Auerbach v. Board of Educ. of the Harborfields Cent. School Dist. of Greenlawn

• Decision Date: 12 January 1998
• Docket Number: D,No. 1540,1540
• Citation: 136 F.3d 104
• Parties: 73 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,435, 123 Ed. Law Rep. 1142 Muriel AUERBACH, Antoinette Brink, Elizabeth Clines, Faith Dessauer, Muriel Gruff, Irwin Halpern, Ronald Hoff, Paul H. Johnson, Pasquale J. Marra. Nancy Monje, Gloria Schnur, Marie Tanchuck, Patricia S. Williams, and Jennifer Zimmer, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE HARBORFIELDS CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OF GREENLAWN, Greenlawn, New York, United Teachers of Harborfields, and William Thomsen, in his capacity as President of the United Teachers of Harborfields, Defendants-Appellees. ocket 96-9197
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 104

136 F.3d 104

73 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,435, 123 Ed. Law Rep. 1142

Muriel AUERBACH, Antoinette Brink, Elizabeth Clines, Faith Dessauer, Muriel Gruff, Irwin Halpern, Ronald Hoff, Paul H Johnson, Pasquale J. Marra. Nancy Monje, Gloria Schnur Marie Tanchuck, Patricia S. Williams, and Jennifer Zimmer Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE HARBORFIELDS CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT OF GREENLAWN, Greenlawn, New York, United Teachers of Harborfields, and William Thomsen, in his capacity as President of the United Teachers of Harborfields Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1540, Docket 96-9197.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

Argued May 14, 1997.

Decided Jan. 12, 1998.

Robert M. Rosen, Hempstead, New York (David S. Feather, Douglas D. Scherer, Rosen, Leff, Hempstead, New York, of counsel), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Mona N. Glanzer, Mineola, New York (Mark N. Reinharz, Rains & Pogrebin, P.C., Mineola, New York, of counsel), for Defendant-Appellee Board of Education of the Merril Schapiro Biscone, Uniondale, New York (Evan H. Krinick, Rivkin, Radler & Kremer, Uniondale, New York, of counsel), for Defendants-Appellees United Teachers of Harborfields and William Thomsen.

Harborfields Central School District of Greenlawn.

Jay Worona, General Counsel, New York State School Boards Association, Albany, New York, filed a brief Amicus Curiae for The New York State School Boards Association, Inc.

Cathy Ventrell-Monsees, Melvin Radowitz, American Association of Retired Persons, Washington, DC; Douglas H. Hedin, National Employment Lawyers Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota, filed a brief Amici Curiae for the American Association of Retired Persons and The National Employment Lawyers Association.

Before WINTER, Chief Judge, CARDAMONE, and ALTIMARI, Circuit Judges.

CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge.

We are called upon in this case to determine the validity of an early retirement incentive plan for teachers employed at a Long Island, New York, school district. The critical question is whether the plan discriminates against older teachers in a manner that violates federal law prohibiting discrimination in employment on account of age. Age discrimination law has not been tried and found wanting, but rather has been tried and found difficult to construe as Congress wants. Because the federal courts have not successfully construed this statute, they must, in the ordinary course of having not at first succeeded, try, try again. That is what this opinion proposes to do.

Plaintiffs are 14 present and former public school teachers employed by defendant Board of Education of the Harborfields Central School District of Greenlawn, New York (the School District). All plaintiffs were or are members of defendant United Teachers of Harborfields (the Union), affiliated with defendant New York State United Teachers. They appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Platt, J.), dismissing their claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (the ADEA) for lack of ripeness as to six plaintiffs and dismissing as to the remaining plaintiffs for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

BACKGROUND

A. Teacher's Retirement Incentive Plan

The defendant Union and the defendant School District entered into a collective bargaining agreement effective July 1, 1993 through June 30, 1996. It contains a provision entitled "Retirement Incentive Plan/Payment for Unused Sick Leave," which provides:

A teacher retiring under this plan will receive the following benefits:

Terminal payment based upon accumulated sick leave will be determined by granting one (1) day's credit for each two (2) days of accumulated sick leave, up to a maximum of 150 credited days. In addition eligible teachers will receive a retirement incentive in the amount of Twelve Thousand Five Hundred ($12,500.00) dollars.

Eligibility requirements for this plan include the following:

1. A teacher must retire at the conclusion of the school year (July 1-September 1), he/she first reaches the age of fifty five (55) years and completes a total of at least twenty (20) years of credited service under the New York State Teachers' Retirement System [the TRS], or at the conclusion of the school year in which the teacher, who is age fifty-five (55) years or more, has first completed twenty (20) years of credited service under the New York State Teachers' Retirement System.

