Stewart v. City of Pontotoc, Miss.

• Decision Date: 16 August 1978
• Docket Number: No. WC 75-87-K.,WC 75-87-K.
• Citation: 461 F. Supp. 767
• Parties: Janice STEWART, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF PONTOTOC, MISSISSIPPI, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Mississippi

461 F. Supp. 767

Janice STEWART, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF PONTOTOC, MISSISSIPPI, et al., Defendants.

No. WC 75-87-K.

United States District Court, N. D. Mississippi, W. D.

August 16, 1978.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Charles Victor McTeer, Greenville, Miss., for plaintiff.

William L. Sneed, Pontotoc, Miss., William A. Allain, Jackson, Miss., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KEADY, Chief Judge.

This employment discrimination suit based upon statutory and constitutional prohibitions thereof presents a serious challenge to this court's jurisdiction under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Since the resolution of this issue necessitates an understanding of the procedural history of the litigation, we direct our initial attention thereto.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On October 16, 1975,¹ the plaintiff filed an employment discrimination suit naming as defendants the City of Pontotoc, Mississippi, its Mayor, Howard Stafford, and Aldermen Charles Cummins, Lamar Roberts, Sr., Claude H. Owen, and Doyle Turner, as well as City Clerk Wright Haddox, charging that defendants had pursued policies and practices having the purpose and effect of denying blacks equal employment opportunities within the City Clerk's office. The case was begun as a class action on behalf of the named plaintiff and all other blacks who had applied for employment but were not hired by the Pontotoc City Clerk's office, as well as all blacks who had been dissuaded or deterred from applying for such employment because of defendants' denial of equal employment opportunities. Plaintiff invoked federal court jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3), (4), alleging causes of action based on 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983; plaintiff also asserted jurisdiction under Title VII. Plaintiff sought injunctive relief, actual and compensatory damages, and attorney fees, for the benefit of the class members.

On November 5, 1975, defendants filed their responsive pleading challenging the court's jurisdiction under Title VII because of plaintiff's failure to invoke jurisdictional prerequisites essential to maintain an action thereunder, denying that the suit was properly maintainable as a class action, and, in answering the factual allegations, denied that the defendants, or any of them, had maintained a racially discriminatory policy against hiring blacks within the several municipal departments, including the City Clerk's office.

After extensive discovery, plaintiff, on February 2, 1977, was granted 60 days additional time in support of her motion to have the action certified as a class action. On March 11, 1977, plaintiff moved to amend her complaint, alleging, among other things, that "the amended complaint does not differ substantially from the original complaint save the deletion of certain provisions regarding class claims." Three days later, the court granted plaintiff leave to amend her complaint to eliminate the class allegations contained therein. This order recited "counsel for defendants having advised the court that there is no objection to the proposed amendment, it appearing that this cause has not been certified as a class action, and that no notice of the suit has been furnished to the putative class, the court concludes that the amendment in the form attached as Exhibit "A" to plaintiff's motion should be allowed."

The amended complaint as filed, however, beside seeking to eliminate all class action allegations and thereby continue the suit only for plaintiff's individual claims, averred that on November 3, 1975, Janice Stewart filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging the denial by defendants of her rights under Title VII, and that on February 13, 1976, the United States Department of Justice issued a right to sue letter, which was attached as Exhibit "A" to the amended complaint. Defendants, on March 23, answered the amended complaint, again challenging the court's Title VII jurisdiction. Paragraph 3 of defendants' responsive pleading based their jurisdictional challenge upon the fact that "the plaintiff did not file the amended complaint within 90 days from the receipt of the letter dated February 13, 1976, from J. Stanley Pottinger, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice and therefore plaintiff has failed to invoke the jurisdictional prerequisites to bring an action under Title VII." Also, defendants reiterated their denials of racial discrimination in refusing to hire plaintiff or to consider her for employment in the City Clerk's office.

On April 26, 1977, a pretrial conference was held before the United States Magistrate, at which the defendants maintained their challenge to Title VII jurisdiction on the ground that the complaint was not amended within 90 days after receipt of the right to sue letter from the Department of Justice. At no time prior to trial on the merits did defendants request a separate hearing on their motion to dismiss plaintiff's Title VII claims by noticing their motion pursuant to our Local Rule G-8 in order to bring the matter, preliminarily, to the attention of the court in advance of trial; however, defendants maintained at trial on the merits that the court lacked Title VII jurisdiction.

