Celestine v. Petroleos de Venezuella

• Decision Date: 18 September 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-30171,00-30171
• Parties: (5th Cir. 2001) AUDREY T. CELESTINE, WILTON GUILLORY; ANGEL ANN LEBLANC; EDWINA M. HARRIS; PATRICIA A. PITRE; ET AL., Plaintiffs-Appellants, and HILLERY RANDELL; JONATHAN ANDERSON, Movants-Appellants, and LEO REEDER; RUSSELL METOYER; DANIEL L. COX, SR., Intervenors-Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELLA SA; ET AL., Defendants, CITGO PETROLEUM CORP., Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 343

266 F.3d 343 (5th Cir. 2001)

AUDREY T. CELESTINE, WILTON GUILLORY; ANGEL ANN LEBLANC; EDWINA M. HARRIS; PATRICIA A. PITRE; ET AL., Plaintiffs-Appellants and HILLERY RANDELL; JONATHAN ANDERSON, Movants-Appellants and LEO REEDER; RUSSELL METOYER; DANIEL L. COX, SR., Intervenors-Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. PETROLEOS DE VENEZUELLA SA; ET AL., Defendants, CITGO PETROLEUM CORP., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 00-30171

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

For the Fifth Circuit

September 18, 2001

REVISED OCTOBER 5, 2001

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Appeal from the United States District Court For the Western District of Louisiana

Before JONES, DeMOSS, and BENAVIDES, Circuit Judges.

DeMOSS, Circuit Judge:

This case concerns allegations of workplace racism directed at African Americans at the CITGO Petroleum Corporation's ("CITGO") Lake Charles, Louisiana plant. After the district court denied class certification, the appellants proceeded forward with the action as a series of individual claims. The district court subsequently granted summary motion in favor of the defendant CITGO on these claims. Plaintiffs now appeal from this grant by the district court.

BACKGROUND

On May 21, 1993, two hundred and six plaintiffs filed suit against CITGO alleging that a pattern and practice of racial discrimination existed in CITGO's hiring, promotions and training at its Lake Charles plant. These plaintiffs also brought Title VII hostile work environment claims. In September 1993, the plaintiffs filed a motion for the certification of a class estimated to contain more than 1,000 potential members. All of the members of the proposed class were either African American employees, both current and former, or unsuccessful applicants for employment at CITGO's sprawling Lake Charles complex. The district court referred the case to a magistrate judge for consideration of the class certification issue.

Following a hearing, the magistrate judge informed the parties that he was considering recommending to the district court a sua sponte grant of summary judgment to CITGO on the "hostile work environment" claims, and invited the plaintiffs to submit summary judgment evidence supporting their position. In total, forty-four plaintiffs came forward with evidence indicating the existence of a hostile work environment. The magistrate examined the summary judgment evidence offered by each of these forty-four individual plaintiffs and concluded that no reasonable trier of fact could find that the plaintiffs had established that there was intentional, pervasive, and regular racial discrimination of which CITGO's supervisors and management were aware and which CITGO permitted to continue. The magistrate judge therefore recommended that summary judgment be granted to CITGO on all forty-four of these hostile work environment claims. On July 12, 1996, the district court accepted the magistrate judge's recommendation and granted summary judgment to CITGO on these claims.

During this same period, the magistrate judge recommended the denial of class certification on the Title VII racial discrimination for failure to hire, promote and train claims. The district court again accepted the magistrate judge's report, and denied class certification. The plaintiffs filed an interlocutory appeal to this Court, which affirmed the district court's denial of class certification. Allison v. CITGO Petroleum Corp., 151 F.3d 402, 426 (5th Cir. 1998). On October 2, 1998, this Court denied the appellants' motion for rehearing en banc on the class certification issue.

With class certification denied, this case proceeded forward as a series of individual claims. The claims of the three plaintiffs who worked in the refinery lab were consolidated, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a). The refinery lab discrimination case was tried to a jury on October 18-20, 1999, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of defendant CITGO.

A second group of thirty-six failure to promote and train racial discrimination claims was also consolidated, with this group containing the claims of the refinery maintenance workers. CITGO filed a motion for partial summary judgment on the issue of temporal scope, asserting that the continuing violation doctrine, a device which would allow incidents of racial discrimination from outside the relevant time period to be considered, did not apply. On January 3, 2000, the appellants filed their opposition to this motion.

