Reynolds v. Alabama Dept. of Transp.

• Decision Date: 18 March 1998
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 85-T-665-N.
• Citation: 996 F.Supp. 1156
• Parties: Johnny REYNOLDS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

996 F.Supp. 1156

Johnny REYNOLDS, et al., Plaintiffs, v. ALABAMA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, et al., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 85-T-665-N.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, Northern Division.

March 18, 1998.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Robert L. Wiggins, Jr., Ann K. Wiggins, Russell W. Adams, Abigail P. Van Alstyne, Kimberly C. Page, Scott Gilliland, and Kell A. Simon, Gordon, Silberman, Wiggins & Childs, Birmingham, AL, for Johnny Reynolds, Cecil Parker, Frank Reed, Ouida Maxwell, Martha Ann Boleware, Florence Belser, Peggy Vonsherie Allen, Jeffrey W. Brown.

Claudia H. Pearson, Nakamura & Quinn, Birmingham, AL, for Robert Johnson.

Raymond P. Fitzpatrick, Jr., R. Scott Clark, J. Michael Cooper, Fitzpatrick, Cooper & Clark, Birmingham, AL, for William Adams, Cheryl Caine, Tim Colquitt, William Flowers, Wilson Folmar, George Kyser, Becky Pollard, Ronnie Pouncey, Terry Robinson, Tim Williams, Michael Grant, John D'Arville, Andrew McCullough.

Thomas R. Elliott, Jr., Allen R. Trippeer, Jr., Lisa W. Borden, C. Dennis Hughes, London & Yancey, Birmingham, AL, William H. Pryor, Jr., Atty Gen. for the State of Alabama, Montgomery, AL, for Alabama Dept. of Transp., Alabama State Personnel Dept., Jimmy Butts, Halycon Vance Ballard, Fob James.

William P. Gray, Jr., Gray & Jauregui, Montgomery, AL, for Fob James.

Elaine R. Jones, Norman J. Chachkin, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, New York City, for NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., amicus.

Barbara R. Arnwine, Thomas J. Henderson, Richard T. Seymour, Teresa A. Ferrante, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, DC, for The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, amicus.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, Chief Judge.

In this 13-year-old class-action lawsuit, the plaintiffs charged the defendants with employment discrimination based on race in the Alabama Department of Transportation. The plaintiffs are African-Americans, and they represent a class of African-American merit and non-merit system employees and unsuccessful applicants. The defendants include the Alabama Department of Transportation, the Alabama State Personnel Department, and several state officials.

On April 16, 1997, the court entered an order requiring that the defendants pay the plaintiff class the sum of $34,732,487.00 in backpay pursuant to two mathematical formulas that the parties adopted for determining whether plaintiff class members are eligible for backpay, and for calculating the amount of backpay, if any, each class member is entitled to receive.¹ The award resolves the backpay claims of approximately 2,400 plaintiff class members, and actually provides backpay to 2,137 class members for the discrimination they faced in the time period from 1979 to 1997.² The April 16 order was based on a number of summary findings in earlier orders. This memorandum opinion expands on these findings and explains in more detail the basis for the April 16 order.

I. BACKGROUND

A general and chronological overview is necessary for proper discussion of the issues before the court.

May 21, 1985

The nine plaintiffs in this lawsuit are Johnny Reynolds, Ouida Maxwell, Martha Ann Boleware, Florence Belser, Peggy Vonsherie Allen, Jeffrey Brown, Robert Johnson, Cecil Parker, and Frank Reed. Reynolds filed this lawsuit on May 21, 1985, and the other plaintiffs were allowed to intervene over the next seven years. They charged the defendants with widespread and long-lasting race discrimination, and advanced claims based on theories of "disparate treatment" and "disparate impact." The plaintiffs based this lawsuit on the following: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 1981a, 2000e through 2000e-17; the fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution, as enforced by 42 U.S.C.A. § 1983; and 42 U.S.C.A. § 1981. The jurisdiction of the court has been invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 1343 and 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(f)(3).

October 8, 1986

The court entered an order certifying a plaintiff class as follows: (1) all black merit system employees employed by the Transportation Department at any time since May 21, 1979; (2) all black non-merit system employees of the department who have unsuccessfully sought employment as merit system employees with the department at any time since May 21, 1979; and (3) all black non-employees who have unsuccessfully sought employment as merit system employees with the department at any time since May 21, 1979.³ Subclasses (1) and (2) therefore consisted of "employees" of the department, and subclass (3) consisted of "non-employees."

