney, May 1968-Sept. 1969

Publications (partial list):

SEYMOUR & ASLIN, EQUAL EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATE (Co-Author; formerly Seymour & Brown) (BNA, fourteen editions, 1996-2007, copyright American Bar Association, 1996-2007)

Pursuing Punitive Damages in Job Bias Cases, TRIAL (July 2002)

The Shrinking Door to Discovery, TRIAL (May 2001)

16 Summary Judgment Commandments, TRIAL (Dec. 2000)

Chapter, Monetary Relief, in Lindemann and Grossman, EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION LAW, 3D ED. (BNA)

Chapter, Mediating Class Actions: A Plaintiff Lawyer’s View, in Norman Brand, ed., HOW ADR WORKS (BNA, 2002).

The Loss of Predictability in EEO Litigation, and Further Questions to Be Resolved, in EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION AFTER THE 1989 U.S. SUPREME COURT RULINGS (Prentice Hall, 1989)

Why Plaintiffs’ Counsel Challenge Tests, and How They can Successfully Challenge the Theory of Validity Generalization, 33 J. VOC. BEHAVIOR 331 (1988)

Other Organizations (partial list):

National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Committee on the General Aptitude Test Battery (then member, Liaison Group) (Committee’s Report published as FAIRNESS IN EMPLOYMENT TESTING (National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1989)
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (former Co-Chair, Employment Task Force)

Speaking (partial list):

ALI-ABA; ABA Sections of Labor and Employment Law, Business Law, and Trial, Tort & Insurance Law; Brookings Institution/American Enterprise Institute Conference for State Business Court Judges; National Employment Lawyers’ Association; Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers’ Association and various local plaintiffs’ bar groups; American Association of Justice Employment Rights Section; Federal Judicial Center/New York University Law School; Georgetown University Law Center; and particular Sections of Arizona, Atlanta, Chicago, Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Houston, King County (Washington), Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin Bars

Sample Resolved Cases:

Sines v. Service Corp. Int’l (S.D. N.Y.) (class action under New York Labor Law and collective action under FLSA, enforcing the overtime rights of licensed funeral directors and other employees of defendants in funeral homes and support services in New York; $4.45 million settlement for back pay, liquidated damages, interest, fees, and costs)

Huneycutt v. Consolidated Freightways (C.D. Calif. Bankruptcy Court; S.D. Ind.) (Title VII gender discrimination class action estimated by settlement at $ 4 million and paid by settlement at 15% ($600,000) for women denied jobs as truck drivers)

Pegues v. Mississippi State Employment Service (N.D.Miss.) (first findings of classwide racial discrimination by any State Employment Service in the country against applicants seeking referrals to employers with jobs, first such findings of classwide sexual discrimination; $5.8 million litigated award to more than 700 claimants)

Sledge v. J.P. Stevens & Co. (E.D.N.C.) ($20 million settlement for 2,900 back pay claimants in racial discrimination case involving facilities in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina)

Bogan v. Fleetwood Enterprises (D. Idaho) (settlement of nationwide sex discrimination and sexual harassment class action for prospective relief)

Brewer v. Miller Brewing Co. (N.D. N.Y.) ($2.7 million in compensatory damages to 97 former black employees harmed by co-worker racial harassment)

Dowdell v. Ona Corp. (N.D. Ala.) ($2.5 million settlement for 142 former black employees harmed by co-worker racial harassment)

Edwards v. City of Houston (S.D. Tex.) (consent decree, and defense of consent decree, providing 106 remedial promotions to African-American and Hispanic police officers harmed by discriminatory promotional tests and related litigation) (five Fifth Circuit arguments, one of them en banc)

Lewis v. Bloomsburg Mills, 773 F.2d 561 (4th Cir. 1985) (reversal of findings of nondiscrimination)

Luevano v. Campbell (D.D.C.) (knocked out Federal government’s nationwide hiring test for 118 professional, technical, and administrative occupational series), and many others.

Update, Sept. 21, 2007: Defendants have moved for reconsideration, and the briefing is complete. We are waiting for a decision.

———-

In April 2007, I joined Alan Fuchsberg of the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Firm in New York City, in representing the plaintiffs and their class in a case claiming failure to pay overtime to carpet installers in the New York City area. The case, Byfield and Lee v. ABC Carpets, had originally been filed in February 2000 under the Fair Labor Standards Act and the New York Labor Law. The court had previously denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment, and had previously certified the class and approved the collective action. The defendants maintain that the installers are independent contractors, not employees, and that therefore they were not required to pay overtime. That issue will be resolved at trial.

On August 6, 2007, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan approved plaintiffs’ plan for Class Notice, requiring defendants to make their records available to allow notice to be sent, allowing plaintiffs’ counsel to communicate with class members, and approving the text of plaintiffs’ proposed Class Notice.

The New York Labor Law claims go back to February 9, 1994, six years before the filing of suit. The Fair Labor Standards Act claims are subject to a two-year period of limitations, which can be extended to three years if the violation of the FLSA is willful, and the period of limitations keeps running until each individual files a Consent Form allowing his or her individual rights to be litigated within the FLSA “collective action.”

