Mosley v. Clarksville Memorial Hosp.

• Decision Date: 31 August 1983
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 78-3283-NA-CV.
• Citation: 574 F. Supp. 224
• Parties: Donnell Richard MOSLEY, et al. v. CLARKSVILLE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee

574 F. Supp. 224

Donnell Richard MOSLEY, et al. v. CLARKSVILLE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL.

Civ. A. No. 78-3283-NA-CV.

United States District Court, M.D. Tennessee, Nashville Division.

March 2, 1983.

On Damages and Front Pay August 31, 1983.

W. Henry Haile, Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiffs.

Stafford McNamee, Jr., Nashville, Tenn., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

JOHN T. NIXON, District Judge.

Donnell R. Mosley, the original plaintiff brought suit under Title VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d and e, et seq. (1980), 42 U.S.C. § 1981, § 1983, § 1985 and § 1988 (1980), charging his former employer, Clarksville Memorial Hospital, with racial discrimination in its employment practices. This Court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331(a), § 1337 and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. (1980). Plaintiff brought this suit as a class action. On September 7, 1979, plaintiff was granted leave to amend the complaint to add additional plaintiffs Nora Merriweather, Edith Poindexter, Sarah Jordan, Janice Bowen and Ceresa Graves, all present or former employees of Clarksville Memorial Hospital. On November 16, 1979, plaintiffs were granted leave to file a Second Amended Complaint adding Lenore Ramey as a plaintiff. Ms. Ramey is the only plaintiff who is not an employee or a former employee of Clarksville Memorial Hospital; Ms. Ramey's complaint was that she was not hired because of her race.

A hearing was held on the plaintiff's motion to certify a class pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and, on September 29, 1980, this Court issued its Order and Memorandum Opinion certifying a limited class of black employees and former employees. Mr. Mosley was certified as the sole representative of the class and the class was defined as all black persons who are, or were, employees of Clarksville Memorial Hospital who were qualified for, but were denied, promotions in positions which were later filled by whites, and who were in the employ of Clarksville Memorial Hospital, on or after May 24, 1976. In addition, the class includes black employees who are or were being paid less than white employees while filling the same positions. The class was conditionally certified pursuant to Rule 23(b)(2) and Rule 23(c)(1) for declaratory relief that defendant's acts, policies, practices and procedures violate rights guaranteed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, and other laws. The class was also conditionally certified for potential injunctive relief. The Court also certified a Rule 23(b)(3) subclass of black employees of the hospital who seek compensatory damages for mental distress as a result of the hospital's alleged discriminatory policies and practices. Excluded from this subclass are black employees who left their employment prior to July 6, 1977 or who were denied equal pay or promotions before that date.

The defendant, Clarksville Memorial Hospital is a public agency organized by an Act of the Tennessee General Assembly and funded by the taxpayers. Its acts constitute "state action" for purposes of the plaintiffs' claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

The case came on for trial on April 8, 1981 upon the allegations pertaining to the classes certified and conditionally certified and the allegations of Lenore Ramey, individually.

The original plaintiff in this case, Donnell R. Mosley, is a black resident of Clarksville, Tennessee. His suit was predicated upon a timely right to sue letter issued after he filed a complaint of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on November 19, 1976. In addition to other causes of action, which are common to other members of the class, Mosley individually contends that the hospital failed to honor a conciliation agreement executed May 28, 1976, which required that he be promoted out of the hospital housekeeping department to the next available position elsewhere in the hospital for which he was qualified.

Mosley first applied for employment at the Clarksville Memorial Hospital on August 21, 1973. He attended Austin Peay State University in Clarksville for approximately two years, prior to applying for employment at the hospital, and also worked part-time at the University as a clerk and clerk-typist. Mosley expressed a preference for a clerical position at the hospital, but stated on his application that he would accept any available job. When the hospital made inquiry at Austin Peay about Mosley's clerical job performance, his former supervisor gave him a good recommendation. Defendant concedes that he was a "competent typist".

