Cormier v. P.P.G. Industries, Inc., 81-3485
| Decision Date | 11 April 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-3485,81-3485 |
| Citation | 702 F.2d 567 |
| Parties | 31 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1039, 31 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 33,505 Melvin J. CORMIER, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. P.P.G. INDUSTRIES, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux, Lake Charles, La., for plaintiffs-appellants.
McCalla, Thompson, Pyburn & Ridley, Robert K. McCalla, Keith M. Pyburn, Jr., New Orleans, La., Stockwell, St. Dizier, Sievert & Viccelio, Fred H. Sievert, Jr., Lake Charles, La., Hugh M. Finneran, Pittsburgh, Pa., for P.P.G. Industries.
Drewett & Jacques, Robert T. Jacques, Jr., Lake Charles, La., for Local 470.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
Before RUBIN and TATE, Circuit Judges, and DAVIS *, District Judge.
The plaintiffs, black employees of the defendant ("P.P.G."), appeal from the dismissal of their claims of class and individual racially-based employment discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 2000e et seq. In its excellent opinion, the district court has fully discussed all contentions and facts, in concluding that the claims of employment discrimination are without merit. 519 F.Supp. 211 (W.D.La.1981). Finding no reversible error, we affirm.
On their appeal, the plaintiffs raise three arguments. Two of them--relating (a) to intentional discrimination in promotion and transfers and (b) to the discriminatory effect of a seniority system that allegedly was not bona fide--depend upon a dispute as to facts found by the district court. In our finding that these contentions do not possess reversible merit, it is sufficient for us to state that we find neither the facts found by the district court nor the inferences drawn by it to be clearly erroneous, Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a); Pullman-Standard v. Swint, --- U.S. ----, ----, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 1789, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982).
The third contention relates to the alleged unlawful discrimination against the appellants on the basis of race in the utilization of tests and other selection procedures. Without benefit of the later decision by the Supreme Court in Connecticut v. Teal, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 2525, 73 L.Ed.2d 130 (1982), the district court had held that the plaintiffs had not proven a prima facie case of employment discrimination, although the tests were shown to have resulted in disparate impact upon black applicants; a reason for so holding was that the statistical analysis did not show as a "bottom line" result that there was any actual disparate effect in the number of blacks finally selected through use of the tests. 519 F.Supp. 280-281. Teal seems to reject such "bottom line" reasoning. Nevertheless, the district...
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...showing that the test was necessary to the safety and efficiency of the police unit. Id. at 536-38. Likewise, in Cormier v. P.P.G. Industries, Inc., 702 F.2d 567 (5th Cir.1983), we affirmed a district court's decision that the defendant successfully rebutted plaintiff's prima facie case of ......
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