Snair v. City of Clearwater

• Decision Date: 17 March 1992
• Docket Number: No. 88-889-Civ-T-17B.,88-889-Civ-T-17B.
• Citation: 787 F. Supp. 1401
• Parties: Sydney J. SNAIR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF CLEARWATER, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida

787 F. Supp. 1401

Sydney J. SNAIR, et al., Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF CLEARWATER, et al., Defendants.

No. 88-889-Civ-T-17B.

United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Tampa Division.

March 17, 1992.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Edward Everett Fessenden, Jr., Tampa, Fla., Kenneth M. Willner, Paul F. Mickey, Jr., David Goldberg, Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, Washington, D.C., Allen M. Blake, Blake, Casella & McMichael, Bradenton, Fla., for plaintiffs.

Mark A. Hanley, Thomas M. Gonzalez, Thompson, Sizemore & Gonzalez, Deborah Susan Crumbley, Tampa, Fla., for defendants.

ORDER ON MOTIONS

KOVACHEVICH, District Judge.

Plaintiffs for and on behalf of all others similarly situated, brought this action for age discrimination pursuant to The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) (29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq.). This action also includes claims for age discrimination brought under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; Article III, section 2, of the Florida Constitution; the Florida Age Discrimination in Employment Act (FL-ADEA) (§ 112.044, Fla.Stat.); and the Florida Human Rights Act of 1977 (FHRA) (§ 760.10, Fla.Stat.). The original Complaint in this action was filed on June 21, 1988, with an Amended Complaint filed November 1, 1988, and a Second Amended Complaint filed September 13, 1989. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also filed suit against the City, alleging violations of the ADEA, on August 1, 1988.¹

The action is before the Court on the following Motions and Responses:

1. Defendants' motion for partial summary judgment as to Plaintiff Snair's claim under the ADEA and all opt-in Plaintiffs to Snair's suit. (Docket # 94)

2. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion for partial summary judgment as to Plaintiff Snair's claim under the ADEA and all opt-in Plaintiffs to Snair's suit. (Docket # 116)

3. Defendants' reply to Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to partial summary judgment as to Plaintiff Snair's claim under the ADEA and all opt-in Plaintiffs to Snair's suit. (Docket # 125)

4. Defendants' motion to dismiss all opt-in Plaintiffs, and to strike all notices of opt-in after the EEOC filed suit. (Docket # 102)

5. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion to dismiss all opt-in Plaintiffs and to strike all notices of opt-in after the EEOC filed suit. (Docket # 117)

6. Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to all claims contained in the Second Amended Complaint. (Docket # 96) 7. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the claim based on the ADEA. (Docket # 118)

8. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the claims based on the Equal Protection Clauses of both the United States and Florida Constitutions and in support of Plaintiffs' summary judgment motion as to the same claims. (Docket # 113)

9. Defendants' memorandum in opposition to Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment as to the Equal Protection clauses of both the United States and Florida Constitutions. (Docket # 122)

10. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the claim based on the FHRA, and in support of Plaintiffs' summary judgment motion as to the same claim, filed on October 10, 1991.

11. Defendants' memorandum in opposition to Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment as to the claim based on the FHRA. (Docket # 123)

12. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to the claim based on the FL-ADEA, and in support of Plaintiffs' summary judgment motion as to the same claim, filed on October 10, 1991.

13. Defendants' memorandum in opposition to Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment as to the claim based on the FL-ADEA. (Docket # 124)

14. Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to Plaintiff American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). (Docket # 100)

15. Plaintiffs' memorandum in opposition to Defendants' motion for summary judgment as to Plaintiff AARP. (Docket # 114)

16. Plaintiffs' motion for oral argument on Plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and Defendants' motion for summary judgment. (Docket # 102).

STATEMENT OF FACTS

In 1945, the Florida Legislature created, by Special Act, a mandatory pension plan for employees of the City of Clearwater. Known as the City of Clearwater Employees' Pension Fund (hereinafter "the pension plan"), it excluded from participation "all persons employed by the City of Clearwater after January 1, 1945, who shall at the time of hire be over the age of forty-five (45) years." The pension plan became a City Ordinance by operation of law in 1973 when the Legislature enacted the "Municipal Home Rule Powers Act." § 166.021(5), Fla.Stat.²

The pension plan is mandatory, and provides that all qualified employees must join. Participants in the pension plan are not covered by Social Security, and no Social Security payments are made by either the participants or the City on their behalf. The pension plan underwent only minor modifications between 1945 and 1976. In 1976, the pension plan continued to provide both pension and disability benefits to its members. The pension plan in effect in 1976 provided that a participant in the plan could retire and receive benefits if he or she (a) had worked for the City for 30 years; (b) had worked for the City in a hazardous position for 20 years; (c) had become permanently incapacitated in the line of duty; (d) had worked for the City for 10 years and become permanently incapacitated outside the line of duty; or (e) reached the age of 55 and had worked for the City for 20 years. The pension plan did not provide for receipt of benefits prior to 20 years of service, except in the case of incapacity.

In 1976 and 1977, the Clearwater City Commission approved several amendments to the pension plan.³ These amendments became effective as City Ordinance No. 1648 in 1978.⁴ Only one of the amendments involved the specific language of the age-45 exclusion. That amendment changed the exclusionary language in the pension plan from "over the age of forty-five (45)" to "age forty-five or older or who has failed to pass a comprehensive medical examination." However, in addition to changing the language of the age-45 exclusion, the 1978 amendments to the pension plan increased the average salary utilized to determine benefits from two percent (2%) to two and one-half percent (2.5%). The amendments also increased employee contributions to the pension plan from three percent (3%) to six percent (6%), plus an optional two percent (2%) which could be required by the pension plan's trustees.⁵ Further, the amendments provided that employees' pension rights would vest after 10 years of service, as opposed to 20 years under the original plan. In 1981, the plan was again amended to allow employees who participated in the Firefighters' Pension Fund to transfer from that plan to the City's pension plan, which is the subject of this litigation.

Beginning in approximately 1980, several current and former City employees began filing charges of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that the pension plan discriminated on the basis of age. In September 1980, Phillip J. Bennis filed a discrimination charge with the EEOC alleging that the pension plan violated the ADEA by refusing to admit him since he was over 45 years of age when hired. In June 1981, the EEOC determined that the City had discriminated against Bennis in violation of the ADEA by refusing to permit him to participate in the pension plan because of his age. In 1985, Alton West filed a discrimination charge with the EEOC based on the same age-45 exclusion in the pension plan. Again the EEOC ruled that the pension plan violated the ADEA.

The City's consistent response to the allegations of discrimination under the age-45 exclusion was to assert that since its plan was created 22 years prior to the enactment of the ADEA, and 29 years prior to the ADEA's application to local governments,⁶ it was not a subterfuge to evade the ADEA's requirements. Thus the pension plan was entitled to the exemption contained in section 4(f)(2) of the ADEA, 29 U.S.C. § 623(f)(2). Section 623(f) states:

It shall not be unlawful for an employer, employment agency, or labor organization ... (2) to observe the terms of a bona fide seniority system of any bona fide employee benefit plan such as a retirement, pension or insurance plan, which is not a subterfuge to evade the purposes of this chapter, except that no such employee benefit plan shall excuse the failure to hire any individual, and no such seniority system or employee benefit plan shall require or permit the involuntary retirement of any individual specified by section 631(a) of this title because of the age of such individual.

Plaintiff Snair was hired by the City in 1972. At his time of hire, Snair was 49 years old, and thus excluded from participation in the pension plan. In 1986, Snair filed an age discrimination charge against the City with the EEOC. In 1987, the EEOC issued a Letter of Violation to the City, stating that its pension plan violated the ADEA. On June 21, 1986, Snair initiated this litigation. On October 17, 1988, Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint to include John Wood, Joan Wright and the AARP as named Plaintiffs in the lawsuit.⁷ In addition, over 100 individuals have joined the action by filing notices of consent with this Court.⁸

SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

This circuit clearly holds that summary judgment should only be entered when the moving party has sustained its burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue as to any material fact when all the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Sweat v. The Miller Brewing Co., 708 F.2d 655 (11th Cir.1983) All doubt as to the existence of a genuine issue of material fact must be resolved against...