Beavers v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co.

• Decision Date: 21 November 1990
• Docket Number: No. CV-86-N-1982-S,CV-88-N-933-S.,CV-86-N-1982-S
• Citation: Beavers v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 751 F.Supp. 956 (N.D. Ala. 1990)
• Parties: Ray Wayne BEAVERS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN CAST IRON PIPE COMPANY, Defendant. Oscar JENKINS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN CAST IRON PIPE COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

751 F. Supp. 956

Ray Wayne BEAVERS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN CAST IRON PIPE COMPANY, Defendant.

Oscar JENKINS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. AMERICAN CAST IRON PIPE COMPANY, Defendant.

Nos. CV-86-N-1982-S, CV-88-N-933-S.

United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, S.D.

November 21, 1990.

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Robert L. Wiggins, Jr., John Scott Greene, Ann K. Norton, Gordon, Silberman, Wiggins & Childs, Birmingham, Ala., for plaintiffs.

Maura R. Goodwyn, J. Frederick Ingram, J. Patrick Logan, Robert G. Tate, Jr., Mark McCarroll Lawson, Sue A. Willis, Burr & Forman, Birmingham, Ala., Jayna Jacobson Partain, Maynard, Cooper, Frierson & Gale, Birmingham, Ala., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION

EDWIN L. NELSON, District Judge.

I. Statement of the Case.

In these consolidated actions, six individuals seek relief on behalf of themselves and a class of plaintiffs consisting of past, present and future male employees of American Cast Iron Pipe Company ("ACIPCO" or "the Company"). The plaintiffs assert that since 1962 ACIPCO has maintained a policy of requiring that in order to be covered under the company's medical insurance benefits plan, "children and legally adopted children must reside full-time with a permanent or full-time or retired employee." They contend that the requirement has a disparate impact on male employees because "women have historically been awarded custody of children in divorce actions more frequently than men." As a result of the alleged disparate impact of ACIPCO's policy, the plaintiffs argue that "plaintiff and the class were wrongfully denied health insurance coverage and medical services for their children because of their sex and race" in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2). They also claim that the policy violates the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d) ("EPA") because divorced men receive less remuneration than do women for the same or similar work. Finally, they argue that the policy violates the Company's fiduciary duties under ERISA, 29 U.S.C. § 1002 et seq.¹

The defendant has moved the court for summary judgment in its favor as to all claims. The motions have been fully briefed and were submitted for decision on November 15, 1990. The motions for summary judgment should be granted and the action should be dismissed with prejudice.

II. The Title VII Claims.

The Company maintains that all plaintiffs' individual Title VII claims are time barred because none of the named plaintiffs filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within the required time after the date of the alleged unlawful employment practice about which they now complain. In order to assert a claim of discrimination under Title VII, a claimant must have filed a complaint with the EEOC within 180 days after the alleged discriminatory practice occurred. 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(e).² This 180-day period "begins to run from the time that the complainant knows or reasonably should know that the challenged act has occurred." Allen v. U.S. Steel Corp., 665 F.2d 689, 692 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982). ACIPCO argues that the discriminatory act occurred, as to each plaintiff, on the occasion when the Company's residence requirement was applied to that plaintiff. The plaintiffs argue that a new violation, and a new limitations period, occurs each time the company provides health care benefits to the dependent children of women, while denying those same benefits to the children of the plaintiffs.

Before proceeding to consideration of this issue, it is necessary to dispose of the plaintiffs' contention that the court has already ruled that Beavers' discrimination charge was timely and that ruling constitutes the law of this case. In his memorandum opinion of January 13, 1989 dealing with class certification, Judge Acker stated, "This court is satisfied that Mr. Beavers' EEOC charge was timely and kept the door open for a class." That decision was rendered, however, before the United States Supreme Court released its decision in Lorance v. AT & T Technologies, Inc., 490 U.S. 900, 109 S.Ct. 2261, 104 L.Ed.2d 961 (1989). The prior opinion may have been correct when issued. It is not correct following Lorance and it would be error for this court to adhere to it in the face of controlling precedent to the contrary.

