Robinson v. Davis Memorial Goodwill Industries

• Decision Date: 21 April 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 91-1085.
• Citation: 790 F. Supp. 325
• Parties: Peggy ROBINSON, Plaintiff, v. DAVIS MEMORIAL GOODWILL INDUSTRIES, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

790 F. Supp. 325

Peggy ROBINSON, Plaintiff, v. DAVIS MEMORIAL GOODWILL INDUSTRIES, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 91-1085.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

April 21, 1992.

Morgan J. Hallman, Chevy Chase, Md., for plaintiff.

Arthur P. Rogers, Melanie E. Fields, Whiteford, Taylor & Preston, Washington, D.C., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SPORKIN, District Judge.

This case comes before the Court on the Plaintiff's Motion for Leave to Amend portions of the complaint. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 15(a).¹ Because this Court finds that the compensatory damage and jury trial provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 apply retroactively to this case, the Court grants Plaintiff leave to amend the complaint to include such demands.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff is a former employee of Defendant Davis Memorial Goodwill ("Goodwill"). On May 13, 1991 she filed this action in federal court against Goodwill and several officers and supervisors at Goodwill. Plaintiff's complaint alleges that the Defendants intentionally discriminated against her because of her race and gender during her employment at Goodwill. She claims that she was eventually terminated on that basis in violation of federal law. See 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq.

In her complaint Plaintiff requested that the Court award Plaintiff backpay and reinstate her to her former position, the remedies then permitted under Title VII. Subsequently, on November 21, 1991 the President signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (the "Act"). The Act as amended permits a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages in Title VII suits. Plaintiff has now moved that this Court permit her to amend the complaint to include demands for a jury trial and for compensatory damages.²

DISCUSSION

Section 402 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 provides as follows:

Sec. 402. Effective Date

(a) In General — Except as otherwise specifically provided, this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect upon enactment.

There are two specific exceptions to this provision, providing that certain provisions apply only prospectively. First, in Section 109, protecting extraterritorial employment, subsection c provides that, "The amendments made by this section shall not apply with respect to conduct occurring before the date of the enactment of this Act." Second, Section 402(b) provides:

(b) Certain Disparate Impact Cases. — Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, nothing in this Act shall apply to any disparate impact case for which a complaint was filed before March 1, 1975, and for which an initial decision was rendered after October 30, 1983.

Besides these two specific exceptions, neither of which is at issue in this case, Section 402(a) governs the effective date of the Act.

The specific issue before this Court is whether Section 102 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 applies to a case pending at the time of its enactment. That section designates the remedies available in intentional discrimination cases and governs when such cases may be tried before a jury and when a judge must hear a case. In relevant part it provides:

Sec. 102. Damages in Cases of Intentional Discrimination.

(a) Right of Recovery —

(1) Civil Rights. — In an action brought by a complaining party under section 706 or 717 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000e-5) against a respondent who engaged in intentional discrimination ... the complaining party may recover compensatory and punitive damages as allowed in subsection (b) in addition to any relief authorized by section 706(g) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, from the respondent.

Section 102(b) provides for compensatory and punitive damages up to certain caps in such actions but exempts from its scope punitive damages against the government.

(c) Jury Trial — If a complaining party seeks compensatory or punitive damages under this section —

(1) any party may demand a trial by jury ...

These provisions, unlike certain other portions of the Act, do not affect the determination of liability in employment discrimination cases. They alter the remedies available once intentional discrimination is proven and provide a jury trial in cases where money damages are at issue. Both the plain language of the statute and the presumptions to be applied to enactments regarding court procedure and available remedies dictate that Section 102 be applied retroactively to this case.

A. The Plain Language of the Statute

In determining whether Section 102 of the Act is applicable to a case pending at the time of its enactment, the plain language of the statute is the focal point. See Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. Bonjorno, 494 U.S. 827, 110 S.Ct. 1570, 1577, 108 L.Ed.2d 842 (1990). Although Section 102 by itself does not provide any indication as to whether it is to be applied retroactively, "statutory meaning is of course to be derived, not from the reading of a single sentence or section, but from consideration of an entire enactment against the backdrop of its policies and objectives." Don't Tear it Down v. Pennsylvania Ave. Dev. Corp., 642 F.2d 527, 533 (D.C.Cir.1980); United States v. Morton, 467 U.S. 822, 828, 104 S.Ct. 2769, 2773, 81 L.Ed.2d 680 (1984) ("we do not, however, construe statutory phrases in isolation; we read statutes as a whole.") Reading the Act as a whole, there is considerable support for the application of Section 102 to pending cases.