2. A teacher must have completed ten (10) consecutive full years of service in the Harborfields Central School District.

3. A teacher must submit to the District no later than January 1, of the final full year of service, a letter of resignation for retirement purposes. This notice provision may be waived for employees retiring for medical reasons, or for any other Plaintiffs allege this incentive retirement plan violates the ADEA.

reason(s), upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools and approval by the Board of Education.

Under the plan's terms, a participating teacher must actually retire at the conclusion of the school year in which he or she first becomes eligible to retire (the optimum year) in order to secure the $12,500 fixed sum payment and the accumulated sick leave payment (together, the retirement incentive benefits). Teachers older than 55, but who have not yet fulfilled the service requirements, must retire in the year they complete the service requirements, regardless of their actual age, to receive the retirement incentive benefits. Conversely, a teacher who has already completed the service requirements by the time he or she reaches age 55 must retire at the conclusion of the school year during which he or she becomes 55 in order to obtain these benefits. Otherwise, the benefits are forever lost.

B. Prior Proceedings

Plaintiffs filed suit in the Eastern District of New York on March 3, 1995 alleging that the retirement plan's eligibility requirements violate the ADEA. At the inception of this litigation, six of the plaintiffs were active teachers in the School District and eight were retired. Each plaintiff had fulfilled the retirement plan's service requirements and initially had the opportunity to participate in the plan. Having decided to wait to retire until sometime after the year in which the retirement incentive benefits first became available to them, each plaintiff is now ineligible to participate in the plan. As a result, they argue that the age 55 eligibility requirement constitutes age-based discrimination because it deprives them of retirement incentive benefits available to younger teachers under the age of 55, who may still retire at the optimum age to receive those benefits.

By a memorandum and order dated August 26, 1996 the district court: (1) dismissed under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1) the claims brought on behalf of the six plaintiffs who had not yet retired; and (2) dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6) the remainder of the claims for failure to state a prima facie cause of action for discrimination. With regard to the second ground for dismissal, the district court specifically found that the retirement incentive benefits are awarded on the basis of seniority, rather than age, and that these eight plaintiffs had accordingly failed to make out a cause of action cognizable under the ADEA. Continuing its analysis, the court stated that, even if the eight plaintiffs had met their initial burden of stating a claim, the retirement plan is valid under the ADEA as a matter of law.

We affirm the order dismissing the six unretired plaintiffs' claims as not ripe for adjudication. Although we also agree with the dismissal of the remaining eight teachers' causes of action, we take a somewhat different path to reach that result.

DISCUSSION

I Ripeness

As noted, six of the 14 plaintiffs were employed by the Board when this suit began. All six were then over 55 years old and had fulfilled the plan's service requirements. After the commencement of the action but before dismissal of the suit, four of the six teachers retired without receiving any of the retirement incentive benefits, leaving only two plaintiffs employed by the defendant School District. The district court nonetheless dismissed the claims of all six plaintiffs pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), holding that their claims were not ripe for adjudication.

Federal subject matter jurisdiction extends to controversies arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States and treaties into which the United States has entered. See U.S. Const. art. III, § 2, cl. 1. Federal courts may adjudicate only those "real and substantial controvers[ies] admitting of specific relief ... as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts." Lewis v. Continental Bank Corp., 494 U.S. 472, 477, 110 S.Ct. 1249, 1253, 108 L.Ed.2d 400 (1990) (quoting North Carolina v. Rice, 404 U.S. 244, 246, 92 S.Ct. 402, 404, 30 L.Ed.2d 413 (1971)). When the events alleged in a plaintiff's The six unretired plaintiffs' claims were properly dismissed under the ripeness doctrine. We pause to address the claims of four of these six teachers, who retired between the time of the commencement and dismissal of the action. When the district court ruled, it properly treated these four plaintiffs as unretired because their amended complaint asserted that they were still employed by the Board. Nothing in the record indicates there was any evidence before the district court that these four plaintiffs had retired in the interim. Hence, this change in those plaintiffs' circumstance cannot now be considered by us.

cause of action have not yet occurred, a federal court is precluded from exercising subject matter jurisdiction because a real case or controversy does not exist for purposes of Article III. See Cargill, Inc. v. Charles Kowsky Resources, Inc., 949 F.2d 51, 56 (2d Cir.1991).

The injury alleged by the six teachers...