Curl v. Reavis

• Decision Date: 01 August 1984
• Docket Number: Nos. 83-1991,83-1992,s. 83-1991
• Citation: 740 F.2d 1323
• Parties: 35 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 930, 34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,567 Barbara E. CURL, Appellee, v. Leroy REAVIS and Iredell County, North Carolina, Appellants. Barbara E. CURL, Appellant, v. Leroy REAVIS and Iredell County, North Carolina, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1323

740 F.2d 1323

35 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 930,

34 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,567

Barbara E. CURL, Appellee, v. Leroy REAVIS and Iredell County, North Carolina, Appellants.

Barbara E. CURL, Appellant, v. Leroy REAVIS and Iredell County, North Carolina, Appellees.

Nos. 83-1991, 83-1992.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 6, 1984.

Decided Aug. 1, 1984.

Louis L. Lesesne, Jr., Charlotte, N.C. (Gillespie & Lesesne, Charlotte, N.C., on brief), for appellee/cross-appellant.

William L. Auten, Charlotte, N.C. (Blakeney, Alexander & Machen, Charlotte, N.C., Robert N. Randall, Mooresville, N.C., Neel & Randall, Mooresville, N.C., on brief), for appellants/cross-appellees.

Before RUSSELL and MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judges, and D. DORTCH WARRINER, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

DONALD RUSSELL, Circuit Judge:

This is an employment discrimination action brought by Barbara E. Curl against Iredell County, North Carolina and Leroy Reavis, the elected Sheriff of Iredell County. Curl complained that while a deputy sheriff in Iredell County she was subjected to discrimination on the basis of her sex, and suffered reprisals for filing charges of employment discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Her suit is based on Secs. 703(a) and 704(a) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 2000e-2(a) and 2000e-3(a); the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983; and two federal funding statutes containing nondiscrimination provisions, Sec. 815 of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 3789d(c)(1), and Sec. 122 of the State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972, 31 U.S.C. Sec. 6716(a). Curl sought an injunction against further discrimination and against receipt of federal funds under said funding statutes by the County, reinstatement in her former position and instatement in positions alleged to have been discriminatorily denied, back pay, and costs and attorney's fees. Following a nonjury trial, the District Court rendered a decision for plaintiff on the merits, finding that defendants had violated Title VII and the federal funding statutes, ¹ but not granting the full range of relief sought. Curl v. Reavis, ST-C-82-91, --- F.Supp. ---- (W.D.N.C. May 24, 1983). Both plaintiff and defendants have appealed from portions of the District Court's final judgment. We conclude that, as to the issues raised in defendants' appeal, the District Court's judgment must be affirmed. As to the issues raised by plaintiff, we reverse in part and remand with instructions to grant certain additional relief, and otherwise affirm.

I.

A. Findings of Fact

Barbara Curl was hired as a deputy sheriff of Iredell County in July 1976 by Sheriff Reavis' predecessor. She worked initially as a dispatcher-matron. In October 1976 she was certified as a law enforcement officer. She has completed 196 hours of specialized training. In 1977 she was transferred within the Sheriff's Department to records clerk, with no loss of pay or status. Defendant Reavis was elected Sheriff of Iredell County in November 1978, and in December 1978 he transferred Curl, with no change in pay or status, to secretary of the Detective Division.

When a road patrol deputy position became open in the Sheriff's Department in June 1980, Curl approached Chief Deputy James W. Medford with a request that she be promoted to that position. A patrol deputy is a uniformed officer, responsible for patrolling an assigned area of the county, making arrests, serving criminal papers and answering calls. Chief Medford's response to Curl was that "there was no way he would put a woman on the road ... in uniform." At this time there were no female patrol deputies, and the individual who ultimately received the position Curl sought was male.

Shortly after this incident, Curl learned of an opening for a detective in the Sheriff's Department, and approached Chief Medford with a request to be promoted to this position. A detective is responsible for investigating assigned criminal cases. Curl was denied the detective position, and the record does not reveal who actually obtained it.

Late in 1980, Sheriff Reavis transferred Curl back to dispatcher-matron, and she subsequently filed her first EEOC charge of employment discrimination. As a result of this charge, she was confronted by the Sheriff, Chief Medford, and Enforcement Captain Phillip Redmond, and the Sheriff told her to "start looking for another job."

