Duva v. Bridgeport Textron, Civ. A. 84-4840.

• Decision Date: 11 December 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. 84-4840.
• Citation: 632 F. Supp. 880
• Parties: Edda DUVA, Plaintiff, v. BRIDGEPORT TEXTRON, Gordon Jervis, Joseph Weber, Thomas Moran and Gus Roth, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

632 F. Supp. 880

Edda DUVA, Plaintiff, v. BRIDGEPORT TEXTRON, Gordon Jervis, Joseph Weber, Thomas Moran and Gus Roth, Defendants.

Civ. A. 84-4840.

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania.

December 11, 1985.

Blake C. Marles, Thomas E. Weaver, Weaver, Mosebach, Piosa, Hixson, Wallitsch & Marles, Allentown, Pa., for plaintiff.

John E. Krampf, Stephanie E. Middleton, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Philadelphia, Pa., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

DITTER, District Judge.

Edda Duva filed a five-count complaint against her former employer, Bridgeport Textron (Textron), and several employees of Textron including Gordon Jervis, the personnel manager; Thomas Moran, the general supervisor; Joseph Weber, a supervisor; and Gus Roth, a non-supervisory employee. Plaintiff first purports to state a cause of action against all defendants pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. She alleges that defendants discriminated against her on the basis of her sex and that this discrimination constituted a constructive discharge. Plaintiff's remaining claims, which plaintiff contends are pendent to the Title VII claim, are brought pursuant to state tort law. Defendants have moved to dismiss the Title VII claims against the individual defendants, to dismiss the pendent state claims against all defendants, and to strike both plaintiff's claim for punitive damages and plaintiff's jury trial demand. For reasons that follow, this motion will be granted.

Defendants first contend that plaintiff's Title VII claims against Jervis, Moran, Roth, and Weber should be dismissed because these individuals are not persons against whom a Title VII action may be maintained.

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) provides in part that it is an unlawful employment practice for an "employer" to discriminate on the basis of sex. Employer is defined to include "a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce ..., and an agent of such a person...." Id. § 2000e (emphasis added). The question, therefore, is whether the individual defendants may be considered agents of Brideport Textron.

In light of the Act's remedial purpose, the term employer should be given a liberal interpretation, extending to individuals who significantly control access to employment. See Baker v. Stuart Broadcasting Co., 560 F.2d 389, 391 (8th Cir. 1977); Bell v. Brown, 557 F.2d 849, 853 (D.C.Cir.1977); Guyette v. Stauffer Chem. Co., 518 F.Supp. 521, 526 (D.N.J.1981). Against this background, several district courts have correctly concluded that supervisory employees are agents of employers and, as such, may be proper defendants under Title VII.¹ See Thompson v. International Ass'n of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, 580 F.Supp. 662, 668-69 (D.D.C.1984); Jones v. Metropolitan Denver Sewage Disposal Dist., 537 F.Supp. 966, 970 (D.Colo.1982); Guyette, 518 F.Supp. at 526; Bradley v. Rockland County Community Mental Health Center, 25 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 225, 228 (S.D.N.Y.1980).

While supervisory employees fall within the ambit of the term "employer," the same is not true of employees who do not supervise the Title VII plaintiff. Consequently, if any of the individual defendants was not in a supervisory position with respect to plaintiff, he would not be a person against whom plaintiff could maintain a Title VII action.

The employment relationship between plaintiff and each of the individuals is unclear from the face of the complaint. Nonetheless, there is at least a reasonable inference that Jervis, Moran, and Weber were supervisory personnel. This inference cannot be overcome by defendants without the support of affidavits to the contrary. See Guyette, 518 F.Supp. at 526. Therefore, defendants' argument that these individuals were not plaintiff's "employer" must be rejected on the basis of the present record. However, because plaintiff has conceded that defendant Roth was not a supervisor, see Plaintiff's Memorandum in Opposition to Motion for Partial Dismissal and Motion to Strike at 4, the Title VII claim against Roth must be dismissed.

