Jackson v. Sargent

Decision Date04 February 1975
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 74-2463-F.
Citation394 F. Supp. 162
PartiesWarner B. JACKSON et al. v. Francis W. SARGENT et al.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Gershon M. Ratner, Boston Legal Assistance Project, Boston, Mass., Robert A. James, Jr., Boston Legal Assistance Project, Roxbury, Mass., for plaintiffs.

William A. Schroeder, Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, Mass., for Commonwealth.

John W. Arata, Boston, Mass., for Mass. Port Authority.

J. Joseph Maloney, Maloney, Gallagher & Kirk, Boston, Mass., for Mass. Turnpike Authority.

Morris M. Goldings, Boston, Mass., for Board of Trustees, State Colleges.

ORDER

FREEDMAN, District Judge.

Plaintiffs have brought this class action, seeking injunctive and declaratory relief, to redress injuries allegedly suffered by themselves and members of their class as a result of the alleged racially discriminatory hiring practices used by the defendants' state agencies in the City of Boston. The claim arises under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983. Consequently, this Court has jurisdiction over the action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3)(4).

The plaintiffs have offered certain statistics which, if true, tend to show an underrepresentation of minority persons employed in the defendants' state agencies in Boston as compared to Boston's minority population as a whole. The plaintiffs claim that this underrepresentation establishes a prima facie case of racial discrimination. In addition to their alleged prima facie case, plaintiffs claim that the defendants have historically engaged in, and continue to engage in, numerous employment practices which are racially discriminatory in effect and serve to perpetuate the effects of past racial discrimination.

At this juncture it is too early to evaluate the merits of the plaintiffs' case. Instead, the Court must decide whether the case is to go forward at all. The defendants have submitted various motions to dismiss which, taken as a whole, set forth five separate grounds upon which dismissal is urged. Yet before deciding each of these five issues, a summation of the relevant facts is in order.

When deciding a motion to dismiss, the Court must accept as true the allegations stated in the complaint.1 Cruz v. Beto, 405 U.S. 319, 322, 92 S.Ct. 1079, 31 L.Ed.2d 263 (1972); Gardner v. Toilet Goods Assn., 387 U.S. 167, 172, 87 S.Ct. 1526, 18 L.Ed.2d 704 (1967). Therefore, the following are the relevant facts with respect to the three individual plaintiffs.

A. Plaintiff Barbara Culbreath is a black citizen of the United States and a resident of Boston, Massachusetts. To date she has completed two years of business school in addition to being a high school graduate. Ms. Culbreath has been employed by the defendant Department of Public Welfare for eight and one-half years, of which more than the last three years has been as a social service technician in the Grove Hall, Roxbury Office in Boston.

Although social service technicians and social workers perform similar types of work, the latter are better paid, higher in grade level, greater in number and higher in prestige than the former. Minorities comprise the vast majority of the Department's social technicians in Boston, while non-minorities comprise a similar majority of the Department's social workers.

Plaintiff Culbreath has sought, with the recommendation of her supervisor, a promotion to the position of social worker. Her request has been denied by the Department despite the fact that she has passed the written test for social worker administered by the Massachusetts Division of Civil Service. She has been notified by Civil Service that she lacks the training and experience requirements to be a social worker.

One such requirement is a four-year college degree in any subject. Ms. Culbreath attacks this criterion as not being job related and also as being discriminatory in that a greater percentage of whites have four-year college degrees than non-whites.

Ms. Culbreath claims to have suffered injury because she has been forced to remain in a low paying job although she is qualified for promotion. She claims also to have been deprived of the community respect and status which accompanies higher level jobs.

B. Plaintiff Warner B. Jackson is a black citizen of the United States and a resident of Boston. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the United States Navy and is a high school graduate with more than a year of college to his credit.

Mr. Jackson has been employed privately in the past as a job developer, job recruiter, youth counselor and office administrator, and claims to be qualified in similar capacity for any of the defendants' agencies. Nevertheless, he has not applied for employment with any of the defendants' agencies because he does not want to subject himself to the racial discrimination in employment allegedly practiced by these agencies. If the defendants' discriminatory practices were enjoined, Mr. Jackson states that he would seek a job with them.

For the greater part of the year prior to the date of the filing of this complaint, Mr. Jackson was unemployed. On the filing date he was employed at a job which could have terminated at any time, did not utilize his job skills, and which paid $3,000 per year less than his prior job. Plaintiff Jackson alleges that, as a result of discrimination in employment by the defendants' agencies, his respect in the community has been reduced, he is unable to receive the monetary compensation which he is qualified to earn, and he is becoming increasingly anxious about his ability to support his family.

C. Plaintiff Santiago Parra has been a resident of Boston for five years. He is a Spanish-speaking citizen of Columbia on a permanent resident visa to the United States. He states that he has the experience, ability and training to be a competent brick or stone mason, electrician, plumber, cement finisher, reinforced concrete worker, plasterer, driller or construction laborer for any of defendants' agencies and has applied for such positions with the Massachusetts Division of Civil Service. He has not yet been notified by the defendants' agencies whether he will be offered a job.

Mr. Parra is currently unemployed and has been receiving "general relief" assistance payments from the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare. He claims that the defendants' racially discriminatory practices have resulted in his unemployment which has forced him to apply for welfare payments which, in turn, has reduced his stature in the community and caused him to suffer humiliation and embarrassment. Mr. Parra also claims to have suffered economic injury as a result of his unemployment.

