AM. FED. OF ST., CTY. & MUN. EMP. v. State of Wash., C82-465T.

• Decision Date: 14 December 1983
• Docket Number: No. C82-465T.,C82-465T.
• Parties: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES, et al., Plaintiffs, v. STATE OF WASHINGTON, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Washington

578 F. Supp. 846

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY, AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES, et al., Plaintiffs, v. STATE OF WASHINGTON, et al., Defendants.

No. C82-465T.

United States District Court, W.D. Washington, at Tacoma.

December 14, 1983.

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Winn Newman, Lisa Newell, Washington, D.C., Edward Earl Younglove, III, Olympia, Wash., for plaintiffs.

Richard A. Heath, Clark J. Davis, Chris Gregoire, Olympia, Wash., for defendants.

OPINION AND DECLARATORY JUDGMENT

TANNER, District Judge.

I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On September 16, 1981, Plaintiff's filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).¹ The EEOC took no action on Plaintiff's charges. On April 31, 1982, the U.S. Department of Justice issued Notices of Right to Sue to Plaintiffs.

On July 20, 1982 two Unions, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), on behalf of some 15,500 workers in jobs held primarily by females, filed the complaint initiating this Class Action against the State of Washington. Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment and money damages pursuant to Title 28 U.S.C. §§ 2201 and 2202, concerning Defendant's discriminatory implementation and application of its compensation system, and injunctive relief to provide enforcement of a nondiscriminatory compensation system as it previously has been or herein may be judicially determined.

Venue is properly laid in this Court under Title 28 U.S.C. § 1391(b). This Court has jurisdiction in this matter by virtue of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended on March 24, 1972, Title 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., and Title 28 U.S.C. § 1331.

By order of the Court, dated April 1, 1983, this case was bifurcated into two phases (i.e., liability and remedy). By later order of the Court dated November 2, 1983, the remedy phase was bifurcated into two more phases (i.e., injunctive relief and back pay). Pretrial conferences were held prior to each trial to clarify the issues in the case. Unfortunately the parties were never able to agree upon a pretrial order at any phase of this litigation. The Court proceeded to try each phase of the case on two proposed pretrial orders, as submitted by the parties.

In the liability phase, or Stage I of this litigation, both pretrial orders were remarkedly similar in content as to the ultimate issues. The liability phase was tried to the Court commencing August 30, 1983, and continued over a period of eight days, concluding on September 14, 1983, with oral argument by counsel for both parties.

The injunctive relief phase of this litigation was tried to the Court commencing November 14, 1983 and concluding on November 17, 1983, again with oral arguments. Following the Court's determination that injunctive relief was appropriate and would issue herein, the back pay hearing was scheduled for and commenced on November 30, 1983. The back pay hearing, the last phase of this lengthy and complex lawsuit, concluded on December 1, 1983, with the Court's determination that back pay was appropriate and would be so awarded.

Throughout the course of this litigation several witnesses were called by both parties, more than 200 exhibits comprising several thousand pages were offered into evidence, and numerous depositions and affidavits were submitted to the Court. At the conclusion of each phase of the litigation, both parties submitted proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.

The ultimate objective of this decision is to determine every issue of fact and law presented and thereby finally settle the divisive problems of gender-based discrimination in compensation in the State of Washington.

II. RULINGS ON MAJOR ISSUES

1. Class Certification:

On November 1, 1982, Plaintiffs moved the Court for Class Certification. The Class sought to be certified included male and female employees under the jurisdiction of the Department of Personnel (DOP), and the Higher Education Personnel Board (HEPB), who have worked or do work in positions that are or have ever been 70% or more female. This Court, by order dated March 31, 1983, found that the prerequisites to certification of a Class were satisfied, Fed.R.Civ.P. 23, and the Class above described was certified.