Here, the court granted plaintiffs’ request that the period of limitations be tolled on equitable grounds, effectively bringing a much longer period within the scope of the FLSA. The Order stated in part:

“3. The Court determines that equitable tolling is proper from September 26, 2000, to date, for the filing of consent forms, because of the agreement of counsel, in a document made known to the Court, that counsel for plaintiffs would not contact those Carpet Installation Mechanics who were currently working with defendants without going through defense counsel, and defendants’ continuation of that agreement to the present.”

“4. If for any reason an appellate court determines that equitable tolling from September 26, 2000, to date is not proper, the Court determines that equitable tolling is proper from October 31, 2000, to date, because of defendants’ refusal on that date to provide the name, last known address and telephone number of each Carpet Installation Mechanic, as plaintiffs had requested in discovery, and defendants’ continuation of that refusal to the present.”

This should allow a much more complete remedy, if plaintiffs can prove their claims.

The Court has not decided any issue on the merits, so a trial will be necessary to see if plaintiffs win or lose.

Note: Past results are no guarantee of future results, because the outcome of cases depends on the facts and the law applicable to those cases.

Note for Alabama residents: The State Bar requires the following statement: “No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.”

Richard T. Seymour
Law Office of Richard T. Seymour, P.L.L.C.
1150 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20036-4129
Voice: 202-862-4320
Cell: 202-549-1454
Facsimile: 800-805-1065 and 202-828-4130
e-mail: rick@rickseymourlaw.net
Web Site: www.rickseymourlaw.com

Barry Macey of Indianapolis and I have been working for years on a nationwide Title VII sex discrimination suit against Consolidated Freightways for discrimination against women applying for jobs requiring the driving of a truck. My favorite story involves the hiring of a husband-and-wife team for over-the-road hauling. While the company had to take the wife in order to get the husband, they showed what they thought of her by requiring only her, during the 12-driver orientation class, to demonstrate that she knew how to put chains on a truck tire. All well and good, but the tire was mounted on an twelve-foot pole she had to shinny up. The tire was mounted horizontally. She did it, and then she and her husband walked out.

Like other unionized trucking companies, CF had difficulty competing with non-union operations, many of which pay their drivers a fraction of the Teamsters rates and provide few or no benefits.

The company declared bankruptcy on Labor Day, 2002, a couple of weeks before we were to file our motion for class certification. My former firm, Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, public-spiritedly continued to prosecute the case after CF’s bankruptcy through my departure on June 1, 2005, and I am grateful to it.

We filed a class proof of claim in bankruptcy court, key-punched the names and addresses of all applicants we knew were women, took testing records from two contractors of the company, hired an expert to identify first names that were virtually always held by males, and sent our own informal notice to about everyone else who applied (about five thousand persons), with information on what the records showed, an explanation of the claim, an explanation of bankruptcy procedures, and a fill-in-the-blanks affidavit for applicants who were female, supporting the class, appointing me as their attorney in fact, and directing me to file an individual claim on their behalf in case the bankruptcy court did not certify the class. All told, the four plaintiffs were joined by 189 other timely claimants. That critical mass allowed us to negotiate with the other side.

Keeping track of over-the-road truckers presents special challenges, because they earn very low pay, are sometimes home for only a few days in a calendar quarter, and move from city to city and state to state fairly often. Fir five years, I’ve been sending them update letters, and taking a lot of calls.

We ultimately settled the case for an agreed valuation of four million dollars, to be paid at 15% of the estimated value ($600,000), payable in one lump sum rather than the six to seven years other unsecured creditors will be paid over.

Most of the post-bankruptcy work was pro bono, because we limited our fees and expenses to 40%, and that was not even enough to reimburse the out-of-pocket expenses incurred before the bankruptcy filing.

BUT, we obtained $360,000 for the plaintiffs and their class, with each of the named plaintiffs receiving $5,000, the class members who submitted declarations or were deposed receiving $2,500, the 180 other women who filed timely claims each receiving $1,533, and the 19 women who missed the bankruptcy deadline for filing proofs of claim receiving $1,000 each. No class members opted out, and only one filed an objection.

Would that it the relief had been greater, but the plaintiffs and class members have had to work hard for every dollar they’ve ever earned and even these amounts are enough to make a difference in some of their lives.

The Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California held its hearing on final approval by telephone, and the objector participated by telephone. The court granted final approval, and the funds were distributed in May 2007.

Two Lessons Learned:
# 1. Bankruptcy claims can sometimes have real value, if we do persevere.
# 2. Still, solvent defendants are best.

Note: Past results are no guarantee of future results, because the outcome of cases depends on the facts and the law applicable to those cases.

Note for Alabama residents: The State Bar requires the following statement: “No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.”

Richard T. Seymour
Law Office of Richard T. Seymour, P.L.L.C.
1150 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 900
Washington, D.C. 20036-4129
Voice: 202-862-4320
Cell: 202-549-1454
Facsimile: 800-805-1065 and 202-828-4130
e-mail: rick@rickseymourlaw.net
Web Site: www.rickseymourlaw.com