Curl applied for a position with the Emergency Communications Center of Iredell County in February 1981. This position was outside the Sheriff's Department, and an announcement of the opening was published. The District Court determined that the requirements for this position did not include training as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). James R. Barnes, supervisor of the Center, interviewed Curl for the position. On March 1, 1981 Sheriff Reavis told Curl that if she did not drop her EEOC charge she would not be approved for the dispatcher position with the Center she sought. She did not drop her charge and the two dispatcher vacancies available were filled by men, who did have EMT training. Curl then filed, on April 6, 1981, a second EEOC discrimination charge for retaliatory denial of the dispatcher position.

Chief Medford, who had responsibility for discharging employees, fired Curl on April 13, 1981, giving no reasons. Curl had never been formally reprimanded, disciplined or suspended prior to the time she was fired, apart from the actions against her related to her EEOC charges. Her last performance evaluation on February 26, 1981 by her supervisor, Tom Moore, had rated her average or above average in all areas. The Sheriff's Department gave as a basis for the discharge "dispute with supervisors" in a report to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. The Sheriff testified at trial that the discharge was in large part due to disloyalty, bad attitude and "getting everybody in the whole department upset." Curl filed a third EEOC charge for retaliatory discharge after her firing. Later, she filed a fourth charge for a damaging reference given to a prospective employer.

The District Court found that historically and throughout Sheriff Reavis's administration women only held positions as dispatcher-matrons, secretaries and clerical workers in the Sheriff's Department, and that their progression was restricted to clerical office supervision. There was no single line of progression for male deputies, who could be made patrol deputies immediately if certified as law enforcement officers. Job vacancies were not publicized, no objective criteria were offered, and formal application procedures did not exist; in sum, departmental hiring, transfer and promotion decisions were "ad hoc, entirely subjective, and often without the employee's request."

B. Remedies

After determining that Curl qualified as an "employee" for purposes of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e(f), the District Court found that plaintiff had established:

1) unlawful employment practice violations of Title VII with respect to denial of her application for the patrol deputy position, maintenance of a "male line of progression" that foreclosed women from achieving detective status, and denial of patrol deputy vacancies after July 1980 for which plaintiff did not actually apply because she believed such applications to be futile; and

2) retaliation violations of Title VII with respect to intimidation after filing her first charge, denial of the dispatcher job with the Emergency Communications Center, discharge from the Sheriff's Department, and the unfavorable referral.

In light of these violations, the District Court found that the nondiscrimination provisions of the federal funding statutes had also been violated.

The District Court permanently enjoined defendants from further denial of equal opportunity to women and retaliation for pursuing remedies under Title VII. Sheriff Reavis was also required to develop nondiscriminatory employment, promotion and transfer procedures. Plaintiff won reinstatement, back pay, instatement for the next available promotion to the two positions--patrol deputy and Center dispatcher--she had been illegally denied, reasonable attorney's fees, costs and expenses.

Plaintiff's claim of immediate entitlement to a detective position, however, was rejected, as the District Court found that defendants had proven that some road or supervisory experience was a legitimate nondiscriminatory requirement for detective work. The Court refused to order more than equal promotional opportunities for male and female deputies beyond the patrol deputy level.

Because plaintiff was discriminatorily denied both the patrol deputy position and the transfer to emergency dispatcher, the District Court initially offered her a conditional option to seek either post:

"Since the plaintiff cannot hold both positions, she is entitled to be offered the next available position, either as patrol deputy or E.C.C. dispatcher. She may reject one position to wait for an opening in the other position, but is entitled to only one offer for each position."

At the time of this order, or immediately thereafter, there was an opening in an E.C.C. dispatcher position, which was unconditionally offered to Curl. Defendant County agreed to provide EMT training at county expense and on county time. Curl accepted the dispatcher position, equivalent to the one she was denied in 1981, and has received EMT training. She has never renounced an intention to seek the patrol deputy position. After she accepted the dispatcher job, however, the District Court amended its order to provide that defendants had complied with the instatement required originally. In effect, plaintiff was denied any further opportunity for priority instatement in the...