Nicodemus v. Chrysler Corp.

• Decision Date: 06 April 1979
• Docket Number: No. 77-3026,77-3026
• Citation: 596 F.2d 152
• Parties: 19 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 500, 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 9265 Julia A. NICODEMUS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 152

596 F.2d 152

19 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 500, 19 Empl. Prac.

Dec. P 9265

Julia A. NICODEMUS, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CHRYSLER CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 77-3026.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued Oct. 10, 1978.

Decided April 6, 1979.

Thomas L. Dalrymple, Richard S. Baker, Fuller, Henry, Hodge & Snyder, Toledo, Ohio, for defendant-appellant.

Robert J. Affeldt, Sylvania, Ohio, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before CELEBREZZE and KEITH, Circuit Judges, and LAWRENCE, Senior District Judge. ^*

KEITH, Circuit Judge.

This case involves an appeal by Chrysler Corporation ("Chrysler") from the district court's grant of a preliminary injunction requiring it to reinstate plaintiff-appellee in employment status with back pay and to pay attorney's fees and expenses incurred by plaintiff-appellee in prosecuting the preliminary injunction action. The jurisdiction of this court is invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1). ¹

The record reveals that on July 2, 1973, plaintiff-appellee, Julia A. Nicodemus, ² brought a class action suit against Chrysler for sex discrimination in employment practices. After the conclusion of the first segment of a bifurcated trial at which evidence upon the liability issue was presented, the district court, in an opinion filed April 5, 1976, found Chrysler liable for sex discrimination in violation of Title VII ³ and continued the case for trial of the issues relating to relief. On August 6, 1976, during the interim between the liability and the relief segments of the trial, plaintiff-appellee was discharged by Chrysler. Three days after termination of her employment, on August 9, 1976, plaintiff-appellee's union filed a written grievance in her behalf. Four days later, on August 13, 1976, plaintiff-appellee filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and a motion for preliminary injunction, each alleging that her termination was in retaliation against her because of her status as the class representative in the sex discrimination action. On the date of its filing, plaintiff-appellee's motion for a temporary restraining order was denied ⁴ on the grounds that the termination would not result in irreparable harm and that plaintiff-appellee had an adequate remedy at law.

A hearing for the presentation of evidence on plaintiff-appellee's motion for a preliminary injunction was held on September 16, 1976. ⁵ Chrysler argued at this hearing that plaintiff-appellee had been dismissed for absenteeism pursuant to a nationally established company policy which authorized disciplinary action for any employee absent five (5) consecutive days without adequate substantiation that he or she could not have worked. ⁶ Plaintiff-appellee countered with evidence that she had been absent from work because of personal problems in the nature of marital difficulties and that she had consulted with and been excused from work by her doctor. The crux of her contention at the hearing and on this appeal is that Chrysler used its purportedly established national policy as a pretext to retaliate against her for participating in the sex discrimination lawsuit.

The district court agreed with plaintiff-appellee that Chrysler's contention that she had been discharged pursuant to an established employment policy was a pretext. Instead, the court found, in a Memorandum and Order dated September 17, 1976, that she was discharged "in retaliation for her having maintained a successful class action law suit attacking sex discrimination in employment practices." The court also found that plaintiff-appellee would suffer irreparable harm if the court did not issue the injunction. As a result of these findings, the district court ordered Chrysler to immediately reinstate plaintiff-appellee to the employment status she held on August 2, 1976, the last day she reported for work, ⁷ and to pay her all backpay accruing from this date to the date she was reinstated. The district court further ordered Chrysler to pay plaintiff-appellee's counsel the sum of $1,000.00 to cover attorney's fees and expenses incurred in prosecuting the preliminary injunction action.

On September 20, 1976, Chrysler filed a notice of appeal from the district court's Memorandum and Order entered on September 17, 1976. On September 21, 1976, Chrysler also filed a motion pursuant to Rule 62(c), F.R.C.P., for suspension of the injunction during pendency of the appeal. On September 23, 1976, the district court entered an order overruling Chrysler's motion to stay the injunction. Thereupon, on October 8, 1976, Chrysler filed a notice of appeal from the district court's order overruling its motion to stay the injunction and from the judgment of the same date granting plaintiff-appellee's motion for preliminary injunction, reinstatement, back pay, and attorney's fees and expenses. We now reverse the judgment of the district court.

The standard for appellate review of the granting or denial of a preliminary injunction has been succinctly stated by the First Circuit:

"In reviewing the granting of or denial of a preliminary injunction, the standard is whether the district court abused its discretion. An appellate court's role is to decide whether the district court applied proper legal standards and whether there was reasonable support for its evaluation of factual questions."