There are seven (7) prerequisites that a Plaintiff seeking to maintain a Class Action must meet, two implicit and five explicit. See Southern Snack Foods v. J & J Snack Foods, 79 F.R.D. 678, 680 (D.N. J.1978). The implicit prerequisites are that a Class exist and the Class representatives be members of that Class. Defendant, State of Washington, argued that the Class definition the Plaintiffs were requesting would create a Class whose membership probably could not be ascertained. It was Defendant's contention that the certified definition should be limited to include only classifications that are currently 70% or more female, thereby excluding employees in jobs which were formerly predominately female but have since been integrated. Plaintiffs responded that employees in job categories which were predominately female during the period covered by this action had suffered the same discrimination as employees in jobs which are still predominately female. Because the employees in the jobs that were both currently 70% or more female and were at one time 70% or more female, were readily identifiable in Defendant's records, the Court found there was no reason why they should be excluded from the Class. There was no question that the Class representatives were members of the Class. Accordingly, this court found that the implicit prerequisites were met.

The explicit prerequisites are that the Plaintiff Class meet all four requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(a)—numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequacy of representation, —and that the Class fulfill the conditions of any one of the three subsections of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b). See Davis v. Avco Corporation, 371 F.Supp. 782, 790 (N.D.Ohio 1974); see also Williams v. New Orleans Steamship Association, 341 F.Supp. 613, 617 (E.D.La.1972).

(a) Numerosity: Defendants did not contest certification upon this basis. It was uncontroverted that the numerosity requirement was met.

(b) Commonality: Defendant argued that certification should be denied because of great factual diversity in the individual claims. See Montgomery v. Rumsfeld, 572 F.2d 250 (9th Cir.1978). However, this court found "questions of law or fact common to the Class." Fed. R.Civ.P. 23(a)(2). The alleged existence of a sexually discriminatory compensation policy presents questions of both fact and law, which are common to all employees in all of the predominately female classifications, notwithstanding any differences between the jobs.

(c) Typicality: Defendants did not contest the typicality of the individual Class representatives with regard to Plaintiff's discrimination in compensation claim. Defendant's opposition with respect to the "working out" of Class and other related claims was rendered moot by later rulings of the Court.

(d) Adequacy of Representation: This fourth requirement, which incorporates due process, is imposed for the purpose of protecting absent Class members from the effect of an adverse judgment resulting from representation at trial by parties whose interests are not the same as their own. Defendants contended that the individual Plaintiffs could not adequately represent the interests of the Class so long as they continued to be represented by the Union attorneys because of a potential conflict at the remedy stage of the litigation between the interests of the Class and the interests of the members of the Plaintiff's Union who are not in the Class. In Social Services Union, Local 535 v. County of Santa Clara, 609 F.2d 944, 948 (9th Cir.1979), the Court of Appeals held that "mere speculation as to conflicts that may develop at the remedy stage is insufficient to support denial of initial Class certification." Finding no basis in the record to support Defendant's contention that the Plaintiffs could not protect the interests of the Class which they sought to represent; finding that the Unions herein had, in the past, been responsive to Class interests; and finding that the Unions herein were conducting the lawsuit vigorously, this court held that those seeking to represent the Class had the kind of personal stake in the litigation that would insure adequate representation of the interests of the Class members.

(e) Rule 23(b): Plaintiffs elected to proceed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2).

"... that the party opposing the Class has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the Class, thereby making appropriate final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief with respect to the Class as a whole."

Defendants conceded that the Class the Plaintiffs sought to certify met the requirements of subsection (b)(2) of Rule 23, and did not oppose such maintenance of this action.

In summary, having found the Plaintiffs met the seven prerequisites to maintenance of a Class action, this court found this case appropriate for certification under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23.

Subsequent to the litigation of Phase I, (i.e., the liability trial), this Court modified the Class definition in accordance with facts elicited at trial. The Class, as redefined, is as follows:

Male and female employees of all job classifications under the jurisdiction of DOP and HEPB which were 70% or more female as of November 20, 1980² or anytime thereafter.

2. Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies:

Plaintiff's EEOC claims and complaint were based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended on March 24, 1972. Title VII requires Plaintiffs to file their claims with the EEOC as a jurisdictional prerequisite to filing suit in District Court. In September of 1981 the individual Plaintiffs³ in this Class Action each filed claims with...