Carroll v. United Steelworkers of America

• Decision Date: 15 May 1980
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. M-75-374.
• Citation: 498 F. Supp. 976
• Parties: David CARROLL, Samuel J. Stone, Luther Marshall and Eddie M. Hawkles, Individually and On Behalf of All Other Persons Similarly Situated, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO-CLC, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC, Local 2609, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC, Local 2610, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC, District No. 8 and Bethlehem Steel Corporation.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

498 F. Supp. 976

David CARROLL, Samuel J. Stone, Luther Marshall and Eddie M. Hawkles, Individually and On Behalf of All Other Persons Similarly Situated, v. UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CIO-CLC, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC, Local 2609, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC, Local 2610, United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO-CLC, District No. 8 and Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Civ. A. No. M-75-374.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

May 15, 1980.

Kenneth L. Johnson, Baltimore, Md., and Daniel B. Edelman, Washington, D. C., for plaintiffs.

Douglas D. Connah, Jr., Charles M. Kerr, G. Stewart Webb, Jr., Baltimore, Md., for defendant Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

I. Duke Avnet, and John H. Price, Jr., Baltimore, Md., and George H. Cohen, Robert M. Weinberg, and Jeremiah A. Collins, Washington, D. C., for defendant Unions.

OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES R. MILLER, Jr., District Judge.

I. Introduction

Plaintiffs, four long-term black employees of the Primary Mills Department at the Sparrows Point Steel Plant of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, have brought a class action, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., and the Reconstruction Civil Rights Statute, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, against the defendants, Bethlehem Steel Corporation (hereinafter "Bethlehem"), and the United Steelworkers of America and its locals 2609 and 2610 (hereinafter "the Unions"), for engaging in alleged unlawful employment practices. Although a motion for class certification was filed by the plaintiffs, the court has deemed it appropriate to defer consideration of that motion pending decision on the motion of the defendants for summary judgment. The gravamen of plaintiffs' claim is set forth in Section V, paragraphs 6-8, of the Amended Complaint (Paper No. 11). The operative allegations are essentially as follows:

1. Since the operations at the Sparrows Point Plant commenced, and continuing, the defendants have engaged in acts and practices relating to their seniority system that discriminate against the plaintiffs and the plaintiffs' class members (paragraph 6a).

2. The unit and departmental seniority system set up by the defendants is not a bona fide seniority system within the meaning of section 703(h) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (paragraph 6b).

3. The defendants have discriminatorily given black employees initial job assignments to the least desirable jobs and have discriminatorily given white employees initial job assignments of the most desirable jobs (paragraphs 6c and 6d).

4. Defendants have set up a system of promotion whereby promotions have been and are made on the basis of unit and departmental seniority, so that the employee first assigned to a unit is always ahead of all employees later assigned to a unit (paragraph 6e).

5. Defendants have set up a job transfer system whereby any employee who transfers to another department or unit must forfeit his seniority and start work there as the most junior employee (paragraph 6f).

6. Reductions in the work force have traditionally taken place first in departments or units where blacks have been assigned (paragraph 6f).

7. The modifications of the seniority system ordered by the Secretary of Labor in January, 1973, and by the United States District court for the Northern District of Alabama on April 12, 1974, are racially discriminatory in their purpose and effect (paragraph 7).

8. The defendants' actions, practices, and policies have been for the sole purpose of discriminating against the black employees and perpetuating the effect of past racial discrimination against black employees (paragraph 8).

Bethlehem and the Unions have filed motions for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

II. Role of Summary Judgment

Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides:

"summary judgment shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law."

