Jones v. Cassens Transport

• Decision Date: 17 September 1985
• Docket Number: No. 78 73078.,78 73078.
• Citation: 617 F. Supp. 869
• Parties: Frances JONES, Beverly Harder, Eleanor Murray, Linda Nickel, and Mary Ruane, Jointly and Severally, Plaintiffs, v. CASSENS TRANSPORT and Local 299, I.B.T., Jointly and Severally, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Michigan

617 F. Supp. 869

Frances JONES, Beverly Harder, Eleanor Murray, Linda Nickel, and Mary Ruane, Jointly and Severally, Plaintiffs, v. CASSENS TRANSPORT and Local 299, I.B.T., Jointly and Severally, Defendants.

No. 78 73078.

United States District Court, E.D. Michigan, S.D.

September 17, 1985.

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Ronald Reosti, Gary A. Benjamin, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiffs.

Marianne Goldstein Robbins, Milwaukee, Wis., for defendants; James P. Hoffa, Detroit, Mich., of counsel.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ANNA DIGGS TAYLOR, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, five female office employees of the Square Deal Cartage Company until it was purchased by defendant Cassens Transport and they lost their jobs in August, 1977, filed their complaint in this matter in Wayne County Circuit Court for the State of Michigan on November 16, 1978. They claimed that both defendants had discriminated against them because of their sex, in violation of the laws of Michigan, in refusing to permit plaintiffs to bid or apply for jobs at Cassens because they were women. The complaint further charged the union with breach of its duty to fairly represent plaintiffs, either in negotiations with defendant Cassens concerning the job rights of Square Deal employees, or in a grievance against defendant Cassens' refusal to hire the plaintiffs.

Defendant Local 299 petitioned for removal to this court on November 30, 1978, because the claim for breach of a duty of fair representation presented a federal question under § 301 of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. § 185, et seq, and because a federal question of the violation of Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq, had been raised. Removal was proper, and this court's jurisdiction is appropriate. 28 U.S.C. § 1441.

An amended complaint was filed February 27, 1979, adding claims of defendants' violations of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq. Plaintiffs Jones, Harder, Murray and Ruane had filed charges and obtained Right-to-Sue letters from the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission dated January 22, 1979 against Cassens, but not against Local 299. Plaintiff Linda Nickel had filed no charge and received no letter.

Plaintiffs had also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board in January, 1978, that unfair labor practices had been committed by Cassens Transport in its alleged refusal to hire them because of their union membership. Those charges were later resolved by a settlement which included plaintiffs' waiver of any right to office jobs at Cassens as one of its terms. This court, nevertheless, took evidence at trial herein concerning Cassens' failure and refusal to hire plaintiffs into its office. That evidence is relevant to the issues of sex discrimination and fair representation presented herein, despite the settlement's preclusion of a grant of office work at Cassens to plaintiffs as a remedy here available.

At the bifurcated trial on the issue of liability, both defendants moved to dismiss at the close of plaintiffs' case, pursuant to Rule 41(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The motion of defendant Cassens was denied, inasmuch as plaintiffs had made a prima facie case of intentional sex discrimination under both Title VII and under Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, M.C.L.A. § 37.2101, pursuant to which the same standards are to be applied. See Michigan Civil Rights Commission ex rel. Boyd v. Chrysler, 80 Mich.App. 368, 263 N.W.2d 376 (1977); Clark v. Uniroyal, 119 Mich.App. 820, 327 N.W.2d 372 (1982); and Northville Schools v. CRC, 118 Mich.App. 573, 325 N.W.2d 497 (1982).

This court granted the union's motion to dismiss plaintiffs' Title VII claim for their failure to have presented any charge against the union to the EEOC. After trial, this court reinstated the Title VII claim under authority of the subsequently decided case of Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 455 U.S. 385, 102 S.Ct. 1127, 71 L.Ed.2d 234 (1982), in which the Supreme Court stated that:

By holding compliance with the filing period to be not a jurisdictional prerequisite to filing a Title VII suit, but a requirement subject to waiver as well as tolling when equity so requires, we honor the remedial purpose of the legislation as a whole without negating the particular purpose of the filing requirement, to give prompt notice to the employer. (102 S.Ct. at 1135)

As is fully discussed below, both defendants herein had pursued a course of secrecy and concealment of rights in their dealings with the plaintiffs; and plaintiffs each testified that they were told by EEOC personnel that the EEOC could afford them no relief against the union when they filed their charges against the employer. Accordingly, this court determined this to be a case in which equity required waiver of the requirement.