Hochstadt v. Worcester Foundation, 545 F.2d 222, 229 (1st Cir. 1976). See also, Meccano, Ltd. v. John Wanamaker, 253 U.S. 136, 141, 40 S.Ct. 463, 64 L.Ed. 822 (1970); King v. Saddleback Junior College District, 425 F.2d 426, 427 (9th Cir. 1970), Cert. denied, 404 U.S. 979, 92 S.Ct. 342, 30 L.Ed.2d 294 (1971); Sellers v. Regents of the University of California, 432 F.2d 493, 497 (9th Cir. 1970), Cert. denied, 401 U.S. 981, 91 S.Ct. 1194, 28 L.Ed.2d 333 (1971); Jerome v. Viviano Food Co., 489 F.2d 965, (5th Cir. 1974). And while Chrysler strongly contends that the injunction should be set aside on the merits, we do not reach this question.

The aspect of the case most disturbing to the Court, and which we believe requires that we reverse, is the conduct of the district judge during the preliminary injunction hearing. Unfortunately, we cannot say as Judge Edwards did in Brown v. Ralston Purina, 557 F.2d 570 (6th Cir. 1977), that "(t)he hearings were conducted fairly and courteously by the District Judge." 557 F.2d at 573. In making an oral ruling from the bench on plaintiff-appellee's preliminary injunction motion, the district judge stated:

"This thing is the most transparent and the most blatant attempt to intimidate witnesses and parties that I have seen in a long time. I don't believe anything that anybody from Chrysler tells me because there is nothing in the record that is before me and in my experience in dealing with this case that gives me reason to believe that they are worthy of credence by anybody. They are a bunch of villains and they are interested only in feathering their own nests at the expense of everybody they can, including their own employees, and I don't intend to put up with it."

The Court is of the view that these remarks were both unsupported by the record and unnecessary in the circumstances. ⁸ Although it is contended that the district judge's conduct constituted "mere righteous indignation prompted by the heinous activity he had witnessed," this Court is of the view that he overstepped. ⁹ "Whether unconsciously or otherwise, he failed from the start of the (hearing) to view this case with the impartiality between litigants that (appellant was) entitled to receive." Knapp v. Kinsey, 232 F.2d 458, 467 (6th Cir. 1956), Cert. denied 352 U.S. 892, 77 S.Ct. 131, 1 L.Ed.2d 86 (1956). See also, United States v. Hickman, 592 F.2d 931, Nos. 78-5148/9 (6th Cir. decided and filed February 15, 1979); United States v. Cruz, 455 F.2d 184, 185-86 (2d Cir. 1972), Cert. denied, 406 U.S. 918, 92 S.Ct. 1769, 32 L.Ed.2d 117 (1972); Nordmann v. National Hotel Co., 425 F.2d 1103, 1109 (5th Cir. 1970); Posey v. United States, 416 F.2d 545, 555 (5th Cir. 1969), Cert. denied, 397 U.S. 946, 90 S.Ct. 966, 25 L.Ed.2d 127 (1970).

As the Eighth Circuit observed in Reserve Mining Co. v. Lord, 529 F.2d 181 (8th Cir. 1976):

"A judge best serves the administration of justice by remaining detached from the conflict between the parties. As Justice McKenna stated long ago, '(T) ribunals of the country shall not only be impartial in the controversies submitted to them but shall give assurance that they are impartial . . . .' Berger v. United States, 255 U.S. 22, 35-36, 41 S.Ct. 230, 235, 65 L.Ed. 481 (1921). When the judge joins sides, the public as well as the litigants become overawed, frightened and confused."

529 F.2d at 186.

While the Court is aware that self-restraint and the preservation of an atmosphere of impartiality is not always easy, it is equally cognizant of the mandated result when the bounds of propriety are overstepped.

"Often some degree of bias develops inevitably during a trial. Judges cannot be forbidden to feel sympathy or aversion for one party or the other. Mild expressions of feeling are as hard to avoid as the feeling itself. But a right to be tried by a judge who is reasonably free from bias is a part of the fundamental right to a fair trial. If, before a case is over, a judge's bias appears to have become overpowering, we think it disqualifies him. It follows that the judgment must be reversed."

Whitaker v. McLean, 73 App.D.C. 259, 118 F.2d 596 (1941). See also, Johnson v. Mississippi, 403 U.S. 212, 91 S.Ct. 1778, 29 L.Ed.2d 423 (1971); Knapp, supra; Reserve Mining Co. v. Lord, supra; United States v. Frazier, 584 F.2d 790 (6th Cir. 1978).

Equally troublesome for the Court is the fact that the remarks of the district judge went beyond suggesting bias at the hearing on September 16th. His statements also place in doubt his ability to conduct unbiased future proceedings in regard to this matter. In continuing his oral ruling from the bench,...