The individuals alternatively assert that even if they may be deemed to be plaintiff's employer, the Title VII action should be dismissed because plaintiff failed to name them as respondents in the charge she filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

Section 2000e-5(f)(1) requires a complainant to file charges against a person before the EEOC prior to commencing an action in district court. Plaintiff concedes that she did not file charges against the individuals with the EEOC, but asserts that her filing of EEOC charges against Textron satisfies the jurisdictional prerequisite to bringing an action here against the individuals.

In Glus v. G.C. Murphy Co., 562 F.2d 880 (3d Cir.1977), the Third Circuit provided a four-factor equation for determining whether an EEOC charge against one party would be sufficient to allow a district court to exercise jurisdiction over Title VII claims against another party. The Glus court stated that the district court should look to the following:

1) whether the role of the unnamed party could through reasonable effort by the complainant be ascertained at the time of the filing of the EEOC complaint;

2) whether under the circumstances, the interests of a named party are so similar as the unnamed party's that for the purpose of obtaining voluntary conciliation and compliance it would be unnecessary to include the unnamed party in the EEOC proceedings;

3) whether its absence from the EEOC proceedings resulted in actual prejudice to the interests of the unnamed party;

4) whether the unnamed party has in some way represented to the complainant that its relationship with the complainant is to be through the named party.

Id. at 888.

Following the filing of defendants' motion, an evidentiary hearing was conducted for the purpose of evaluating the Glus factors. At that time, plaintiff conceded first that she was fully aware of the role of each of the individual defendants when she filed her charge with the PHRC and second that the actual charge she filed only named Textron as a respondent. Plaintiff then testified in effect, however, that she had prepared a draft charge that named the individuals as respondents but that the final form of the charge was prepared by a person at the PHRC who omitted the individuals as respondents and explained to her that she could supplement the charge with whatever she cared to add at the fact-finding hearing. I reject this latter testimony as not credible and unsupported by any corroborating evidence. Moreover, plaintiff offered no satisfactory explanation of why she signed the "second" form if it so materially-differed from the one which she allegedly prepared.

Turning to the second and third factors of the Glus test, it would appear that the supervisory individuals' interests were substantially similar to those of Textron. Nonetheless, actual prejudice would be suffered by them if Title VII claims were to proceed against them without their first having been given an opportunity to conciliate. Jervis, Moran, and Weber each testified that they were unaware that they were being sued individually until this federal complaint was filed in October, 1984, and that if they had known that they were being sued individually in the PHRC charge they each might have retained counsel to give them advice. Their failure to take individual corrective or conciliatory efforts before the PHRC could have significant adverse impact on them if plaintiff were to prevail in this action.² First, any equitable order I may enter could have a direct detrimental effect on the individual defendants. At the very least, they could be required by Textron to reimburse it for the cost of their defense in this action. Each individual defendant received from Textron a letter similar to a letter addressed to Thomas Moran, which was offered into evidence. This letter provided in part,

Textron will pay the firm for its services in connection with providing you with legal counsel. However, in accordance with Delaware law and Textron's Charter and Bylaws, if at a later time it is determined that you did not act in good faith, that you did not act in a manner you reasonably believed to be in or not opposed to the best interests of Textron, or that you had reasonable cause to believe that your conduct was unlawful, then Textron will seek to be reimbursed by you for the legal fees paid by Textron to that firm for their services in providing you legal counsel in this matter.

See letter from Frederick K. Butler, Group Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Textron, Inc. to Thomas Moran (Nov. 30, 1984). Moreover, defendant Weber testified that he had not attended the PHRC fact-finding hearing and was not apprised of the hearing in advance.

Based on this testimony it is apparent that the defendants would be exposed to unnecessary, substantial prejudice by allowing this action to proceed against them. See Novotny v. Great American Savs. & Loan Ass'n, 77 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 440, 441 (W.D.Pa.1980) (finding prejudice because, if officers and directors had known that they would be named as defendants in a lawsuit, they might have hired personal counsel, changed their votes on resolutions before the board, and attempted to compel the corporate defendant to conciliate). The fact that Moran and Jervis were present at the fact-finding hearing does not alter this conclusion because the individuals may have acted differently before the state commission had they known that they could be subject to individual liability. See id.

Finally, plaintiff concedes that none of the individual defendants represented to her that his legal relationship to her was to be through Textron.

Glus was concerned with striking a balance between the "goal of conciliation without resort to the already overburdened federal courts" and the objective...