Also, the court denied defendant union's Rule 41 motion to dismiss plaintiffs' claim of breach of the duty of fair representation, and pendent thereto retained plaintiffs' discrimination claim against the union under the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

After trial, the court entered a judgment of liability May 2, 1982 for plaintiffs on all of its claims against both defendants by a Memorandum Opinion published at 538 F.Supp. 929. Thereafter both defendants appealed, and during the pendency of the appeal defendant Cassens settled with plaintiffs. 705 F.2d 454 (6th Cir.1982). The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit thereafter (by opinion published at 748 F.2d 1083 November 29, 1984), reversed this court, dismissed plaintiffs' Title VII and fair representation claims, and remanded plaintiffs' Elliott-Larsen claim to this court for reconsideration. The Title VII claim was dismissed because that court found no basis for setting aside the requirement that plaintiffs file a charge against defendant union with EEOC: and the fair representation claim was dismissed in light of this circuit's decision to retroactively apply the six-month statute of limitations adopted for such claims in Delcostello v. Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983).

In remanding the Elliott-Larsen claim to this court, the Sixth Circuit panel wrote:

We are unable to determine from the opinion below whether the District Judge found that the union's actions constituted illegal exclusion or expulsion from membership, classification or segregation of membership, efforts to cause or attempt to cause Cassens to violate the Elliott-Larsen Act, failure to adequately represent plaintiffs in the grievance process, or a combination of some or all of those prohibited activities. We, therefore, remand plaintiffs' state claim to the District Court for reconsideration in light of this opinion.

The parties have submitted their briefs on the issues raised by plaintiffs' Elliott-Larsen claim, and this memorandum opinion constitutes this court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, on remand, on that count alone.

At the outset, this court must note that it rejects the request of defendant union that it decline to retain jurisdiction of this pendent state law claim, the last remaining claim in the case. If the case had reached this posture before the month-long trial of 1982, the appeal, and the remand, this court would certainly entertain the request under a more favorable light. At this point however, plaintiffs — five women who lost their clerical jobs in 1977 — will not be required to seek yet another forum for their grievance. The manifest injustice of dismissing this last claim without a decision on the merits would not even constitute a realistic conservation of judicial resources.

Michigan's Elliott-Larsen Act provides at M.C.L.A. § 37.2204, as follows:

Sec. 204. A labor organization shall not:

(a) Exclude or expel from membership, or otherwise discriminate against, a member or applicant for membership because of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, or marital status.

(b) Limit, segregate, or classify membership or applicants for membership, or classify or fail to refuse to refer for employment an individual in a way which would deprive or tend to deprive that individual of an employment opportunity, or which would limit an employment opportunity, or which would adversely affect wages, hours, or employment conditions, or otherwise adversely affect the status of an employee or an applicant for employment because of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, or marital status.

(c) Cause or attempt to cause an employer to violate this article.

(d) Fail to fairly and adequately represent a member in a grievance process because of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, or marital status.

Plaintiffs herein claim that the defendant union has violated all four of the above-quoted statutory prohibitions, and this court so finds, for the reasons outlined below.

On June 3, 1976, defendant Cassens Transport, the Square Deal Cartage Co., and Gate City Transport Co. executed a contract by which Cassens was to purchase all property and assets of Square Deal and Gates. All three companies were engaged in the business of hauling new automobiles by truck, and they utilized contiguous premises as their Detroit Terminals. At that time, the five female plaintiffs herein were employed in the Square Deal Detroit Terminal Office as clerical workers; and were represented by defendant Local 299 as were most of the employees of all three companies. Mr. Wilson Holsinger, who was Director of the Teamster Carhaul Division during the events herein litigated, testified that he had helped organize the Square Deal office in 1958, and gained recognition by a showing of cards to represent the officeworkers, while he was the Square Deal steward for yardmen and drivers.

The execution of Cassens' purchase of Square Deal was delayed until August 26, 1977, because of the necessity for federal...