Herrera v. Yellow Freight System, Inc., 73-2254
| Decision Date | 25 November 1974 |
| Docket Number | No. 73-2254,73-2254 |
| Citation | 505 F.2d 66 |
| Parties | 8 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1266, 8 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 9812 Ernest HERRERA et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. YELLOW FREIGHT SYSTEM, INC., et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Ruben Montemayor, Harry A. Nass, Jr., San Antonio, Tex., for plaintiffs-appellants.
Theo F. Weiss, San Antonio, Tex., Paul Scott Kelly, Raymond F. Beagle, Jr., Kansas City, Mo., for Yellow Freight.
Edward W. Penshorn, Bradford F. Miller, San Antonio, Tex., for Local 657.
Hal K. Gillespie, G. William Baab, Dallas, Tex., for So. Conf. of Teamsters.
Before WISDOM, AINSWORTH and GODBOLD, Circuit Judges.
This is an action brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by three Mexican-American city drivers employed by the defendant Yellow Freight System, Inc. The plaintiffs contend that the company defendant's past discrimination in the hiring of road drivers has been perpetuated by the company's no-transfer policy and by the maintenance of separate seniority rosters for road and city drivers without provision for seniority carryover by the defendant unions. As a result of these policies, the plaintiffs argue, they have been discriminatorily 'locked in' their city driver jobs without any realistic opportunity to transfer to a higher paying road job position. The district court found no discrimination. On the authority of Rodriguez v. East Texas Motor Freight, 5 Cir. 1974, 505 F.2d 40, decided today, we reverse.
In almost every respect this suit is a carbon copy of Rodriguez, except that Rodriguez was a class action while this is brought only on behalf of the individual plaintiffs. The plaintiffs here work as city drivers in Yellow Freight's San Antonio terminal. Like East Texas Motor Freight, Yellow Freight domiciles no road drivers in San Antonio. Like East Texas Motor Freight, Yellow Freight's history of road-driver hiring is heavily tainted by discriminatory exclusion of minority drivers. 1 And like East Texas Motor Freight, Yellow Freight, and the unions, have hindered the transfer of city drivers to road driver jobs by a notransfer policy and the maintenance of separate seniority rosters. This case was brought before the same district judge that heard Rodriguez a few days later. Similar to its finding in Rodriguez, the court found that none of the plaintiffs 'could satisfy all the qualifications for a road driver position according to the company manual due to age or weight or driving record'. The court concluded that 'the defendants did not discriminate against the plaintiffs or any other employee or Union member on the basis of race or otherwise'.
The defendants here advance many of the same arguments in support of the district court's conclusion that the defendants advanced in Rodriguez, and again we reject them. It is our considered view that the plaintiffs established a prima facie case of hiring discrimination perpetuated by the racially neutral no-transfer and no-seniority-carryover policies of Yellow Freight, Local 657, and the Southern Conference. 2 The discriminatory effect of these policies was not justified by a showing of business necessity. The district court's finding of no discrimination, therefore, is erroneous.
Because this is not a class action, we pause to amplify our discussion in Rodriguez of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 1973, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668. In McDonnell Douglas the Court outlined...
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Sagers v. Yellow Freight System, Inc.
...Court decided the trilogy of Rodriguez v. East Texas Motor Freight, 5 Cir. 1974, 505 F.2d 40, U.S.App.Pndg.; Herrera v. Yellow Freight System, Inc., 5 Cir. 1974, 505 F.2d 66; and Resendis v. Lee Way Motor Freight, Inc., 5 Cir. 1974, 505 F.2d 69, U.S.App.Pndg., which, in turn, were preceded ......
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