E.E.O.C. v. American Home Products Corp.
| Decision Date | 13 September 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. C 00-3079-MWB.,C 00-3079-MWB. |
| Citation | 165 F.Supp.2d 886 |
| Parties | EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION and Jean Black, Plaintiffs, and Carolyn Penny Lewis and Joyce Gitch, Plaintiffs-Intervenors, v. AMERICAN HOME PRODUCTS CORPORATION d/b/a Fort Dodge Animal Health, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Iowa |
Jean P. Kamp, Regional Attorney, Deborah J. Powers, Senior Trial Attorney, E.E.O.C. Milwaukee Dist. Office, Milwaukee, WI, for E.E.O.C.
Jeane W. Pearson, Price & Pearson, Fort Dodge, IA, for Joyce Gitch.
Neven J. Mulholland, Johnson, Erb, Bice, Kramer, Good & Mulholland, P.C., Fort Dodge, IA, Mark S. Dichter, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for American Home Products.
On June 13, 2001, this court entered an order denying plaintiff EEOC's motion for a continuance pursuant to Rule 56(f) and granting the motion for partial summary judgment filed by defendant American Home Products Corporation (AHP). As a consequence of that order, the parties have filed a variety of motions, including motions to alter or amend the June 13, 2001, order itself, motions to alter or amend related orders, and a motion for partial summary judgment on one of the issues apparently resolved by the June 13, 2001, order, the validity of a release signed by one of the plaintiff-intervenors. The various motions spawned by the court's June 13, 2001, order are now before the court.
In this action, filed on September 29, 2000, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, the EEOC seeks "to correct" unlawful sexual harassment and retaliation by defendant AHP and "to make whole" five individuals who have allegedly suffered from unlawful employment practices.1 On December 6, 2000, AHP moved to dismiss the EEOC's complaint as to claims for relief for Craig Wood and Joyce Gitch, on the ground that these two individuals have released AHP from all of their individual claims for relief, in return for severance packages, so that the EEOC cannot now recover on their claims on their behalf. The EEOC and the intervening plaintiffs separately resisted the motion to dismiss. The EEOC incorporated into its resistance an assertion that the motion to dismiss should be "converted" into a motion for summary judgment and, further, that discovery should be permitted pursuant to Rule 56(f) before the court ruled on AHP's dispositive motion as a motion for partial summary judgment. By order dated April 4, 2001, the court formally "converted" AHP's dispositive motion into a motion for partial summary judgment, but the court found that the EEOC's first Rule 56(f) motion failed to satisfy the pertinent requirements for a continuance to pursue discovery. See EEOC v. American Home Prods. Corp., 199 F.R.D. 620, 632-33 (N.D.Iowa 2001) (American Home Products I). Nevertheless, the court gave the EEOC the opportunity to reassert a motion for a Rule 56(f) continuance in light of the court's formal "conversion" of AHP's motion, an opportunity of which the EEOC availed itself on April 18, 2001. The intervening plaintiffs, however, did not join in the EEOC's reasserted Rule 56(f) motion, file their own Rule 56(f) motion, or supplement their resistance to AHP's motion to dismiss in light of conversion of AHP's motion into a motion for partial summary judgment.
By order dated June 13, 2001, the court found that the EEOC's reasserted Rule 56(f) motion was also deficient, in that it did not identify discovery that would generate genuine issues of material fact as to the validity of the releases signed by Wood and Gitch. See EEOC v. American Home Prods. Corp., 144 F.Supp.2d 1084 (N.D.Iowa 2001) (American Home Products II). The court concluded further that, because the EEOC's Rule 56(f) motion was inadequate, and the EEOC consequently could not generate any genuine issue of material fact on the invalidity of Gitch's and Wood's releases, AHP was entitled to partial summary judgment to the effect that the EEOC could not assert claims on behalf of those two individuals. A flurry of motions and related orders followed this ruling.
First, on June 18, 2001, Craig Wood, who had moved to intervene in this action but had not yet been granted leave to do so, filed a Rule 59(e) Motion To Alter Or Amend Order And Motion For Stay, in which he asserted that the June 13, 2001, order improperly prevented him from pursuing claims in this litigation that arose after the date of his release. However, as a direct consequence of the June 13, 2001, order, on June 19, 2001, a magistrate judge of this court denied Craig Wood's motion for leave to intervene, concluding that, in light of the court's ruling, none of the claims in which Wood sought to intervene remained viable in this case. Then, on June 21, 2001, the court denied Wood's June 18, 2001, motion to alter or amend the court's June 13, 2001, order on AHP's motion for partial summary judgment on the ground that Wood, a non-party, did not have standing to seek reconsideration of the order.
On June 22, 2001, the first of the motions to alter or amend the court's June 13, 2001, order asserted by a person who was already a party to this action was filed. That motion to alter or amend was plaintiff-intervenor Joyce Gitch's Rule 59(e) Motion To Alter Or Amend Order. In her Rule 59(e) motion, Gitch contends that her due process rights were denied, because she had never been afforded a hearing on AHP's converted motion for partial summary judgment or the opportunity to present disputed facts through private counsel in order to demonstrate that her release was not valid. Instead, Gitch contends that, in finding that the EEOC could not generate genuine issues of material fact as to the validity of her release, even with further discovery, the court relied on her deficient and erroneous affidavit filed by the EEOC without her private counsel's prior review. Gitch argues that the affidavit filed by the EEOC failed to address her alcoholism, mental illness, and duress at the time she signed the purported release of her claims against AHP.
On June 27, 2001, the EEOC also filed a Rule 59(e) Motion To Amend Judgment. However, the EEOC did not attack the court's conclusion that the releases were valid. Rather, the EEOC asserted that the court's June 13, 2001, order was ambiguous as to whether the EEOC may pursue causes of action on behalf of Wood and Gitch that arose after they executed their releases. The EEOC contends that the June 13, 2001, order should be clarified to permit the EEOC to pursue such post-release claims in order to avoid a manifest injustice.
On June 28, 2001, Gitch and "class member" Wood filed a Rule 59(e) Motion To Alter Or Amend Orders Denying Wood's Intervention. Gitch and Wood assert that the court must reconsider its orders denying Wood leave to intervene, because the court failed to recognize the "exception" to Wood's release, which would permit him to intervene to assert post-release civil rights and tort claims.
On July 5, 2001, Gitch launched a renewed attack on the validity of her release, notwithstanding the court's conclusion in the June 13, 2001, order that the release barred the EEOC's claims on her behalf. Gitch's attack is in the form of a motion for partial summary judgment on, and consequently to strike, AHP's first affirmative defense to her complaint in intervention, in which AHP asserts Gitch's release as a defense to her individual claims. In support of her motion for partial summary judgment on AHP's "release" defense, Gitch submits what appears to be the evidence that she argues she was precluded from submitting in resistance to AHP's "converted" motion to dismiss. That evidence consists of her affidavit and corroborating evidence that she was abusing alcohol at the time she signed the purported release of her claims against AHP, that she did not comprehend the effect of the release, and that representatives of AHP knew she was suffering from alcohol abuse at the time.
On July 6, 2001, AHP reentered the fray by asserting a motion to reconsider Gitch's intervention. AHP contends that, in light of the court's June 13, 2001, order holding that Gitch validly released her claims, none of the claims on which Gitch was allowed to intervene remain viable in this action.
Each of these motions was resisted by the opposing party or parties. Moreover, on August 30, 2001, the court heard oral arguments on these motions....
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