Equal Employment Opportunity Com'n v. Eagle Iron Works

• Decision Date: 06 December 1973
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 73-116-1.
• Citation: 367 F. Supp. 817
• Parties: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff, v. EAGLE IRON WORKS et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

367 F. Supp. 817

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff, v. EAGLE IRON WORKS et al., Defendants.

Civ. No. 73-116-1.

United States District Court, S. D. Iowa, C. D.

December 6, 1973.

Paul F. Ahlers, James E. Cooney, and H. Richard Smith, Des Moines, Iowa, for Eagle Iron Works.

Arthur C. Hedberg, Jr., Des Moines, Iowa, for Local 479.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

STUART, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on a motion to dismiss filed by defendant Eagle Iron Works (Eagle). Because Eagle has offered several exhibits in support of the motion, the Court will treat it as a motion for summary judgment under F.R.Civ.P. 12(b) and 56.

The most recent charge filed against Eagle with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, was filed by Ira Hicks, February 17, 1969, alleging a violation occurred on October 31, 1968. At that time Mr. Hicks had a complaint pending with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission involving the same incident. By letter dated June 25, 1969, Eagle Iron Works was informed that the Iowa Civil Rights Commission found no probable cause existed with regard to this grievance.

On December 21, 1971, the EEOC decided there was reasonable cause to believe there had been a violation of Title VII. On May 11, 1972, the EEOC sent Mr. Hicks a "Notice of Right to Sue Within Ninety Days". On September 7, 1972, about 120 days after the 90 day notice, Mr. Hicks filed his complaint in this Court. On January 24, 1973, the action was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction because the complaint was not filed within 90 days.

On May 23, 1973, the EEOC filed this patterns and practices action pursuant to Section 706(f)(1) and (3) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. as amended by Public Law 92-261, 86 Stat. 103, March 24, 1972. The EEOC does not dispute the claim that the above grievance charging discrimination is the only one on which the present action could be based.

In the motion and accompanying "Memorandum of Authorities" offered in support thereof, Eagle asserts the following grounds for issuing summary judgment in its favor:

(1) The Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction;

(2) Plaintiff EEOC has failed to state a cause of action on which relief can be granted because

(a) the alleged violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S. C. §§ 2000e, et seq., occurred prior to the effective date of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, Pub.L. No. 92-261, 86 Stat. 103, which Act first empowered the EEOC to sue in its own behalf,

(b) the EEOC is precluded by prior proceedings from litigating the issues raised in this suit,

(c) the EEOC has improperly pleaded the satisfaction of conditions precedent, and

(d) the instant action is barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

For the reasons set out below the Court is of the opinion that Eagle's motion should be denied.

I. Subject Matter Jurisdiction

Eagle argues that this Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the instant controversy. Its memorandum does not squarely address this contention. Since, as will be discussed below, Eagle's one claim which might successfully challenge this Court's jurisdiction —that EEOC has improperly pleaded jurisdictional facts—must be decided against it, the Court concludes that it does, in fact, possess the requisite subject matter jurisdiction. See 28 U.S.C. §§ 1343(4), 1345; 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3).

II. Retroactive Application of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972

Prior to the amendment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, the plaintiff in this case, the EEOC, was powerless to sue eo nominee to secure compliance with Title VII. Eagle argues that it is a violation of its right to due process to allow the EEOC to sue it now, that application of a 1972 legislative enactment to a 1968 grievance is prohibited by the 5th amendment and the ex post facto clause of Article I, section 9 of the Constitution. At the heart of Eagle's contention is its claim that Title VII is essentially punitive in nature. See Burgess v. Salmon (1878), 97 U.S. (7 Otto) 381, 384-385, 24 L.Ed. 1104. This characterization ignores a substantial body of law that has reached the conclusion that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 are remedial in purpose and are to be given the broadest possible interpretation consistent with their benevolent purpose. See, e.g., Parham v. Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. (8th Cir., 1970), 433 F.2d 421, 425; Bowe v. Colgate Palmolive Co. (7th Cir., 1969), 416 F.2d 711, 719-721; Walker v. Kleindienst (D.D.C., 1973), 357 F.Supp. 749.

