Kent County Sheriff's Ass'n v. Kent County

Citation826 F.2d 1485
Decision Date13 August 1987
Docket NumberNos. 86-1305,86-1393,s. 86-1305
Parties44 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 857, 44 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 37,369 KENT COUNTY SHERIFF'S ASSOCIATION, and Patricia A. Musgrave, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Cross-Appellants, v. COUNTY OF KENT, et al., Defendants, Philip J. Heffron, individually and as Sheriff of Kent County, Defendant-Appellant, Cross-Appellee.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

Sheila A. Kinney, argued, Clary, Nantz, Wood, Hoffius, Rankin & Cooper, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Douglas W. VanEssen and Jack R. Clary, for Heffron.

Ronald J. Kollen, argued, Dan E. Hankins, Hankins & Associates, P.C., Okemos, Mich., and Edith C. Harsh, for plaintiffs-appellees, cross-appellants.

Charles H. Noble, Sou Noble & Wiseman, Southfield, Mich., for Kent Co.

Before LIVELY, Chief Judge, WELLFORD, Circuit Judge, and CELEBREZZE, Senior Circuit Judge.

WELLFORD, Circuit Judge.

This case involves a Title VII discrimination claim brought by a female employee of the Kent County, Michigan, Sheriff's office. Patricia Musgrave, plaintiff, and the association representing deputy sheriffs of Kent County (KCDSA) have sued Kent County, its Board of Commissioners, and Sheriff Philip Heffron contending that defendants had discriminatorily denied Musgrave's request to transfer from the corrections division to the Peacekeeping or road patrol division of the sheriff's department. 1 The district court granted plaintiffs a portion of the relief sought, and both parties appealed.

I.

All road patrol deputies are required by state law to be certified by the Michigan Law Enforcement Officers Training Council (MLEOTC). This certification may be obtained only from the state agency after successfully completing training and testing, including a physical agility test. Part of the road patrol consists of emergency medical vehicles equipped with advanced life support systems as well as drugs and life saving apparatus. Vehicles are staffed by MLEOTC certified road patrol officers who have also obtained emergency medical technician (EMT) certification. 2 The Kent County Sheriff's department operates six of these emergency medical vehicles at all times.

Sheriff Heffron's predecessors followed a practice of hiring corrections officers to work in the jail with the understanding that they might, if qualified, have a later opportunity to transfer to the road patrol. Transfers would occur as positions became open, based on the officers' interest, seniority, and qualifications, as determined by the Sheriff.

When he became sheriff in 1975, defendant Heffron claimed to follow a different approach, and established a policy of hiring individuals to work in one of two separate career ladders: corrections or peacekeeping. This separate career ladder policy was never put in writing, but the Sheriff testified that he made the policy known to "all the employees," and to all new hires after that date. 3 Plaintiff, hired in November, 1976, testified: "I was told by Sheriff Heffron that if I was qualified, I could work my way into any area in that department.... He assured me that this would not be a stagnant position that I would be stuck in for my career."

Sheriff Heffron agreed to provide an opportunity for guards hired before July 1, 1975, to become MLEOTC certified and to be considered for transfer to the road patrol as openings occurred. The 1975 collective bargaining agreement between the Sheriff and the Association incorporated this commitment. It provided that "all guards hired prior to July 1, 1975, will be certified for patrolman duty." The Sheriff said that the reason for that contract language was to provide guards hired by prior administrations an opportunity for their expected certification and transfer consideration. KCDSA Vice-President John Belile, when asked by his counsel whether the above contract language established a separate career ladder, conceded that it had "always" been implied that "that was the intent or meaning."

Of the female guards hired before July 1, 1975, only Deputy Connie Fisher was certified and transferred to the road patrol. Sheriff Heffron provided her with MLEOTC certification at County expense and placed her into the road patrol, but only after Musgrave filed suit. After she and a male co-worker went back to corrections due to a road patrol funding cut-back, Fisher was later offered the chance to return to the road patrol.