STANDING

The doctrine of "Standing has been called one of `the most amorphous concepts in the entire domain of public law.'" Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S. 83, 99, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 1952, 20 L.Ed.2d 947 (1968), citing the Hearings on S.2097 before the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Senate Judiciary Committee, 89th Cong., 2d Sess. (1966), p. 498 (statement of Prof. Paul A. Freund). See, Evans v. Lynn, 376 F. Supp. 327, 330 (S.D.N.Y., 1974). Yet, the Supreme Court in recent years has addressed the topic frequently in an apparent effort to clarify the situation. The result of their efforts has been some clarification and some liberalization of the doctrine. See e. g., Flast v. Cohen, supra; Data Processing Service v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970); Sierra Club v. Morton, 405 U.S. 727, 92 S.Ct. 1361, 31 L.Ed.2d 636 (1972) ; United States v. SCRAP, 412 U.S. 669, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 37 L.Ed.2d 254 (1973), and Linda R. S. v. Richard D., 410 U.S. 614, 93 S.Ct. 1146, 35 L.Ed.2d 536 (1973).

Standing is but one of the restrictions placed upon the power of the federal judiciary by Article III of the Constitution which prohibits federal courts from deciding cases in which a case or controversy is not alleged.2 Besides requiring the party seeking relief to have standing, Article III also restricts federal courts from issuing advisory opinions or deciding political or moot questions. See, Flast v. Cohen, supra, 392 U.S. at 95, 88 S.Ct. 1942, 1949. Standing is distinguished from the other Article III limitations in that ". . . it focuses on the party seeking to get his complaint before a federal court and not on the issues he wishes to have adjudicated." Id. at 99, 88 S.Ct. at 1952.

When the issue of a party's standing to sue arises, the Court, being ever mindful of Article III, must always ask whether the claimant has ". . . alleged such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy as to assure that concrete adverseness which sharpens the presentation of issues upon which the court so largely depends for illumination of difficult constitutional questions?." Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). See, Flast v. Cohen, supra, 392 U.S. at 99, 88 S.Ct. 1942; Jenkins v. McKeithen, 395 U.S. 411, 423, 89 S.Ct. 1843, 23 L.Ed.2d 404 (1969), and O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U.S. 488, 494, 94 S.Ct. 669, 38 L.Ed.2d 674 (1974). Yet, ". . . it is clear that something more than an `adversary interest' is necessary to confer standing. There must in addition be some connection between the official action challenged and some legally protected interest of the party challenging that action." Jenkins v. McKeithen, supra, 395 U.S. at 423, 89 S.Ct. at 1850. Emphasis added.

When statutory, rather than constitutional, issues are raised, the same Article III principles relating to standing must be considered. O'Shea v. Littleton, supra, 414 U.S. at 494, 94 S. Ct. 669. Cf. United States v. SCRAP, supra, 412 U.S. at 687, 93 S.Ct. 2405, 37 L. Ed.2d 254 (1973). These principles were simplified to some extent by the Supreme Court in a two-part test which it set forth in Data Processing Service v. Camp, supra, and Barlow v. Collins, 397 U.S. 159, 90 S.Ct. 832, 25...

To continue reading

Request your trial
18 cases
  • Leag. of U. Latin Am. Citizens v. City of Santa Ana, CV 74-767-F.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 9th Circuit. United States District Courts. 9th Circuit. Central District of California
    • March 22, 1976
    ...... she alleges pervade all aspects of the employment practices of Jackson County. Having shown herself to be a black and a former employee, albeit ......
  • RI Affiliate Am. Civ. Liberties v. RI LOTTERY, Civ. A. No. 78-0604 P.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. District of Rhode Island
    • December 16, 1982
    ...such an approach. State officials have been regarded as "persons" under § 1983 in suits for equitable relief, see Jackson v. Sargent, 394 F.Supp. 162, 170 (D.Mass.) aff'd sub nom. Jackson v. Dukakis, 526 F.2d 64 (1st Cir.1975); Gay Students Organization of the University of New Hampshire v.......
  • Amoco Oil v. LOCAL 99, INTERN. BROTH. OF ELEC., ETC., Civ. A. No. 81-0554.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. United States District Courts. 1st Circuit. District of Rhode Island
    • March 29, 1982
    ...Turner v. Unification Church, 473 F.Supp. 367, 371 (D.R.I.1978) aff'd per curiam, 602 F.2d 458 (1st Cir. 1979); Jackson v. Sargent, 394 F.Supp. 162, 165 n. 1 (D.Mass.), aff'd on other grounds, 526 F.2d 64 (1st Cir. 1975). However, when deciding a motion to dismiss for lack of personal juris......
  • Johnson v. Teasdale, 78-4150-CV-C.
    • United States
    • United States District Courts. 8th Circuit. Western District of Missouri
    • September 19, 1978
    ...seek relief on behalf of the class he seeks to represent. Mintz v. Mathers Fund, Inc., 463 F.2d 495 (7th Cir. 1972); Jackson v. Sargent, 394 F.Supp. 162 (D.Mass. 1975); Baird v. Lynch, 390 F.Supp. 740 (E.D. Wis.1974); Jones v. United Gas Improvement Corp., 383 F.Supp. 420 (W.D.Pa.1974); Gor......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT