Ochoa v. Monsanto Company, 72-1651.
| Decision Date | 31 January 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 72-1651.,72-1651. |
| Citation | 473 F.2d 318 |
| Parties | Alfred OCHOA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MONSANTO COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Gabrielle K. McDonald, Mark T. McDonald, Houston, Tex., Jim Heidelberg, John Serna, San Antonio, Tex., for plaintiff-appellant.
Peter A. Janiak, EEOC, Washington, D.C., amicus curiae.
Tom M. Davis, V. R. Burch, Jr., Houston, Tex., for defendant-appellee.
Before JOHN R. BROWN, Chief Judge, and MOORE* and RONEY, Circuit Judges.
In this action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Alfred Ochoa challenges the hiring policies1 at Monsanto's recently opened Chocolate Bayou Plant near Alvin, Texas as being discriminatory toward himself and Mexican-Americans generally.2 At the conclusion of the evidence the District Court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law exonerating Monsanto. Ochoa v. Monsanto Co., S.D.Tex., 1971, 335 F. Supp. 53. Reading this opinion through the protective lenses of F.R.Civ.P. 52(a) we find the result acceptable and accordingly, affirm.
Ochoa complains that the District Judge abused his discretion in limiting Plaintiff's discovery to a period of 6 months prior to and after his employment interview with Monsanto. This error was compounded, argues Ochoa, by the fact that on the trial the Judge subsequently admitted statistical evidence on behalf of Monsanto showing hiring practices over an extended earlier period. Upon a fair reading of the Court's order, however, we conclude that his actions were not one-sided. The Judge's limitation of discovery was not an immutable decision. He clearly left the discovery avenues open upon request of either party if the circumstances merited further development and no such showing or request was thereafter made.3
While we scrutinize claims of Title VII discrimination very closely and accord statistical evidence great and oft-times decisive weight, see Rowe v. General Motors Corporation, 5 Cir., 1972, 457 F.2d 348; United States v. Jacksonville Terminal Company, 5 Cir., 1971, 451 F.2d 418, we conclude in this instance that the extremely small universe involved and the indications from the existing statistical information did not preclude the trial court from finding an absence of discrimination. Although Mexican-Americans comprised 10% of the Alvin area community, of the 684 applicants for employment at the Chocolate Bayou plant during the period from April 1, 1967, to April 1, 1968, only 11 were Mexican-Americans, the remainder being 653 Anglos, 20 Negroes. Of the 56 who were hired, 1 was a Mexican-American. Thus, for the period in question, as a matter of pure arithmetic, since 9.09% of all Mexican-American applicants were hired, whereas only 8.17% of all other applicants were hired it could be argued that they received preferred, not prejudicial, treatment. But the smallness of the numbers demonstrates that the Court was not compelled to allow such statistical showing to set in train the usual presumptions or to make a finding of preference thereon. To buttress this conclusion the Judge could...
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...employees and the number of minority-group employees expectable in the absence of discrimination. See note 92 Infra; Ochoa v. Monsanto Co., 473 F.2d 318, 320 (5th Cir. 1973) ("the smallness of the numbers demonstrates that the Court was not compelled to allow such statistical showing to set......
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