The Act's most general timing provision requires that, with exceptions, the Act "shall take effect upon enactment." Sec. 402(a). "While not dispositive on the issue of retroactivity the fact that Congress expressed its intention that the statute take effect upon enactment is some indication that it believed that application of its provisions was urgent." In the Matter of Reynolds, 726 F.2d 1420 (9th Cir.1984). In Reynolds the Court retroactively applied amendments to the Bankruptcy Code based on language in a Conference Report similar to the language in Section 402(a). In this case, unlike Reynolds, Congress placed its direction that the Act "take effect upon enactment" in the statute itself. Therefore, even more so than in Reynolds, it would be impossible to construe "this expression of congressional concern as a direction that the law should not be applied to pending matters." Id. Moreover, it has specifically been recognized that the term "taking effect," as compared to "having effect," is a strong indication that a statute is to be applied retroactively. Kaiser Aluminum, 110 S.Ct. at 1590 (White, J. dissenting with Brennan, J., Marshall, J. and Blackmun, J.). Compare ALPO Petfoods v. Ralston Purina, 913 F.2d 958, 963 n. 6 (D.C.Cir.1990) ("becoming effective").

Section 402(a)'s meaning becomes even more clear when it is read in conjunction with Sections 109(c) and 402(b). Those sections carve out certain substantive provisions of the Act and provide that they are only to be applied prospectively. Were the entire Act to be prospective only in nature, these "otherwise specifically provided" exceptions to 402(a) would be superfluous. They would add nothing to the Act because every provision "would not apply with respect to conduct occurring before the date of enactment." Sec. 109(c). See, Yakima Valley Cablevision, Inc. v. F.C.C., 794 F.2d 737, 747 (D.C.Cir.1986) (finding that because a particular section in act provided for its own retroactive application, the rest of act was prospective). Such a reading, therefore, must be avoided.

"The cardinal principle of statutory construction is to save and not to destroy. It is a court's duty to give effect, if possible, to every clause and word of a statute, rather than to emasculate an entire section ..." United States v. Menasche, 348 U.S. 528, 538-39, 75 S.Ct. 513, 520, 99 L.Ed. 615 (1955) (citations omitted); Mackey v. Lanier Collection Agency & Service, 486 U.S. 825, 837, 108 S.Ct. 2182, 2189, 100 L.Ed.2d 836 (1988) ("As our cases have noted in the past, we are hesitant to adopt an interpretation of a congressional enactment which renders superfluous another portion of that same law."). Applying all other sections of the Act prospectively would render sections 109(c) and 402(b) a nullity. Basic canons of statutory construction mandate retroactive application of a section unless that section of the Act says, as do Sections 109(c) and 402(b), it is to be applied prospectively. Therefore, Section 102, which has no "exception" mandating it only be applied prospectively, must be applied to pending cases.

Read in isolation Section 402(a) could also be interpreted merely as providing that there was to be no "grace period" for compliance with the Act. See Fray v. Omaha World Herald Company, 960 F.2d 1370, (8th Cir.1992). Read this way, section 402(a) has nothing at all to do with retroactivity. That reading, however, becomes nonsensical upon reading the Act as a whole and considering the two exceptions to Section 402(a) in the statute. Had Congress meant section 402(a) merely to indicate that, with exceptions, there was to be no grace period, then the exceptions to 402(a) would have provided applicable grace periods. They do not. In fact, neither these exceptions nor any other provision of the Act has anything to do with "grace periods." Instead the two exceptions specifically address the issue of retroactivity. Why would the two exceptions to a provision regarding "grace periods" address the issue of retroactivity? The answer is simply that the provision does not have to do with "grace periods," it concerns the retroactivity of the Act. Read as a whole, then, the plain language of the Act indicates that Section 102 ought to be applied to cases pending at the time the statute became law.³

B. Judicial Interpretation Concerning Retroactivity

In addition to the plain language of the Act, the case law supports retroactive application of Section 102 of the Act. The analysis of the applicable decisions is complicated because the Supreme...