EEOC v. United Assoc. of Journeymen

• Decision Date: 08 August 2000
• Docket Number: 98-3986,Nos. 98-3935,98-3987,98-3988,No. 120,120,s. 98-3935
• Citation: 235 F.3d 244
• Parties: (6th Cir. 2000) Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Plaintiff-Appellant (98-3986), George D. Edwards; Kenneth Jackson; Melvin L. Sealey; Alvin Woodford; Vera Hamilton; Charles Young; David Stewart; Harland Jones; Robin Hardwick; Monty Rates; Rudolph Gillen; James Garner, and all others similarly situated, Intervening Plaintiffs-Appellants (98-3935), v. United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local, et al., Defendants-Appellees. Argued:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 244

235 F.3d 244 (6th Cir. 2000)

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Plaintiff-Appellant (98-3986), George D. Edwards; Kenneth Jackson; Melvin L. Sealey; Alvin Woodford; Vera Hamilton; Charles Young; David Stewart; Harland Jones; Robin Hardwick; Monty Rates; Rudolph Gillen; James Garner, and all others similarly situated, Intervening Plaintiffs-Appellants (98-3935), v. United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local No. 120, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

Nos. 98-3935, 98-3986, 98-3987, 98-3988

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

Argued: August 8, 2000

Decided and Filed: December 15, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Akron. No. 68-00473--James S. Gwin, District Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Bruce B. Elfvin, Barbara Kaye Besser, Amy S. Glesius, ELFVIN & BESSER, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellants.

Robert J. Gregory, OFFICE OF THE GENERAL COUNSEL, Washington, D.C., for Appellants.

Bruce B. Elfvin, Barbara Kaye Besser, Elfvin & Besser, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.

Jennifer S. Goldstein, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Robert J. Gregory, Office of the General Counsel, Washington, D.C., Charles E. Guerrier, C. Larry Watson, Equal Employment Oppportunity Commission, Cleveland District Office, Cleveland, OH, for Appellee.

Richard Whelan, Jr., Thompson, Hine & Flory, Cleveland, OH, Frank D. Celebrezze, McNEAL, SCHICK, ARCHIBALD & BIRO, Cleveland, Ohio, for Defendant-Appellee.

Mark S. Floyd, Richard Whelan, Jr., Thompson, Hine & Flory, Cleveland, OH, Nancy J. Fleming, Lakewood, Ohio, for Appellees.

Douglas A. Darch, William P. Dugan, Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before: KEITH, SILER, and BATCHELDER, Circuit Judges.

SILER, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which BATCHELDER, J., joined. KEITH, J. (pp. 255-56), delivered a separate opinion concurring in the judgment.

OPINION

SILER, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-Intervenors George Edwards, et al.("Intervenors"), appeal the denial of their request for individual relief against Defendants United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry of the United States and Canada, Local 120, et al. ("Union"), for violations of a consent decree's prohibition against employment discrimination. Plaintiff Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), appeals the same ruling by the district court, insisting the ruling did not alter the court's prior finding that the Union had violated certain record-keeping and reporting requirements of the consent decree. Defendants Honeywell, Inc. and Johnson Controls, Inc. ("Honeywell and Johnson") appeal the order joining them as defendants to Intervenors' action and thereby subjecting them to the provisions of the consent decree. We AFFIRM and REMAND.

BACKGROUND

This consolidated appeal primarily involves two actions which alleged violations of a consent decree to which the Union was a party. The Union represents pipefitters in the construction industry and is a signatory to various collective bargaining agreements with the Mechanical Contractors Association. Under these agreements, the Union is the exclusive referral source for pipefitters to members of the Mechanical Contractors Association in the area surrounding Cleveland, Ohio. Because construction work is intermittent, contractors frequently supplement their workforce with referrals from the Union.

In 1968, the EEOC filed a complaint against the Union alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. In January 1972, the district court entered a consent decree containing various provisions prohibiting the Union from "in any way limiting, segregating or classifying or otherwise adversely affecting [a journeyman's or pipefitter's] status as an employee or as an applicant for employment because of such individual's race or national origin." Intervenors, a certified class of black union members of the Union since January 1972, allege that this provision has been violated because white union members are routinely referred for work at higher rates and for longer durations than are black union members.

The consent decree also imposed various record-keeping and reporting requirements upon the Union. The Union was required to maintain out-of-work lists and to generally refer members for work in the order in which they registered. The major exceptions to this rule were that the Union was required to allow employers to recall former workers within certain time periods and to respond to requests for union members with specialized skills. Also included in the decree was the obligation that the Union provide and maintain a "master registration card" for each person seeking an employment referral. The master registration card was to note the date of referral, the name of the employer to whom the employee was referred, and the classification of the referral. Additionally, the Union was to provide a summary report at the end of each calendar quarter concerning these referral records.

In 1990, the EEOC sought an order requiring the Union to show cause why it should not be held in contempt for violating the record-keeping and reporting requirements of the consent decree. In 1992, the district court issued various orders holding the Union in civil contempt based upon, among other things, its failure to maintain a referral register and failure to maintain master registration cards. The district court ordered the Union to improve its record-keeping practices and to maintain in machine-readable form its members' out-of-work registrations and referrals on an individualized basis. Additionally, the district court found that the Union had engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination in the operation of its work referral system that resulted in black union members receiving fewer overall work hours than white members. The district court declined to award specific compensatory damages because the nature and content of the evidence would not allow for any particular black union member to show that he was given a referral of a shorter duration than a white union member. However, the district court did order that the Union pay a coercive fine of $200,000. Of this $200,000 total, $100,000 would be reserved to pay individual damages and the balance would be distributed among the 106 black class members.

Additionally, the district court ordered that any class member who contended that he was intentionally passed over due to discrimination in the referral practice had to first file a written grievance with a joint hiring committee. Upon denial of that complaint, the class member could obtain de novo review in the district court. No class members filed any such grievance.

In October 1992, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 19(a) and 21, the district court ordered the joinder as defendants the contractors that utilized the Union's hiring hall to secure compliance with the consent decree's record-keeping and recording requirements. Honeywell and Johnson were among the contractors joined as defendants. The district court denied Honeywell's and Johnson's joint motion to dismiss on December 17, 1992.

These interlocutory orders became final upon the district court's entry of an opinion and final judgment dated December 22, 1992, in which the district court reaffirmed its prior rulings. Intervenors moved under Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e) to amend the district court's order and for the award of individual relief. The district court granted this motion, holding that an additional, or "Stage II," hearing was to be held to determine what, if any, individual relief should have been awarded to Intervenors. The district court also stated that the Union had the burden of proof at the Stage II hearing and that the court would thereafter issue a final determination as to whether any of the prior rulings of the district court would require modification.

In preparation for the Stage II hearing, Judge William K. Thomas supervised the depositions of the various expert witnesses. One witness was Dr. Rebecca Klemm, a court-appointed expert who was charged with assessing the Union's record-keeping and creating a database to evaluate the EEOC's and Intervenors' claims. Following the completion of these depositions, Judge Thomas retired and the case was reassigned to Judge James S. Gwin. After trial, the district court held that Intervenors had not shown that they were entitled to further individual relief. Judge Gwin also reexamined Judge Thomas's finding that the Union had engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination and held that finding was clearly erroneous based upon statistical methodology that was incorrect and that failed to account for various exceptions to the requirements of the consent decree. The district court's order did not address the prior finding that the Union had violated the record-keeping and reporting requirements of the consent decree.

DISCUSSION

I. LAW OF THE CASE

In its opinion following the Stage II hearing, the district court relied upon the law of the case doctrine in its reexamination of the prior finding of a pattern or practice of discrimination. "The purpose of this doctrine is twofold: (1)to prevent the continued litigation of settled issues; and (2) to assure compliance by inferior courts with the decisions of superior courts." United States v. Todd, 920 F.2d 399, 403 (6th Cir. 1990). "[L]aw of the case is an amorphous concept. As most commonly defined, the doctrine posits that when a court decides upon a rule of law, that decision should continue to govern the same issues in subsequent stages in the same case." Arizona v. California, 460 U.S. 605, 618 (1983); see also Moses v. Business Card Express, Inc., 929 F.2d 1131 (6th Cir. 1991) (quoting Arizona...