Taylor v. Teletype Corp.
| Decision Date | 15 June 1981 |
| Citation | 648 F.2d 1129 |
| Parties | 26 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 124, 25 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 31,789 Tommie W. TAYLOR, Larry C. Peyton, James H. Bibbs, Ike Bolden, Virginia Burke, Bowman Burns, Jr., Fred Donley, Ray Jackson, Ray Kennard, Will Simmons, William Walker, James Walters, Jr., Cato Conley, Joseph Harris and Earl Jones, Godfrey Hill, Appellees, v. TELETYPE CORPORATION, Appellant. Tommie W. TAYLOR; Virginia S. Burke; Earl Jones and William Jones Walker, Appellants, v. TELETYPE CORPORATION, Appellee. 79-2027, 80-1681 and 80-1658. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
James M. Staulcup, Jr., Skokie, Ill., G. Ross Smith, Little Rock, Ark. (argued), for appellant.
John T. Lavey, Perlesta A. Hollingsworth, Little Rock, Ark., for cross-appellants.
Before BRIGHT, STEPHENSON and McMILLIAN, Circuit Judges.
Tommie Taylor and Larry Peyton brought this action against Teletype Corporation (Teletype or the Company) alleging racial discrimination in the demotion of Company employees, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (1976). The district court permitted fourteen individuals to intervene and certified a class, comprised of all black employees who were demoted after February 28, 1974, designating these intervenors and the two named plaintiffs as the class representatives.
On August 29, 1979, the district court 1 determined that appellees had established a prima facie case of classwide discrimination for the years 1974 through 1976 but had failed to prove discrimination for the years 1977 through 1979. Taylor v. Teletype Corp., 475 F.Supp. 958 (E.D.Ark.1979). The district court also resolved the claims of the sixteen class representatives, finding discrimination in four of the cases. By its order of November 2, 1979, the court issued a permanent injunction against Teletype and ordered reinstatement of the four successful individuals with backpay. Taylor v. Teletype Corp., 478 F.Supp. 1227 (E.D.Ark.1979). On June 27, 1980, the court entered judgment on the individual claims and made certain awards of backpay, reinstatement, and attorney's fees. Taylor v. Teletype Corp., 492 F.Supp. 405 (E.D.Ark.1980).
In No. 79-2027, an interlocutory appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1), Teletype challenges the injunction and the findings of discrimination in the class and individual claims. In No. 80-1681, Teletype appeals the individual relief awarded to Tommie Taylor and Larry Peyton and the award of attorney's fees. Four of the unsuccessful individual claimants cross-appeal in No. 80-1658. We affirm the district court findings regarding discrimination in the class and individual claims in all but one case, vacate the permanent injunction, and remand for further proceedings.
The court and the parties accepted the findings of fact and conclusions of law in the related case of Hoard v. Teletype Corp., 450 F.Supp. 1059 (E.D.Ark.1978). That decision, therefore, forms the backdrop for this litigation.
The Hoard opinion, as well as the findings by Judge Arnold, detail a history of deliberate racial discrimination by the Company, beginning with Teletype's opening of the Little Rock plant in 1957. Although the law did not provide sanctions against such conduct before July 2, 1965, the effective date of the Civil Rights Act, Teletype continued to discriminate long after that date. At least until 1971, the Company continued to discriminate in hiring for certain entry level jobs. 2 Through 1974, the Company continued to discriminate in hiring for professional and supervisory positions and, through 1977, in promotions to positions above grade 96 and to supervisory positions. At the time of the Hoard trial, no black had ever served in an upper-level management position at the Little Rock plant, a category that included one vice president, two managers, three assistant managers, and twenty-two department chiefs. For the years 1971 through 1977, the period covered in the Hoard litigation, the trial judge found that Teletype had discriminated in the promotion of blacks to certain jobs, but that plaintiffs had failed to establish discrimination in other job promotions or in the Company's discharge practices. 3
The present litigation concerns Teletype's allegedly discriminatory demotion practices. As certified by the district court, the class includes:
Those black employees of the defendant who were demoted on or after February 28, 1974, including both bargaining-unit and non-bargaining-unit employees, and including those persons still employed by defendant and those employees no longer employed by defendant. (Taylor v. Teletype Corp., supra, 475 F.Supp. at 961.)