In April, 1982, two road patrol officers lost their paramedic certification; they had to be removed from the emergency medical units and restricted to patrolling in regular patrol cars. This reduced the number of road patrol officers assigned to emergency units, and would have required taking paramedic units out of service to the public. Only two corrections officers, Thomas Hillen and Robert VanderLaan, then had the requisite paramedic credentials. These two male deputies were transferred from the jail to the road patrol, and were assigned to work in the emergency units. The two deputies who had lost their certification were transferred back into the corrections division.

The Hillen and VanderLaan transfer occurred more than a month before plaintiff first applied for a road patrol position. Those transfers involved road patrol positions for which plaintiff concededly was not qualified even at the time of trial, which took place much later. Both of these male deputies were, like plaintiff, hired after July 1, 1975, but each had less seniority than plaintiff, who therefore claimed disparate treatment based on sex discrimination since she was denied permission to transfer. The district court, however, found no evidence of sex discrimination in the transfers of Hillen and VanderLaan, nor any harm to plaintiff resulting therefrom, since it found that she lacked the required certification at that time. The district court's ruling also concluded that the emergency medical certification was not imposed as a pretext to discriminate against plaintiff, and that she "cannot base any of her claims on that particular transfer incident."

Defendants contend that due to low turnover and numerous funding cuts in the department, it was several years before qualified correction officers, hired before July 1, 1975, could transfer into road patrol. No contrary proof was offered by the plaintiffs. The list of eligible transfer candidates had been exhausted at least by May 22, 1982, the date Musgrave completed her law enforcement certification training.

In addition to a June 3, 1982, letter from Musgrave requesting a transfer to peacekeeping (and road patrol service), Sheriff Heffron had previously received and continued to receive both oral and written requests from plaintiff and others for a transfer. Except for plaintiff, all of the corrections officers requesting such transfers were males. With the two exceptions noted, Sheriff Heffron never granted the transfer request of any corrections officer hired after July 1, 1975.

In December of 1983, the Sheriff sent four road patrol officers to a privately funded, condensed program for emergency medical training at a local junior college. The four officers, all of them males and in road patrol service, were released from work for the extensive training under the program. Plaintiff applied for one of these positions, but was denied because she was not then in the road patrol division.

Musgrave admitted there was no road patrol position posted or available either at the time of her June 3, 1982, application, or by the time suit was instituted. None, in fact, occurred until December, 1983. In December, defendant engaged in an open recruitment campaign for qualified officers and, in March of 1984, he hired the first two certified road patrol officers with emergency medical training from outside the Sheriff's department: a female and a male.

The KCDSA and Musgrave alleged that the Sheriff intentionally discriminated against Musgrave and other similarly situated females by treating them differently from male deputies with regard to transfers to the road patrol. 4 The complaint alleged sex discrimination under 42 U.S.C. sections 1983 and 1985 and Title VII (42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e), and state law claims. The supplemental complaint sought additional relief for Musgrave based on the sending of the four male deputies to EMT training school. She also sought reimbursement totalling over $7,700 for tuition for EMT training, (2) sponsorship by the county so she could achieve EMT-III status, and (3) transfer to the road patrol.

The trial court denied plaintiffs' request for a temporary restraining order prior to the trial on the merits. At the time of trial in October of 1984, there were two openings in the road patrol division which were made known to the public as well as to the corrections division. Agility tests were required, which Musgrave refused to take. After trial, and in order to be able to fashion relief, the trial court issued a stay precluding the Sheriff from filling these two positions. The court also later set aside the Sheriff's "two career ladder policy", and ordered Musgrave placed in one of the positions on the condition that she take, and pass, the agility test. The trial court also directed the second road patrol position to be filled with the senior, most interested corrections division officer, provided that he or she was MLEOTC certified and could pass the agility test. The court having previously found that "deputies assigned to the road patrol receive the same salary as those assigned to corrections and that Musgrave had failed to show that there are any differences in the opportunities for career advancement between the two divisions," denied any extraordinary relief at the outset.

We summarize the district court's pertinent findings of fact:

1) Before the 1984 advertisements to the public, "[n]o one ha[d] been hired from outside of the department for a position on the road patrol."

2) "[I]t took...

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