Schuler v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP

• Decision Date: 22 September 2010
• Docket Number: Civil Case No. 05-2355 (RJL)
• Citation: 739 F.Supp.2d 1
• Parties: Harold D. SCHULER, Plaintiff, v. PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS, LLP, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

739 F.Supp.2d 1

Harold D. SCHULER, Plaintiff,

v.PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS, LLP, Defendant.

Civil Case No. 05-2355 (RJL).

United States District Court,

District of Columbia.

Sept. 22, 2010.

David Louis Rose, Rose Legal Advocates, LLP, Yuval Rubinstein, Terri N. Marcus, Rose & Rose, P.C., Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

Eric M. Nelson, Julie A. Klusas Gasper, Stephen L. Sheinfeld, Winston & Strawn, New York, NY, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

RICHARD J. LEON, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Harold D. Schuler ("Schuler"), filed this lawsuit against his employer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP ("PwC" or "defendant"), alleging a pattern and practice of age discrimination in PwC's promotion policy, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq., and the District of Columbia Human Rights Act ("DCHRA"), D.C.Code § 2-1401.01 et seq. Currently pending before the Court are defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment and plaintiff's Motion for a Permanent Injunction or, in the Alternative, for a Preliminary Injunction Pending Trial. Upon review of the pleadings, the entire record, and the applicable law, defendant's motion is GRANTED, and plaintiff's motion is DENIED.

BACKGROUND

This matter is before the Court on remand from our Circuit Court. Because I have previously summarized the factual background of this matter in an earlier Memorandum Opinion, see Schuler v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, 457 F.Supp.2d 1 (D.D.C.2006) (" Schuler I "), the following short summary will suffice.¹ PwC is an accounting and audit firm with over 20,000 employees and more than 2,000 individuals who are partners or principals. (Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 2.) PwC is organized and exists pursuant to the PwC Partnership and Principals Agreement ("the Partnership Agreement"), which provides that "[a]n Individual's association with the Firm shall cease at the end of the Fiscal Year in which he or she attains age 60." (Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 2; Pl.'s Ex. 1, Art. 10, Sec. 10.1(a).) The term "Individual" is defined as "a person who is either a Partner or a Principal." (Pl.'s Ex. 1, Art. 1.) The sole parties to the Partnership Agreement are the partners and principals of PwC; there is no such mandatory retirement provision for PwC employees. (Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 15.)

Defendant's partnership promotions go into effect on July 1 of each year, (Compl. ¶ 16; Answer ¶ 16), and Schuler, a Managing Director in the Washington, D.C. office, was not among those promoted in either 2004 or 2005. (Compl. ¶¶ 2, 39.) Based on his non-promotions, Schuler filed a charge of discrimination with the New York City District Office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") on February 23, 2005. (Compl.¶ 44; Answer Ex. 2 at 4-9; Marcus Decl. Ex. A at 4.) On the charge form, Schuler indicated that his was a "Class Action Charge," that the latest act of discrimination by defendants took place on "July 1, 2004 or later," and that Schuler wanted the charge filed with the "New York City (N.Y.) Commission Human Rights, and New York State Div. of Human Rights, and EEOC." (Answer Ex. 2 at 4; Marcus Decl. Ex. A at 4.) Schuler also wrote above the signature line on the charge form: "I want this Class Action Charge filed with both the EEOC and the State and local Agency, if any." (Answer Ex. 2 at 4; Marcus Decl. Ex. A at 4.)

On March 14, 2005, Schuler received a letter acknowledging receipt of his charge from the EEOC's New York District Office. (Marcus Decl. Ex. A at 1; see Compl. ¶ 45.) On April 28, 2005, the EEOC's New York District Office informed Schuler that the EEOC was dismissing his charge because a case was pending in this Court, ostensibly a reference to a 2002 lawsuit that Schuler filed with a co-plaintiff, C. Westbrook Murphy, against PwC, Murphy v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, No. 02-982 (D.D.C. filed May 20, 2002), that also alleged ADEA and DCHRA violations. (Answer Ex. 3 at 1.) The notice informed Schuler that he could file suit regarding his latest EEOC charge in federal district court within ninety days, a time limit the parties tolled as they attempted to settle the case. See Schuler v. PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP, 514 F.3d 1365, 1369 (D.C.Cir.2008) (" Schuler II "). When negotiations failed, Schuler filed the present action in this Court, asserting that he was "filing an opt-in class action suit on behalf of himself and other similarly situated employees over the age of 45" whom PwC discriminated against "by denying them promotions to partnership on the basis of their age." (Compl. ¶¶ 47-48.)