During March 1978, the court conducted a full evidentiary hearing in a two and onehalf day trial, when both sides offered extensive oral and documentary evidence. Briefs of counsel having been submitted, the case is now ripe for decision on the merits. In accordance with Rule 52(a), F.R. Civ.P., the court makes findings of fact and conclusions of law as follows:

II. FINDINGS OF FACT

Janice Stewart, 21 years of age, and a graduate of Smith College, was single and resided at Pontotoc with her mother, Mrs. Earline Douglass. During the month of June, 1975, she secured employment as a clerk in the office of the North Mississippi Rural Legal Services at Oxford, which was 30 miles distant from her home. On July 7, she appeared at the office of Wright Haddox, City Clerk, to apply for employment in the City Clerk's office. Haddox told her that there were no vacancies, nor were job application forms available for her use. He did, however, provide her with a slip of paper and requested that she write her name, address and telephone number thereon. He advised plaintiff that the mayor and board of aldermen hired all personnel in the City Clerk's office and that he would place on the mayor's desk the paper containing her information. Apparently, the mayor was not in his office at the time, and plaintiff made no attempt to contact him directly. Haddox did advise plaintiff that Polly Johnson, a long-time worker in the City Clerk's office, was absent because of illness, but she was expected to return to work. After plaintiff left, Haddox did not check with the mayor to ascertain whether he saw the note concerning plaintiff and he thought no more about the matter, for at no time did he present to the mayor and board of aldermen plaintiff's request to be considered for employment in the City Clerk's office. The first information received by the mayor and aldermen that plaintiff had sought such employment was imparted to them by plaintiff's filing suit in this federal district court.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Johnson's sick leave was extended for the balance of July and all of August. On September 2, 1975, the city authorities, at the board meeting, directed Haddox to employ temporary help in order to cope with the increased workload in the clerk's office occurring during the fall months. Beside Haddox, the work force in the clerk's office consisted of two white females, Carolyn Lauderdale and Norma Faye Simmons. After authority was granted to the clerk to employ temporary help, Anne Simmons, the sister-in-law of Norma Faye Simmons, was hired in October 1975. On October 29, plaintiff filed her charge of racial discrimination in employment against the "Pontotoc City Government;" this charge was received by the Jackson EEOC office on November 3, 1975.²

At the December 2 board meeting it was stated that Mrs. Johnson's health continued to be poor and that she should be granted an extended leave of absence. The aldermen voted that "it would be in the best interest of the City of Pontotoc, Mississippi, to declare a temporary vacancy in the city clerk's office and secure someone to fill the vacancy until Mrs. Johnson is able to return to work." Apparently, in view of the pending suit by plaintiff, the aldermen directed the city attorney to notify plaintiff about the temporary vacancy and request that she submit a resume to the mayor. William Sneed, city attorney, testified at trial that he prepared such a communication and mailed it to plaintiff at her Pontotoc address, sending the mayor a copy of the letter, but not to plaintiff's counsel of record. Moreover, Sneed was unable to produce a copy of the letter at trial. Both the mayor and plaintiff testified, however, that they never received Sneed's letter.

When no response was forthcoming from plaintiff, Mayor Stafford testified that he contacted James Ford, a local black attorney, to request that he contact plaintiff at her known place of employment at Oxford with the NMRLS to ascertain if she was still interested in working at city hall and, if so, to advise him. Ford contradicted the mayor's testimony substantially. Ford testified that though the mayor did talk to him about city employment for plaintiff, he did not request that he, Ford, act as mediator to learn if plaintiff wanted to work for the city. Ford acknowledged, however, that shortly after conferring with the mayor, and while visiting at NMRLS offices in Oxford, he mentioned the matter to plaintiff, but did nothing more than to inquire how her employment suit against Pontotoc was coming along. He denied that he told plaintiff about the job opening and to contact Stafford if she were interested. Thus, according to plaintiff, she...