Miller v. International Paper Company

• Decision Date: 09 November 1967
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 3416.
• Parties: James P. MILLER et al., Plaintiffs, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi

290 F. Supp. 401

James P. MILLER et al., Plaintiffs, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 3416.

United States District Court S. D. Mississippi, Southern Division.

November 9, 1967.

Marian E. Wright, Jackson, Miss., for plaintiffs.

Dixon Pyles, Jackson, Miss., C. W. Ford, Pascagoula, Miss., for defendants.

WILLIAM HAROLD COX, Chief Judge.

This suit was instituted under 42 U.S. C., 1958 ed., § 2000e et seq. for appropriate relief under the Employment Opportunities Provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Defendants interpose motions to dismiss for assigned reasons.

The action is instituted by and on behalf of named plaintiffs and other unnamed male negroes said to be too numerous to mention under Civil Rule 23. For the reasons hereinafter more specifically assigned, it is clear to this Court that a class action cannot be instituted and maintained under the procedural provisions of this enactment by any anonymous group of people. Specifically, no person is entitled to the benefits of the act who has not strictly complied with the conditions precedent to the right to institute a suit of this kind in a federal court. Section 2000e-5(e) (1) makes it abundantly clear that an aggrieved person must first file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and that such person claiming to be aggrieved shall within a given time institute a suit in a United States District Court to redress his grievance, if such action is to be instituted. This suit is purely statutory. It is a creature of statute and Congress as creator of such right of action has strictly and sharply defined its method of enjoyment. No class action may be maintained in a situation of this kind where it must be shown that each plaintiff has exhausted his administrative remedies, and has brought the consequent action within the time provided by statute. The questions of law and fact are thus not common to the entire class and the claims and defenses of the representative parties are not the same and are not entirely typical of the other claims and defenses as required by Civil Rule 23(a). The purpose and effect of a class action is incompatible with the requirements of this statutory scheme as a condition precedent to the right of enjoyment of its benefits. It is accordingly the considered view of this Court that this suit cannot be maintained as a class action.

The motion to dismiss will be treated as a motion for summary judgment, supported by the data attached to plaintiffs' brief showing that the charge of Joseph Smith was filed with the Commission on December 28, 1966; and that the charges of the other plaintiffs (Stallworth, Miller, Watson and Cannon) were filed with the Commission on December 12, 1966. Section 2000e-5(e) is not to be treated or considered as a statute of limitations, but as a time built in the statute as a condition precedent to the exercise of the right therein created.¹ The complaint was filed here on June 9, 1967, more than sixty days after the filing of the charges. The Commission, by its letter, did not have the power to extend or enlarge upon this statute by authorizing any suit to be filed after the time fixed in the statute as it may have undertaken to...