As previously noted, the court held that plaintiffs had succeeded in establishing a prima facie case of discrimination for the years 1974 through 1976, but had failed to prove discrimination for the years 1977 through 1979. Pursuant to these findings, Judge Arnold issued an injunction and instituted a procedure for individual members of the class to establish their entitlement to relief. The court also made specific findings regarding the sixteen individual claims of the named plaintiffs and the intervenors, granting relief in four cases but dismissing the remaining twelve.
On appeal, Teletype contends:
1) That the trial court's finding that plaintiffs established a prima facie case of discrimination rests on errors of law and clearly erroneous findings of fact;
2) That the court abused its discretion in permanently enjoining defendants from discriminating on the basis of race;
3) That the court erred in finding that the Company failed to rebut the claims of employees Taylor (second demotion), 4 Peyton, Bibbs, and Harris; and
4) That the court abused its discretion in ordering greater relief to Taylor and Peyton than was permissible under the evidence.
On their cross-appeal, plaintiffs challenge the court's finding that Teletype did not discriminate in the demotions of Virginia S. Burke, Earl Jones, and William James Walker and in Taylor's first demotion.
We first consider the challenge to the district court's conclusion that the class established a prima facie case of discrimination. 5 Essentially, Teletype argues that the district court's finding rested on insufficient evidence. We do not agree and therefore affirm the court's finding of classwide discrimination.
Teletype incorrectly views the district court's finding of discrimination as resting upon the Griggs theory of disparate impact. 6 The district court properly viewed these claims as alleging discriminatory treatment. Accordingly, the court considered relevant factors and concluded that Teletype had subjected the class of black employees to different treatment than white employees regarding demotions because of their race. 7 Our review of the record discloses sufficient evidence to support the court's finding of classwide discrimination. We turn now to an analysis of the relevant evidence on this issue produced at trial.
The court in part rested its finding on statistical evidence of layoffs, which suggested that a racially discriminatory pattern of layoffs existed for the years 1974 through 1976. During those years, according to appellees' statistician, Dr. Frank A. James, blacks accounted for 24.7 percent of those laid off, but only 20.4 percent of the work force. The demonstrated difference between the actual and expected number of blacks laid off yielded a standard deviation of 2.28, 8 within the two-to-three deviation figure suggested by the Supreme Court as acceptable statistical proof of discrimination. 9 Hazelwood School District v. United States, 433 U.S. 299, 308-09 n.14, 97 S.Ct. 2736, 2741-42 n.14, 53 L.Ed.2d 768 (1977). See also Hameed v. International Ass'n of Bridge, Structural and Ornamental Iron Workers, Local 396, 637 F.2d 506, 512-14 & nn. 8 & 9 (8th Cir. 1980).
Numbers must be statistically significant before one can properly conclude that any apparent racial disparity results from some factor other than random chance. If the disparity is established as statistically significant and race is the only evident variable separating the two groups, a court may infer that racial considerations are responsible for the results. The size of the disparity affects only its probative weight. The defendant may, of course, explain the disparity by showing that some factor other than race, such as a bona fide seniority system, caused the demonstrated difference.
In this appeal, Teletype challenges the relevance of the layoff statistics, as well as the accuracy of plaintiffs' data base. As a defense, Teletype asserts that it demoted workers according to a bona fide seniority system.
Teletype first argues that layoff statistics are not relevant to the class's claim of discriminatory demotions. The district court found that the layoff figures serve as a suitable surrogate for demotions, because a layoff is itself a demotion and many of those laid off had been demoted first and later dismissed because they could not be placed after the demotion. Article 28 of the collective bargaining agreement also demonstrates some connection between the two. 10 Any lack of correlation between demotions and layoffs affects the probative weight of these statistics, rather than their relevance. Teletype has not demonstrated the irrelevancy of this evidence by showing that no relationship exists between layoffs and demotions. See Detroit Police Officers Ass'n v. Young, 608 F.2d 671, 687 (6th Cir. 1979), appeal docketed, No. 79-1080 (U.S. Jan. 10, 1980). We find no error in the district court's consideration of these statistics as relevant evidence.
Teletype introduced its own statistical evidence regarding demotions for 1974 through 1979. 11 These statistics show no significant disparate treatment...
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