Hines v. Widnall, 02-13267.

• Decision Date: 27 June 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-13267.,02-13267.
• Citation: 334 F.3d 1253
• Parties: Curtis HINES, Jr., Roosevelt Posey, Otto Mims, Otis Miller, William Owens, Plaintiffs-Appellants, Mary Helen Saulters, Plaintiff, v. Sheila WIDNALL, James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force, Defendants-Appellees, F. Whitten Peters, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

334 F.3d 1253

Curtis HINES, Jr., Roosevelt Posey, Otto Mims, Otis Miller, William Owens, Plaintiffs-Appellants Mary Helen Saulters, Plaintiff, v. Sheila WIDNALL, James G. Roche, Secretary of the Air Force, Defendants-Appellees F. Whitten Peters, Defendant.

No. 02-13267.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

June 27, 2003.

Hillel Neuer, Mark H. Alcott, Daniel J. Toal, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York City, Ralph Alan Peterson, Beggs & Lane, Pensacola, FL, Norman J. Chachkin, Elise Catharine Boddie, NAACP Legal Defense & Educ. Find, Inc., New York City, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Pamela A. Moine, Asst. U.S. Atty., Pensacola, FL, E. Bryan Wilson, Tallahassee, FL, Christopher D. Thurner, U.S. Air Force Armament Ctr., Eglin AFB, FL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.

Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, and KRAVITCH and GIBSON^*, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiffs-appellants Curtis Hines, Jr., Roosevelt Posey, Otto Mims, Mary Helen Saulters,¹ Otis Miller and William Owens (collectively "Appellants") appeal the district court's denial of class certification. Appellants sought to be certified to represent all former, current, and future African-American civilian employees and applicants at Eglin Air Force Base ("Eglin") in Pensacola, Florida. Over 4,000 civilian employees are employed at Eglin's four installations. The United States Air Force ("USAF" or "Appellee") selects and evaluates civilian applicants and employees using a centralized personnel ratings system based on algorithmic formulas that assign weights to such factors as qualifications and past performance. Evaluations of employees, which play a major role in the promotion and compensation system equations, are completed by immediate supervisors. Appellants contend that the USAF engaged in a pattern and practice of discrimination against African-Americans through its hiring, evaluation, and promotional practices at Eglin in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e.

In their complaint, Hines and Posey alleged that they were denied promotions and opportunities for advancement because of the USAF's alleged policy and practice of racial discrimination against African-Americans and sought to represent a class of African-American employees denied promotion and advancement at Eglin. Hines and Posey are employed as graphic artists — white collar non-professional positions — at Eglin's graphics shop. Mims, an African-American who worked as a civil service warehouse laborer in the Base Service Store, also sought to represent employees denied promotion because of their race. Miller and Owens, both African-American veterans, sought to represent class members who were allegedly denied employment at Eglin. Miller and Owens argued that they were qualified for the positions for which they applied and that the positions were ultimately filled by less qualified white applicants.

The district court denied Appellants' motion for class certification and this court denied interlocutory review in Hines v. Peters, 009-90012-1 (Nov. 8, 2000).² The district court subsequently entered summary judgment in favor of the USAF on the individual claims of plaintiffs Miller and Owens for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The district court dismissed the individual claims of Hines, Posey, and Mims with prejudice after the three entered into a settlement agreement with the USAF.³ Appellants only appeal the district court's denial of class certification.

Two issues are before us in this appeal: (1) whether the district court abused its discretion in denying class certification under Rule 23(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure ("FRCP") and (2) whether the district court was bound by the EEOC's grant of class status to Appellants.

A district court's decision whether or not to certify a class under Rule 23 of the FRCP is reviewed for abuse of discretion. See Prado-Steiman ex rel. Prado v. Bush, 221 F.3d 1266, 1278 (11th Cir.2000). As long as the district court's reasoning stays within the parameters of Rule 23's requirements for certification of a class, the district court decision will not be disturbed. See Shroder v. Suburban Coastal Corp., 729 F.2d 1371, 1374 (11th Cir.1984). When this court reviews class certification decisions, the fact that this court would grant class certification is irrelevant. Id. The only question before this court is whether the district court abused its discretion in denying the class certification motion. Id.

In order to certify a class under the FRCP, all of the requirements of Rule 23(a) must be met, as well as one requirement of Rule 23(b). See Murray v. Auslander, 244 F.3d 807, 810 n. 3 (11th Cir. 2001). In this case, Appellee does not dispute that Appellants met the requirement of Rule 23(b). The USAF contends, and the district court found, however, that Rule 23(a)'s requirements were not met.