Eagle also argues that the retroactive application of the 1972 statute is impermissible because it deprives an individual of vested fundamental rights or property interests. See Chase Securities Corp. v. Donaldson (1945), 325 U.S. 304, 311-316, 65 S.Ct. 1137, 89 L.Ed. 1628; Campbell v. Holt (1885), 115 U.S. 620, 628-630, 6 S.Ct. 209, 29 L.Ed. 483. Especially apposite here is the following language from Campbell:

There are numerous cases where a contract incapable of enforcement for want of a remedy, or because there is some obstruction to the remedy, can be so aided by legislation as to become the proper ground of a valid action . . .

In all this class of cases the ground taken is that there exists a contract, but, by reason of no remedy having been provided for its enforcement, or the remedy ordinarily applicable to that class having, for reasons of public policy, been forbidden or withheld, the legislature, by providing a remedy where none exists, or removing the statutory obstruction to the use of the remedy, enables the party to enforce the contract, otherwise unobjectionable. 115 U.S. at 627, 6 S.Ct. at 213.

The point emphasized by the quoted excerpt from Campbell is that, if there exists a right, a subsequent legislative enactment creating a remedy for the deprivation of or interference with that right is constitutionally unobjectionable. Defendant Eagle misconstrues the statutory scheme and fails to recognize the distinction between unlawful conduct and a cause of action to remedy that conduct.

Retroactive application is supported by the plain statutory language of § 14 of the 1972 Act, Pub.L. No. 92-261, § 14, which provides: "The amendments made by this Act to 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5 shall be applicable with respect to charges pending with the Commission on March 24, 1972 and all charges filed thereafter." Since there is agreement that the complaint which triggered the instant suit was pending on March 24, 1972, it is evident that Congress intended § 2000e-5 to apply to this case. By allowing the EEOC to proceed, therefore, the Court is doing nothing more than effectuating a clearly expressed legislative intent.

Racially oriented employment discrimination has been prohibited since the effective date of the 1964 Act, July 2, 1965. The 1972 Act requires that an analogy be drawn comparing the provision allowing the EEOC to sue in its own behalf to a Congressional attempt to provide a remedy for a preexisting right of the type referred to in Campbell, supra. So viewed, allowing the EEOC to avail itself of the provisions of the 1972 Act poses no constitutional problems. See Walker v. Kleindienst, supra.

III. Collateral Estoppel

In arguing the unconstitutionality of applying the 1972 Act to this case, Eagle has advanced the first tine of a two-pronged argument, the second of which is based on the principle of collateral estoppel. Eagle argues that if the Equal Employment Opportunity Act created a new cause of action then it is unconstitutional to allow the EEOC to prosecute that action since it was created subsequent to the filing of the original complaint. In the alternative, if the 1972 Act merely authorized the EEOC to prosecute the cause of action accruing under the 1964 Act to the original claimant, Ira Hicks, then the EEOC is barred from proceeding further by the dismissal entered against Hicks on January 24, 1973, for failing to proceed in a timely manner. We need not consider the first alternative as the EEOC does not claim the 1972 Act as a new cause of action and it has already been interpreted to be remedial herein.

As suggested in the discussion of retroactivity, above, the more appropriate approach to the problem posed by Eagle's due process argument involves the determination of whether allowing the EEOC to proceed in its own right violated Eagle's constitutional rights by depriving it of a vested fundamental right or property interest. In a similar vein, it is not sufficient to deal with Eagle's attempted interposition of the doctrine of collateral estoppel by merely deciding whether Hicks, himself, still has a cause of action. Rather, the Court must determine whether Hicks' unsuccessful attempt to seek relief on his own behalf bars the EEOC from seeking essentially similar relief from the same defendant in the action now before the Court.

Eagle argues that the "doctrine referred to as issue preclusion" bars the EEOC from proceeding eo nominee in the instant action. "Issue preclusion" is more generally known as collateral estoppel; see Engelhardt v. Bell & Howell Co. (8th Cir., 1964), 327 F.2d 30, 31; but regardless of the label chosen, Eagle's position is untenable. An examination of the authority cited by Eagle in support of its position leads to the conclusion that Hicks' unsuccessful attempt to sue Eagle is no bar to this action. In 1B J. Moore & T. Currier, Moore's Federal Practice ¶ 0.4412 (1971 Reprint) (Moore's Federal Practice), the following definition of collateral estoppel is offered:

The essence of collateral estoppel by judgment is that some question or fact in dispute has been judicially and finally determined by a court of competent juridiction between the same parties or their privies. Thus the

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