It has been and is the practice of the defendant, in 1973 and at the time of trial, to classify job applications by department. Mrs. Katye Shelton, hospital Personnel Director, placed Mosley's application among the other applications for jobs in the dietary and housekeeping departments. The organization of those two departments included positions which were traditionally held by blacks. At the time of Mosley's application, no black had ever held a clerical position in the hospital business office.

Mosley made application to the hospital in August 1973 and was hired in September 1974 as a dishwasher in the dietary department, a position which had always been held by blacks. During a part of the time that his application was on file with the hospital, from February to May 1974, Mosley was employed as a technical assistant at Arnold Engineering and Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee. His responsibility at that U.S. Government facility included ordering of parts, reading of gas meters and some clerical work. He was terminated from that employment because his overall performance was not satisfactory, but his supervisor informed the personnel director at Clarksville Memorial Hospital that Mosley had been "one of the best typists I have ever seen".

Mosley's performance as a dishwasher was good and in January 1976 he transferred for the convenience of the hospital to the housekeeping department. There he worked as a porter, cleaning rooms, mopping floors and doing other menial tasks. In September 1975 at the end of his first year as an employee at the Clarksville Memorial Hospital, he was given an excellent job performance evaluation by his supervisor.

Mr. Mosley's relationship with the hospital began to change in December 1975. That month he expressed a desire to transfer to a position as clerk in the dietary department, one that he had learned would soon be vacated by an encumbered white female. This position was one that had never been held by a black. Mosley contacted Mrs. Shelton, the personnel director, about this prospective opening, and she gave him a typing examination which he passed on December 31, 1975.

In January 1976, Mosley discovered that the clerkship in the dietary department had been filled by another white female. He made inquiry of personnel director Shelton and was told that the reason he did not get the dietary position was that his performance in the housekeeping department was unsatisfactory. Shelton showed him a copy of a memorandum signed by the supervisor of the housekeeping department and dated December 26, 1975, which contained reports that Mosley had left work early, and had not performed his work on occasion. Hospital personnel policy provides that all written disciplinary reports be shown to the employee before being included in a personnel file. The reports had never been shown to Mosley prior to their disclosure to him by Shelton. Mosley immediately confronted his supervisor, insisted the reports were false and demanded the opportunity to confront those who had made the complaints.

Several weeks later Mosley filed a written complaint of discrimination with the Tennessee Commission for Human Development. His written response to the allegations in the December 16, 1975 memorandum were submitted to that agency. On May 28, 1976, the hospital signed a conciliation agreement with Mosley and the Human Development Commission, in which, among other things, it promised to promote Mosley out of the housekeeping department into the first available position for which he was qualified. Six days prior to execution of the May 28, 1976 conciliation agreement, while the conciliation effort between the Commission and the hospital was under way, Mosley received another disciplinary write-up. This second write-up was signed by the white supervisor of the housekeeping department and two black employees, Holmes and Robertson. Holmes did not testify at the hearing, but Mosley called Robertson in rebuttal. He then testified that Mosley was a good employee, that his work record was above average in the housekeeping department, and that on no other occasion had he been asked to sign a written disciplinary report on an employee for infractions of the minor nature as those charged against Mosley.

Mosley was never contacted by the hospital regarding any opening outside of the housekeeping department. In August 1976, he saw a job posted on the hospital bulletin board for a clerk in the business office. No black person ever held such a position at the hospital, although many blacks had applied. Mosley contacted Shelton about the job. Shelton stated that she would contact the white supervisor of the business office. Upon later inquiry by Mosley she replied that the white male supervisor was not certain the vacancy would be filled. Later it was filled by a white female. There is nothing in the record to indicate the white female's qualifications. According to hospital policy, an employee could transfer from one department to another only with the approval of both departmental supervisors. The supervisor of the business office refused to accept Mosley.

On September 7, 1976, Mosley complained in writing to Cornelius Jones (now deceased), director of the Tennessee Commission for Human Development. At trial the hospital administrator testified that Jones...