It is well established that the moving party has the burden of proving that the material facts, as presented, are not in dispute, and that there can be no reasonable dispute as to the legal conclusions to be drawn from those facts. Adickes v. Kress & Company, 398 U.S. 144, 157, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1608, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970); Phoenix Savings & Loan, Inc. v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 381 F.2d 245, 249 (4th Cir. 1967). Once the moving party meets this initial burden of proof, the opposing party must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. F.R.Civ.P. 56(e); First National Bank v. Cities Service, 391 U.S. 253, 88 S.Ct. 1575, 20 L.Ed.2d 569 (1968); Adickes v. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. at 160, n. 22, 90 S.Ct. at 1609, n. 22. A bare contention that the issue is subject to dispute will not suffice. Zoby v. American Fidelity Co., 242 F.2d 76, 80 (4th Cir. 1957). "Neither plaintiff's rhetoric nor his imagination can make undisputed facts into disputed ones or raise a genuine issue with respect thereto." Schoonfield v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 399 F.Supp. 1068, 1078 (D.Md.1975), aff'd without opinion, 544 F.2d 515 (4th Cir. 1975). In order for the opposing party to raise an issue of credibility "he must produce by way of affidavit or otherwise sufficient evidence to show the court that at trial he will be able to produce some fact to shake the credibility of the affiants. Mere hopes are not enough." Walpert v. Bart, 280 F.Supp. 1006, 1013 (D.Md.1967), aff'd per curiam, 390 F.2d 877 (4th Cir. 1968). Finally, although a party opposing a motion for summary judgment is entitled to all of the favorable inferences to be drawn from the evidence, such inferences must be firmly based on established facts. Schoonfield, supra.

The present controversy stems from allegations of unlawful employment practices. The court recognizes that summary judgment is rarely granted in complex cases charging racial discrimination because "given the potential subtlety of employment discrimination, granting summary judgment against a Title VII plaintiff is far from a `summary' process." Lim v. Citizens Savings & Loan Association, 430 F.Supp. 802, 817 (N.D.Calif.1976). Nonetheless, summary judgment is properly granted, even in complex cases, where the facts established by the movants' evidence are opposed solely by the opponents' conclusory assertions or are clearly uncontroverted, and the facts so established are "not susceptible" of the interpretation which the opponent sought to give them to create through inference a dispute of material fact. First National Bank v. Cities Service, 391 U.S. at 289, 88 S.Ct. at 1592; Lim, at 816, citing Thompson v. Sun Oil Co., 523 F.2d 647 (8th Cir. 1975) and Patmon v. Van Dorn Co., 498 F.2d 544 (6th Cir. 1974). See also EEOC v. Chesapeake & O. Ry., 577 F.2d 229 (4th Cir. 1978) where summary judgment for defendant was affirmed in reference to a seniority system. Furthermore, it is particularly appropriate to grant summary judgment where recent court decisions have effectively resolved many of the legal issues, and where the evidence presented is unrefuted. Id.; Sagers v. Yellow Freight Systems, Inc., 529 F.2d 721, 725 (5th Cir. 1976). Therefore, in light of the Supreme Court's decision in International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 1843 (1977), which has effectively disposed of many of the legal issues in the case at bar, and in light of the thorough documentation presented by the defendants, Bethlehem and the Unions, in support of their motions, the court has determined that summary judgment is a viable procedure in the instant controversy.¹

III. Legal Background

Through the enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., Congress sought to assure equality of employment opportunities and to eradicate certain invidious employment practices. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 800, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1823, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). See also Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 45 L.Ed.2d 28 (1975); Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971). The evils that Title VII is directed against include discrimination with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment; and practices that limit, segregate, or classify in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). Section 703(h) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(h), carves out an exemption from these broad prohibitions. It provides in pertinent part:

"Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, it shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to apply different standards of compensation, or different terms, conditions, or privileges of employment pursuant to a bona fide seniority . . . system . . . provided that such differences are not the result of an intention to discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

The first decision to consider the significance of § 703(h) was Quarles v. Phillips Morris, Inc., 279 F.Supp. 505 (E.D.Va.1968). In that case, the district court, after a comprehensive review of the legislative history of Title VII held that a neutral seniority system violated Title VII if the seniority system perpetuated the effects of pre-Act discrimination by locking minorities into the undesirable jobs or departments to which they had originally been assigned as a result of discrimination. This view that § 703(h) does not immunize seniority systems that perpetuate the effects of prior discrimination enjoyed wholesale adoption in the Courts of Appeals. See e.g. United States v. Bethlehem Steel...