CITGO filed a second motion for summary judgment on December 28, 1999, this time seeking outright summary judgment on each of the thirty-six refinery maintenance workers' failure to promote and train claims. On January 11, 2000, the district court granted both of CITGO's motions for summary judgment, ruling that the continuing violation doctrine was inapplicable and granting summary judgment on each of the failure to promote and hire discrimination claims.

These African American CITGO employee plaintiffs now appeal both the July 1996 grant of summary judgment on their hostile work environment claims and the January 2000 grant of summary judgment on their failure to promote and train claims. The October 1999 jury verdict in the refinery lab failure to promote and train case is not appealed.

DISCUSSION

Standard of review

A grant of summary judgment is reviewed de novo. Hanks v. Transcon. Gas Pipe Line Corp., 953 F.2d 996, 997 (5th Cir. 1992). The party seeking summary judgment carries the burden of demonstrating that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case. Celotex v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554 (1986). After a proper motion for summary judgment has been made, a nonmovant must bring forward sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a genuine issue of material fact exists for every element of a claim. Fontenot v. Upjohn Co., 780 F.2d 1190, 1196 (5th Cir. 1986). For summary judgment purposes, all evidence produced by the nonmovant is taken as true and all inferences are drawn in the nonmovant's favor. Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 158-59, 90 S.Ct. 1578, 1609-10 (1970); Pitts v. Shell Oil Co., 463 F.2d 331, 335 (5th Cir. 1972). This Court reviews the evidentiary rulings of the district court "only for abuse of discretion." EEOC v. Manville Sales Corp., 27 F.3d 1089, 1092-93 (5th Cir. 1994).

The granting of summary judgment for CITGO under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c)

Appellants object to the district court's January 11, 2000, grant of summary judgment on the failure to promote and train claims because they were not allotted the full ten days provided by Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) to respond to CITGO's motion for summary judgment.

CITGO filed a motion for summary judgment on December 28, 1999, seeking summary judgment on each of the thirty-six refinery maintenance workers' failure to promote and train claims. On December 29, 1999, the district court advised the appellants that their response to CITGO's motion for summary judgment was due within 15 days after service, and that due to the fast-encroaching trial scheduled for February 28, 2000, no extensions would be given. On January 11, 2000, appellants counsel filed a motion for an extension of time to respond to CITGO's motion for summary judgment seeking to extend the deadline until January 31, 2000.

The district court immediately responded by issuing an order denying the request for an extension of time to respond. That same day, January 11, the district court granted CITGO's motion for summary judgment on the failure to promote and train claims.

As computed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 6(a),¹ there were not the requisite ten days provided by Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) between the filing of the motion for summary judgment on December 28, 1999, and the district court's grant of summary judgment on January 11, 2000. For this reason, the appellants urge that the January 11, 2000, grant of summary judgment be reversed.

This court has repeatedly explained that strict enforcement of the ten day notice requirement of Rule 56(c) is necessary because summary judgment is a final adjudication on the merits. See, e.g., Powell v. United States, 849 F.2d 1576, 1579 (5th Cir. 1988); Underwood v. Hunter, 604 F.2d 367, 369 (5th Cir. 1979). This Court has reasoned that because "a summary judgment forecloses any future litigation of a case, the district court must give proper notice to insure that the nonmoving party had the opportunity to make every possible factual and legal argument." Powell, 849 F.2d at 1579.

However, it is also possible for the district court's denial of this ten day period to be harmless error: "It appears clear that error in notice is harmless if the nonmoving party admits that he has no additional evidence anyway or if . . . the appellate court evaluates all of the nonmoving party's additional evidence and finds no genuine issue of material fact." Powell, 849 F.2d at 1581. The appellants do not point to any new evidence which they would have included in their response to CITGO's motion for summary judgment had they been allowed to respond on January 12 or 14, 2000, as they urge. In the absence of any new evidence which would have been presented to the district court if appellants had been allowed a full ten days to respond, the district court's error was harmless.

The temporal scope of this action, for both the hostile work environment and racial discrimination claims

The district court concluded that the relevant time period for this lawsuit was April 29, 1992, to May 24, 1994. This time frame applied to both the appellants' hostile work environment and failure to promote and train claims. Having defined the temporal scope of the lawsuit, the district court refused to look at incidents falling outside this period.

The method utilized by the district court in calculating this time period was clear and correct. As...