Four elements are required for a class to be certified under Rule 23(a) of the FRCP: numerosity, commonality, typicality and adequacy of counsel. Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a). Appellants contend the district court abused its discretion in finding the named plaintiffs did not meet the commonality and typicality requirements in denying class certification. Thus, only two of the elements of Rule 23(a) — commonality and typicality — are at issue in this appeal. We first turn to the issue of typicality.

"[T]ypicality measures whether a sufficient nexus exists between the claims of the named representative and those of the class at large. Without individual standing to raise a legal claim, a named representative does not have the requisite typicality to raise the same claim on behalf of a class." Prado-Steiman, 221 F.3d at 1279. Therefore, "[a]ny analysis of class certification must begin with the issue of standing." Griffin v. Dugger, 823 F.2d 1476, 1482 (11th Cir.1987). Whether the named plaintiffs have standing to assert their claims is a "threshold legal issue subject to de novo review." Andrews v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 95 F.3d 1014, 1022 (11th Cir.1996); see also Piazza v. EBSCO Indus., Inc., 273 F.3d 1341, 1345 (11th Cir.2001). Accordingly, we must determine "that at least one named class representative has Article III standing to raise each class subclaim." Prado-Steiman, 221 F.3d at 1279.

The class complaint alleged that the USAF:

engaged in an intentional pattern of discrimination by failing to train, promote, hire, place, or select black persons for job positions at Eglin AFB, by retaliating against those who complained by imposing onerous terms and conditions of employment on blacks, by subordinating the qualifications o[f] black employees and applicants, and by otherwise manipulating the selection process and procedures and the organization of positions to prevent selection, promotion, hiring, placement, and assignment of black employees to job positions.

The named plaintiffs sought to bring disparate impact and disparate treatment claims on behalf of a putative class of both current and past African-American civilian employees of Eglin, as well as African-American applicants who were allegedly denied employment at Eglin.

In the third amended complaint, two applicants, Otis Miller and William Owens were named plaintiffs, as well as employees Posey, Hines, and Mims. The district court found that Miller and Owens did not have standing to raise the claims of applicants because of failure to exhaust available administrative remedies before filing suit. On appeal, Appellants contend that Miller⁴ should be excused from administrative exhaustion requirements because he sought help from the EEO office on two occasions and, on one of his visits, was told that Eglin would not accept a formal complaint while the instant class action was pending.⁵ Appellants also contend that equitable considerations should be taken into account and exhaustion excused when a plaintiff like Miller actively sought to preserve his rights. See Miller v. Marsh, 766 F.2d 490, 493 (11th Cir.1985)(applying equitable tolling to find plaintiff's complaint timely filed because plaintiff was "lulled" into pursuing other channels by EEO officials).

Miller does not qualify for an exception to the exhaustion requirement, however, because filing a complaint with the EEOC is a prerequisite to the equitable exceptions to administrative exhaustion. See Grier v. Sec'y of the Army, 799 F.2d 721, 724 (11th Cir.1986). The plaintiff in Grier, like Miller, argued that she should have been excused from the EEOC filing requirement because "she was counseled not to file such a charge by an Army personnel officer and the Atlanta Office of the EEOC." Id. at 724. This court found that even if Grier had, in fact, attempted to file "such equitable considerations are relevant to whether the timeliness requirement for filing a charge should be subject to equitable tolling, not whether a charge must ever be filed at all; it is her failure to exhaust or even begin her administrative remedies that bars her suit." Id. at 724 (emphasis added). Therefore, based on this court's decision in Grier, Miller's failure to file an EEOC claim absolutely bars his claims against the USAF, and accordingly, Miller and Owens lack standing to raise the class claims of unsuccessful applicants.

No question exists regarding the remaining three putative class representatives' standing. Hines and Posey filed an administrative complaint with the EEOC, and based on the single filing rule, see Griffin, 823 F.2d at 1492, Mims was not required to file an EEOC complaint. Although Hines, Posey, and Mims all settled individual claims with the USAF, they still have standing to appeal the denial of certification because the settlement agreement preserved their right to appeal the class certification decision. See Deposit Guar. Nat'l Bank v. Roper, 445 U.S. 326, 336-340, 100 S.Ct. 1166, 63...