In Schuler I, this Court dismissed Schuler's complaint, holding that plaintiff did not satisfy the ADEA's procedural requirements because he failed to file: (1) his EEOC charge with the D.C. Office of Human Rights; and (2) a new EEOC charge following the company's allegedly unlawful July 2005 promotion denial. See Schuler I, 457 F.Supp.2d at 4-5. I declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the remaining DCHRA claims. See id. at 5. On appeal, our Circuit Court reversed, holding that Schuler had "satisfied the ADEA's state filing requirement by virtue of a worksharing agreement between the EEOC and the D.C. Office of Human Rights, as well as through the Commission's referral of his charge to the New York State Division of Human Rights." Schuler II, 514 F.3d at 1367. The Circuit Court further held that "because plaintiff seeks damages flowing from the July 2004 ADEA violation alleged in his original EEOC charge through the present, his failure to file a new charge after the July 2005 nonpromotion decision is of no consequence." Id. The matter was remanded for this Court to reconsider Schuler's claim as "a class-action pattern or practice ADEA claim arising out of PwC's mandatory retirement and promotion policy" and to decide again whether to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Schuler's DCHRA claim. Id. at 1379-80.

ANALYSIS

I. Standard of Review

Summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings and the record demonstrate that "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The moving party bears the initial burden of demonstrating the absence of a genuine dispute of material fact,Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986), and the Court draws all reasonable inferences regarding the assertions made in a light favorable to the non-moving party, Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The party opposing a motion for summary judgment, however, "may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials of his pleading, but ... must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505 (internal quotations omitted).

II. ADEA Pattern and Practice Claim

Plaintiff has filed a Motion for a Permanent Injunction or, in the Alternative, for a Preliminary Injunction Pending Trial, and defendant has filed a Motion for Summary Judgment. In support of plaintiff's motion, which is essentially one for partial summary judgment, Schuler argues that PwC has violated the ADEA by engaging in a pattern and practice of discrimination against him and other employees that he can establish by statistical evidence. Schuler also argues that PwC's partner promotion policy has a disparate impact on Schuler and other employees on the basis of their age in violation of the ADEA. Plaintiff asks the Court to issue a permanent injunction barring PwC from continuing its allegedly discriminatory partner promotion policy or, if the Court finds that Schuler is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law, to issue a preliminary injunction until trial.

In support of its motion, defendant argues that Schuler is seeking to reincarnate claims initially asserted in the lawsuit filed with Murphy in 2002 and dismissed by the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment. Defendant asserts that because this Court held in Murphy v. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, LLP, 357 F.Supp.2d 230 (D.D.C.2004) (" Murphy "), that an individual, non-class plaintiff cannot proceed on a pattern and practice ADEA claim as a matter of law, plaintiff's claims in this matter are barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel. Defendant further asserts that even if Schuler is not barred as a matter of law from pursuing his claims, summary judgment in favor of PwC is still warranted on the undisputed facts.

I agree with PwC that Schuler's ADEA pattern and practice claim is barred by the doctrine of collateral estoppel. In their 2002 lawsuit, Murphy and Schuler asserted an ADEA pattern and practice claim, alleging that PwC had a policy and practice of denying older employees promotion to partner in favor of younger employees, but seeking relief for their specific non-promotions in 1999, 2000, and 2001. (Compl., No. 02-982, ¶¶ 19, 29, 43-45.) The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment on the pattern and practice claim. I granted PwC's Motion for Summary Judgment, agreeing with PwC that Murphy and Schuler could not proceed on a pattern and practice claim in an individual action for discrimination in violation of the ADEA. See Murphy, 357 F.Supp.2d at 247.

As an initial matter, I found that in the administrative charges underlying Murphy, the plaintiff's did not give notice of their intent to proceed as a class action. Murphy, 357 F.Supp.2d at 241. Because notice to PwC was a necessary prerequisite to the viability of any claims, I granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the class allegations of the compliant. Id. Then when examining the motions with regard to the pattern and practice claim, I first noted that our Circuit recognizes "an important distinction between the assertion of a 'pattern and practice' claim and the use of statistical or other evidence of systematic discrimination to prove an individual discrimination claim." Id. at 246. Ialso noted that "where courts in this...