Plummer v. CHICAGO JOURNEYMAN PLUMBERS, ETC.

• Decision Date: 24 July 1978
• Docket Number: No. 77 C 1726.,77 C 1726.
• Citation: 452 F. Supp. 1127
• Parties: Edell PLUMMER, Hayward Rose, Josef J. Eggleston, Ivor Taylor, and Alberto Viera, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. CHICAGO JOURNEYMAN PLUMBERS' LOCAL UNION NO. 130, U. A., Plumbing Contractors Association of Chicago and Cook County, and the Joint Apprenticeship Committee, Local No. 130, U.S.A., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

452 F. Supp. 1127

Edell PLUMMER, Hayward Rose, Josef J. Eggleston, Ivor Taylor, and Alberto Viera, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. CHICAGO JOURNEYMAN PLUMBERS' LOCAL UNION NO. 130, U. A., Plumbing Contractors Association of Chicago and Cook County, and the Joint Apprenticeship Committee, Local No. 130, U.S.A., Defendants.

No. 77 C 1726.

United States District Court, N. D. Illinois, E. D.

April 21, 1978.

Supplemental Memorandum July 24, 1978.

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Judson H. Miner, Charles Barnhill, Jr., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiffs.

James R. Gannon and Leonard Goslawski, Lewis, Overbeck & Furman, Chicago, Ill., for Joint Apprenticeship Committee.

Howard Barron and William Snapp, Jenner & Block, Chicago, Ill., for Plumbing Contractors Ass'n.

Julian Schreiber, Borovsky, Smetana, Ehrlich & Kronenberg, Chicago, Ill., for Local No. 130.

Marvin Gittler, Asher, Greenfield, Goodstein, Pavalon & Segall, Chicago, Ill., for International Union.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROBSON, Senior District Judge.

This cause is before the court on defendants' motions to dismiss and for a more definite statement. For the reasons hereinafter stated, the motions to dismiss are granted in part and denied in part, and the motions for a more definite statement are denied.

This action is brought pursuant to the Civil Rights Act of 1870, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. hereinafter Title VII. The jurisdiction of this court is invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1343 and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1). This is a suit for relief from alleged discriminatory employment practices which are claimed to preclude blacks and hispanics from access to employment in the plumbing industry.

Pursuant to Rule 23(a) and (b)(2) of the Fed.R.Civ.P., plaintiffs have sued on behalf of themselves and all other persons similarly situated. They seek to represent a class consisting of "all Negroes and Hispanics who have been denied training and employment in the plumbing industry because of their race or national origin." Second Amended Complaint at ¶ 5. The named plaintiffs are Edell Plummer, Hayward Rose, Josef J. Eggleston, Ivor Taylor, and Alberto Viera. The named defendants are Chicago Journeyman Plumbers' Local Union No. 130, U.A. hereinafter Local 130, the Plumbing Contractors Association of Chicago and Cook County hereinafter PCA, the Joint Apprenticeship Committee, Local 130, U.A. hereinafter JAC, and the United Association of Journeyman and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry in the United States and Canada hereinafter the International Union. The International Union was dismissed on March 17, 1978, pursuant to stipulation of the parties, as it was not an indispensable party to these proceedings.

The defendants have filed motions to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. They also have filed separate motions seeking a more definite statement. The court will first consider the motions to dismiss.

TITLE VII CLAIMS

A jurisdictional prerequisite to the filing of a Title VII action in district court is that a timely charge has been filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission hereinafter EEOC. Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36, 48, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 39 L.Ed.2d 147 (1974). Here, multiple plaintiffs name some but not all of the multiple defendants in their EEOC charges. For the plaintiffs to have a Title VII claim against a defendant, at least one of the plaintiffs must satisfy all of the jurisdictional prerequisites to a Title VII action against a defendant in order for this court to have subject matter jurisdiction over that defendant.

Plaintiffs Edell Plummer, Josef Eggleston, Hayward Rose, Alberto Viera, and Ivor Taylor have all named Local 130 in their EEOC charges. Viera, Rose, and Taylor have named PCA in their EEOC charges. Rose has named JAC in a charge. Although each of the defendants has been charged by at least one of the named plaintiffs, defendants challenge the use of these charges against them on grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction for failure to satisfy jurisdictional prerequisites. They further challenge some of plaintiffs' allegations for failure to state a claim under Title VII.

JAC

Defendant JAC argues that the Title VII claims of all the plaintiffs must be dismissed against it because no plaintiff named it in a timely charge to the EEOC. Plaintiffs respond that a claim is adequately stated against JAC under Title VII.

