Roberts v. Union Company
| Decision Date | 21 November 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 73-1343.,73-1343. |
| Citation | 487 F.2d 387 |
| Parties | Betty Jane ROBERTS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The UNION COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
William D. Wells, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant; Irwin W. Barkan, Barkan, Barkan & Neff, Columbus, Ohio, on brief.
Elsa Dik Glass, E. E. O. C., Washington, D. C., for amicus curiae; William A. Carey, Gen. Counsel, Julia P. Cooper, Associate Gen. Counsel, Beatrice Rosenberg, Joseph T. Eddins, Attys., E. E. O. C., Washington, D. C., on brief.
Eugene L. Matan, Columbus, Ohio, for defendant-appellee.
Before PECK and McCREE, Circuit Judges, and O'SULLIVAN, Senior Circuit Judge.
This is an appeal from the dismissal of a class action brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. The complaint charges that appellee unlawfully discriminates on the basis of sex by paying female employees lower wages than those paid to men for equivalent work, and by its refusal to employ females in its men's clothing department. The class that appellant asserts she represents is composed of all women who are the victims of this discrimination.
The company asserts that its clothing department practice is justified as a bona fide occupational qualification because persons working there are required to fit the clothing they sell, a task that may necessitate touching intimate parts of a customer's body. The company avers that many of its customers would be embarrassed by having females fit their clothing.
The district court found that appellant's lower wages were justified by her sales record and by other non-culpable factors, but did not make an express finding on the hiring policy issue and determined that appellant could not maintain the action because she had voluntarily left appellee's employ and therefore lacked standing to represent the asserted class. The district court stated, "Since the plaintiff has not been deprived of the right which she endeavors to enforce on behalf of a class of female employees at the Union Company, and since she is not now working at the company, she is not a member of the proposed class and has no standing in court to represent it."
We hold that the district court erred in dismissing the class aspects of the action. First, dismissal of appellant's individual claim of discrimination is not dispositive, without more, of her standing to prosecute the class action. Huff v. N. D. Cass Company of...
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