The courts have held for many years that the purpose of the 180-day limitations period is to protect employers from having to litigate stale claims and to encourage the prompt resolution of employment disputes. Delaware State College v. Ricks, 449 U.S. 250, 101 S.Ct. 498, 66 L.Ed.2d 431 (1980). Failure to file a timely charge with the EEOC operates as a bar to any action on the claim. United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U.S. 553, 97 S.Ct. 1885, 52 L.Ed.2d 571 (1977). The 180-day statute of limitations clearly runs from the "time of the discriminatory acts, not ... the time at which the consequences of the acts become most painful." Delaware State College v. Ricks, 449 U.S. at 258, 101 S.Ct. at 504 (emphasis in original). The question whether an EEOC charge is timely "turns on whether the discriminatory act has occurred within 180 days before filing, not on whether the effects of that discriminatory act are felt within 180 days of the filing." Allen v. United States Steel Corp., 665 F.2d 689, 693 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982). Applying that principle, the Supreme Court found in Ricks that it was the decision to deny a college professor tenure, to be followed inevitably a year later by dismissal, and not the dismissal itself that was the discriminatory act. In order to assess the timeliness of the plaintiffs' EEOC charges, the court must "identify precisely the `unlawful employment practices' of which they complain." Delaware State College v. Ricks, 449 U.S. at 257, 101 S.Ct. at 503.

In Lorance, supra, the Supreme Court applied the principles of Ricks and United Air Lines v. Evans to a facially neutral seniority system which had the effect of awarding less seniority to women than to men. The court held, "When a seniority system is nondiscriminatory in form and application, it is the allegedly discriminatory adoption which triggers the limitations period...." Lorance v. AT & T Technologies, Inc., 109 S.Ct. at 2268-69 (emphasis in original). The court refused to permit the female plaintiffs to challenge their demotions because the act which gave them less seniority than male employees was the adoption of the seniority system. That occurred more than three years before the demotions.

The plaintiffs suggest that because Lorance involved a bona fide seniority system, given special treatment under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(h), the holding of that case should be limited to seniority systems. While it is certainly true that the court's holding recognized the special nature of seniority systems, a careful reading suggests that the result would have been the same even if no seniority system had been involved. The decision in Lorance was rendered out of respect for the "value judgment concerning the point at which interests in favor of protecting valid claims are outweighed by the interests in prohibiting the prosecution of stale claims.'" 109 S.Ct. at 2269, quoting Ricks, 449 U.S. at 260, 101 S.Ct. at 505. At least one other court has found no difficulty in applying Lorance to cases not involving seniority systems. In a case brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Fifth Circuit has held that city fire fighters were required to bring an action challenging reductions in base pay within three years of the date on which those reductions occurred. Judge Rubin held that each paycheck was not a new violation. The discriminatory act occurred when the city reduced the fire fighters base pay. Hendrix v. Yazoo City, 911 F.2d 1102 (5th Cir.1990). To the argument that Lorance should apply only to seniority systems, he said, "This argument is unpersuasive. As Lorance makes clear, the distinction does not turn on the type of discrimination, but on whether the practice at issue is part of, or a repetition of, a past discriminatory act, in which case there is a continuing violation, or whether it is facially neutral, simply giving effect to prior discrimination, in which case there is no continuing violation." 911 F.2d at 1104.

Relying on Bazemore v. Friday, 478 U.S. 385, 106 S.Ct. 3000, 92 L.Ed.2d 315 (1986), the plaintiffs assert that "if the first application of the policy to a plaintiff was outside the 180 day period, this would make no difference so long as subsequent applications of the policy continued to be discriminatory inside the 180 day period". They argue that the application of the policy was a continuing violation for the entire time period that their dependent children were not provided health care coverage. In Bazemore, plaintiffs were black employees of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service who were regularly paid less then were their white counterparts. Prior to the adoption of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the extension service was divided into white and black branches. Following adoption of the act, the two branches were merged but blacks continued to be paid less than whites. The court said, "A pattern or practice that would have constituted a violation of Title VII, but for the fact that the statute had not yet become effective, became a violation upon Title VII's effective date, and to the extent an employer continued to engage in that act or practice, he is liable under that statute." Bazemore, 478 U.S. at 395, 106 S.Ct. at 3006. The court reasoned that a discriminatory practice that began before the effective date of Title VII could not be permitted to continue after the effective date of the Act. Id. The court said, in effect, that each act done in furtherance of the discriminatory policy was a new violation. "Each week's paycheck that delivers less to a black than to a similarly situated white is a wrong...