1988

The parties reached a full settlement of this case, but the court refused to approve the proposed consent decree in the face of numerous objections from the members of the plaintiff class.⁴ The court explained that "there are five critical factors which together conclusively counsel against" the settlement.⁵ "First, the record developed by the parties is insufficient to support the difference in treatment between the six named plaintiffs and all the other class members. Second, the record is insufficient to justify a result which would in effect deny to hundreds of class members, whether they like it or not, an opportunity to have ever had their claims heard in a court of law. Third, there is nothing in the record upon which the court could base its affirmative approval of the EIT requirement. Fourth, the court cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that from the present record it appears that, of those class members who appear to have any interest in this litigation, the overwhelming majority strongly oppose it. And fifth and finally, the record is insufficient as to several issues regarding the legality of the proposed consent decree."⁶

1991

In January 1991, following shortly after the court's rejection of the first proposed settlement, the parties submitted a second proposed consent decree. The court provisionally approved the consent decree and set in motion the processes for notice to the plaintiff class members of the proposed settlement and their opportunity to opt-out of the settlement and file any objections they may have.⁷ Over the following two months, a number of class members opted-out, and there were two additional attempts to intervene in this litigation. In light of these events, and the defendants' position that the events made it impossible to settle fully the on-going litigation, the defendants exercised their option to withdraw from the second proposed consent decree.⁸ The court then entered an order that the proposed consent decree was not approved.⁹

1992

The trial began and extended, with some breaks, over several months, from June 15, 1992, to November 25, 1992. The plaintiffs first reintroduced findings and orders from an earlier case, United States v. Frazer, civil action no. 2709-N (M.D.Ala.),¹⁰ which was consolidated with this case,¹¹ and then proceeded to introduce new evidence from the time period following Frazer.

United States v. Frazer: For the first three-quarters of this century, the State of Alabama and its agencies excluded African-Americans, because of their race, from employment other than in low and menial positions, and throughout the last quarter of this century, despite outstanding court orders, the Transportation Department manipulated, or even circumvented, State personnel procedures to avoid hiring and promotion of African-Americans into responsible and non-menial jobs.

In the late 1960s, the United States brought an action against the Alabama State Personnel Department challenging personnel practices which it contended intentionally discriminated against African-American applicants and employees. In 1970, in United States v. Frazer, 317 F.Supp. 1079 (M.D.Ala.), the court agreed with the United States, and found that agencies of the State of Alabama had engaged in a State-sanctioned policy of manipulating and circumventing the State's personnel procedures to avoid the hiring and promotion of African-Americans. Id. at 1084-87. The court found intentional, pervasive, systematic exclusion and avoidance of black employees and applicants throughout numerous State departments.

The evidence demonstrated that racial discrimination was accomplished in several ways, many of which involved manipulations of personnel practices and procedures to exclude eligible and qualified black employees from competing for jobs. The evidence overwhelmingly showed refusals to hire, or even to interview, African-Americans who had qualified and appeared on the certificates of eligibles, despite an urgent and constant need to fill positions. Id. at 1087. It also showed that agencies maintained racially segregated facilities in their buildings. Id. Indeed, John S. Frazer, director of the Personnel Department, testified to his belief that the race of applicants was a legitimate factor for consideration in selecting employees. Id. at 1085.

The Frazer court found that "defendants' systematic refusal to appoint Negro applicants and their preference for lower-ranking white applicants constitute unlawful race discrimination[,] ... a clear violation of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment." Id. at 1089-90. The court entered similar findings on the defendants' recruitment and advertising practices.

The Frazer court entered an order broadly prohibiting State officials from "engaging in any employment practices, including recruitment, examination, appointment, training, promotion, retention, or any other personnel action, for the purpose or with the effect of discriminating against any employee, or actual or potential applicant for employment, on the ground of race or color." Id. at 1090. The court further imposed what has come to be known as the "no-bypass rule," which provides that State officials "shall not appoint or offer a position to a lower-ranking white applicant on a certificate in preference to a higher-ranking available Negro...