Kirkland v. Buffalo Bd. of Educ.
| Decision Date | 27 March 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 852,D,852 |
| Citation | 622 F.2d 1066 |
| Parties | 23 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1547, 22 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 30,818 Theodore KIRKLAND, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. BUFFALO BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant-Appellant. ockets 79-7750, 79-7778. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Peter J. S. Gerard, Asst. Corp. Counsel, Buffalo, N. Y. (Joseph P. McNamara, Corp. Counsel, Buffalo, N. Y., of counsel), for defendant-appellant.
James W. Kirkpatrick, Buffalo, N. Y. (Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Schuller & James, Buffalo, N. Y., of counsel), for plaintiff-appellee.
Before FRIENDLY and FEINBERG, Circuit Judges, and SIFTON, District Judge. *
The Board of Education of the City of Buffalo, New York, appeals from a decision of District Judge Charles L. Brieant, sitting by designation in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, finding that the Board had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., by refusing to hire appellee Theodore Kirkland in May 1977 and awarding Kirkland $13,500 in damages and attorneys fees. In July 1973, the Board declined to hire Kirkland for its newly created position of Director of Security despite the fact that Kirkland had scored first on the qualifying exam. Believing that he was denied employment because of his race, Kirkland filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the EEOC) and the New York State Division of Human Rights and instituted a lawsuit against the Board in the New York State Supreme Court. In June 1976, the EEOC ruled that there was "reasonable cause to believe that (the Board) failed to hire (Kirkland) because of his race, black." Conciliation efforts between the EEOC and the Board were unsuccessful and the Department of Justice, after declining to pursue the matter itself, issued Kirkland a "right to sue" letter in May 1977. Shortly before Kirkland received his authorization to sue in federal court, the position of Director of Security again became available. Kirkland resubmitted his application and after being persuaded by the Board to drop his state court litigation, was again denied employment in May 1977, principally on the grounds that the civil service list of eligible candidates had expired and that the list was incomplete. Kirkland filed his complaint in the present lawsuit one month later, charging that the Board violated Title VII in refusing to hire him both in July 1973 and in May 1977.
Judge Brieant, in a well-reasoned opinion reported at 487 F.Supp. 760 (W.D.N.Y.1979), concluded that the Board had acted justifiably in refusing to hire Kirkland in 1973. The court found, however, that the explanations offered by the Board for its refusal to hire Kirkland in 1977 were a pretext, and that the real motivation for the Board's action was a desire to retaliate against Kirkland for his complaints concerning the 1973 hiring. Accordingly Judge Brieant held that the Board's 1977 refusal to hire Kirkland violated Title VII. We affirm this determination for the reasons given by the district court, and address in this opinion the only substantial...
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