Hayward Rose is the only plaintiff who has named JAC in a charge before the EEOC. Rose first filed a charge with the EEOC on October 28, 1975, complaining against Local 130 for the refusal to hire him as an apprentice or journeyman plumber. He alleged that the most recent discrimination occurred on August 21, 1975. Rose later filed two separate charges with the EEOC on March 9, 1977, complaining against Local 130, PCA, JAC, and the International Union with exactly the same allegations as his earlier charge. He again alleged that the most recent discrimination occurred on August 21, 1975. JAC argues that the later charges filed by Rose are untimely and thus are not grounds for a Title VII claim against it. The issue is whether Rose's initial charge identified JAC or whether the later charges related back to the initial charge so that JAC is properly before the court under Title VII.

An EEOC charge must be filed under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e) within 180 days of the alleged violation. This Title VII statute of limitations bars consideration by a court of discriminatory acts not made the basis of a timely charge. United Airlines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U.S. 553, 558, 97 S.Ct. 1885, 52 L.Ed.2d 571 (1977); Moore v. Sunbeam Corp., 459 F.2d 811, 821 (7th Cir. 1972). As Rose's later charges refer to the most recent act of discrimination as occurring on August 21, 1975, more than 180 days have elapsed from the alleged violation to the filing of these charges. Thus, these charges do not provide a basis for this Title VII complaint. Moreover, the parties named therein, JAC and PCA, cannot be subject to a Title VII complaint based on these charges.

Nonetheless, plaintiff argues that: first, defendant JAC was identified in the first charge so that the correction of its name in the amended charge was a clarification that relates back to the initial date of filing; second, defendant JAC was an agent of defendants Local 130 and PCA so that it could be sued regardless of whether it had been named in a charge; third, if there was no relation back of the later charges to the first charge, the later charges were still timely as Rose's charge was of a continuing nature; and, fourth, defendant JAC should be kept in the Title VII aspects of this lawsuit as a necessary party under Fed.R. Civ.P. 19. For the reasons hereinafter stated, each of these arguments must fail.

Plaintiffs contend that Rose's initial charge focused directly on the plumber's apprenticeship program naming only Local 130 as Rose knew of no distinction between the apprenticeship program and Local 130. Only later did Rose learn that the apprenticeship program is administered by JAC and that JAC is controlled by a board with an equal number of members from Local 130 and PCA. At that point, seventeen months after the filing of his charge, Rose amended his charge to name the administrator of the apprenticeship program already identified in the initial charge. Thus, he amplified his initial charge. Defendant JAC states that the "amendment" of Rose's charge, seventeen months after his initial charge and just prior to the initiation of this lawsuit, gave it no notice of an alleged violation until long after August, 1975, when Rose claims that the discrimination occurred. This after-the-fact amendment does not relate back to the date of initial filing and completely avoids the goals of reconciliation and voluntary compliance required by Congress. Bowe v. Colgate-Palmolive Co., 416 F.2d 711 (7th Cir. 1969) hereinafter Bowe.

A Title VII action may only be brought against "any respondent . . . named in the charge." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1). This section establishes a jurisdictional prerequisite to the filing of a Title VII action. Bowe, supra at 719. Satisfaction of this jurisdictional prerequisite serves to notify a charged party of the asserted violation and to bring the charged party before the EEOC so as to promote Title VII's primary goal of securing voluntary compliance. Id.

Although Title VII does not provide for any amendment of charges of discrimination, EEOC regulations provide at 29 C.F.R. § 1601.11 that:

A charge may be amended to cure technical defects or omissions, including failure to swear to the charge, or to clarify and amplify allegations made therein, and such amendments alleging additional acts which constitute unlawful employment practices directly related to or growing out of the subject matter of the original charge will relate back to the original filing date.

The EEOC regulation allows curing technical defects such as the filing of verified charges after the expiration of the statutory time period for filing where unverified charges have been filed within the time period, Blue Bell Boots, Inc. v. EEOC, 418 F.2d 355, 357 (6th Cir. 1969), or making a more detailed description of the claims of discrimination than those set forth in the timely charge, EEOC v. Western Publishing Co., 502 F.2d 599, 603 (8th Cir. 1974). The regulation does not allow the naming of a new party in an untimely charge to relate back to the date of filing of the original charge. Landry v. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Co., 8 FEP Cases 498, 500-01 (N.D.Ill.1974). Rose's later charges do not relate back because 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e) provides a mandatory limitation period within which a...