Strag v. Board of Trustees, Craven Community College

• Citation: 55 F.3d 943
• Decision Date: 01 June 1995
• Docket Number: Nos. 94-2170,94-2288,s. 94-2170
• Parties: 68 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 163, 130 Lab.Cas. P 33,240, 100 Ed. Law Rep. 848 Thurza STRAG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, Craven Community College; Craven Community College, Defendants-Appellees (Two Cases).
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

Page 943

55 F.3d 943

68 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 163, 130 Lab.Cas.

P 33,240,

100 Ed. Law Rep. 848

Thurza STRAG, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES, Craven Community College; Craven

Community College, Defendants-Appellees (Two Cases).

Nos. 94-2170, 94-2288.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued March 9, 1995.

Decided June 1, 1995.

ARGUED: David Peter Voerman, Voerman & Carroll, P.A., New Bern, NC, for appellant. William Joseph Austin, Jr., Ward & Smith, P.A., New Bern, NC, for appellees. ON BRIEF: S. McKinley Gray, III, Ward & Smith, P.A., and James R. Sugg and Elliot Zemek, Sumrell, Sugg, Carmichael & Ashton, P.A., New Bern, NC, for appellees.

Before MURNAGHAN and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges, and SPROUSE, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge MURNAGHAN wrote the opinion, in which Judge HAMILTON and Senior Judge SPROUSE joined.

OPINION

MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge:

On September 2, 1993, Appellant, Thurza Strag ("Strag") initiated an action against Appellee, Craven Community College (the "College"), under the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1), in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Strag alleged that the substantial discrepancy between her salary and that of her selected male comparator, Linwood "Buddy" Swain ("Swain"), was based on gender differences, and thus violative of the Equal Pay Act.

After discovery, the College filed a motion for summary judgment, supported by 47 affidavits. On June 29, 1994, Strag filed a motion for an extension of time to respond to the College's motion for summary judgment. The district court denied the motion on the ground that any delay in discovery was due to Strag's own actions, and that extension was therefore unjustified. Strag accordingly filed a response to the College's summary judgment motion on July 5, 1994, and the College filed a reply brief on July 15, 1994.

Before the district court ruled on the motion for summary judgment, Strag filed, on July 27, 1994, a "Supplemental Brief in Support of Plaintiff's Response," and an "Argument Incorporating Material Subject to Consent Protective Order." Two days later, the College filed an objection to the supplemental filings on the ground that the filings were not authorized by any procedural rule or court order, and that they defied the district court's previous order denying Strag's motion for an extension of time. On August 11, 1994, the district court struck Strag's supplemental filings and granted summary judgment in favor of the College. The district court also entered an order asking Strag to show cause why she should not be sanctioned for the unauthorized filings. On September 6, 1994, the court entered an order stating that Strag had failed to show cause why sanctions should not be imposed, and on September 26, awarded the College $2,085 in attorneys' fees.

On September 7, 1994, Strag filed a notice of appeal from the district court's order granting summary judgment to the College. On October 5, 1994, Strag filed a notice of appeal from the Court's award of attorneys' fees. The appeals were consolidated for briefing on October 12, 1994.

Factual Background

The instant action was brought by Strag pursuant to the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1), against Craven Community College. In her complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Strag alleged that she was paid a salary substantially lower than that paid to her selected job comparator, a male biology instructor named Linwood "Buddy" Swain, based on her gender. Strag had been employed by the College as a mathematics instructor since September 1, 1987.

Instructors are paid by the College according to the College's Salary Plan. Instructors are usually employed "on scale," which means that their salaries are determined by a formula that takes into account a base salary, educational status, and years of work experience. The College's Salary Plan, however, also contains a "Special Salary Designation," which allows the College to employ an individual with highly exceptional qualifications at a salary above the usual "on scale" calculation. The provision allows the College to go "off scale" when it cannot obtain an exceptionally qualified teacher's services with an ordinary "on scale" salary.

Both Strag and Swain possessed masters degrees when they were hired by the College in 1987. Strag's starting salary at the College was $16,200, a somewhat lower wage than she earned at her prior position as a teacher at the East Carolina University, where she had earned $17,220 a year. Strag stated in her deposition that she took the "on scale" salary at the College, despite that small pay cut, because she did not want to continue making a one hundred-mile-a-day commute from her home to East Carolina University. Swain's starting salary at the College, by contrast, was $33,000, a slightly higher salary than the $28,931 he had earned at his prior job as a high school biology teacher at the New Bern High School. If Swain had continued as a teacher at the New Bern High School for the 1987-88 school year, his salary would have exceeded $30,000.

At the time that both Swain and Strag were hired by the College, Swain was very well-known in the County, and was tenured in the public schools by virtue of his years of service. Indeed, as of 1987, Swain had twenty-four continuous years of teaching experience, the last twenty at the New Bern High School. Strag, by contrast, had only nine years of teaching experience at the college level. Swain had established an excellent reputation by the time that he applied for a job with the College. For example, Swain was honored as the Outstanding Biology Teacher in the State of North Carolina in 1971 by the National Association of Biology Teachers, and was well known in the community for his innovative teaching methods. Indeed, many of his supporters, students, and fellow faculty members submitted affidavits in support of the College's motion for summary judgment stating that Swain's skills as a teacher were extraordinary, and were in fact comparable to, if not better than, the skills of university teachers.

The hiring of instructors at the College generally takes place pursuant to a standardized procedure developed in accordance with the affirmative action plan developed by the College. Specifically, the College advertises vacancies in full-time faculty positions by public announcement, and allows thirty days for the job applicants to submit applications. In the spring of 1987, the College published a notice of a job opening for a biology teacher. Buddy Swain became aware of the opening, and contacted Dr. Steve Redd, the Dean of the College. At that time, Swain expressed to Redd that he would not accept a position with the College for a pay lower than what he would have received at New Bern High School for the 1987-88 school year, a salary of at least $30,000. It thus became clear to the College that it would have to invoke its "Special Salary Provision" if it wished to hire Swain.

The College's Special Salary Provision provides that the College, on certain occasions, can waive the "on scale" Salary Plan salary in order to hire individuals with highly exceptional qualifications. In particular, the Special Provision states:

On rare occasions, it may be necessary for the College to seek or retain an employee with highly exceptional qualifications. In these extreme cases, the salary plan may not allow the College to pursue its objective to employ on a competitive basis. In these instances, the president may grant permission to waive the provisions of the salary plan. Such arrangements, including actual salary, would be subject to affirmative recommendation and approval by the College President and Chairman of the College Board of Trustees. This will be documented by memorandum and signatures to the appropriate department head.

The Special Provision, however, contained no guidelines as to how a special "off scale" salary would be set.

Pursuant to the Special Salary Provision, the College offered Swain a starting annual salary of $33,000. Swain accepted the offer, and began working for the College in September of 1987. Dr. Redd stated in his deposition that the decision to hire Swain was based on his excellent reputation, and on the hope that having Swain on the faculty might help the College recruit more students. At the time he was hired, Swain was therefore paid much more than most teachers at the College, including Jonathan Pharr, the Chairperson of the Science Department.

On September 2, 1993, Strag filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina under the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 206(d)(1), seeking back pay and injunctive relief. Strag selected Swain as her sole job "comparator" for purposes of her claim. The College answered her complaint, defending on the ground that Strag and Swain were not engaged in work that required similar skill, effort, or responsibility, and that the disparity between their salaries was thus justified on the ground that Swain was an exceptionally qualified instructor and that he had the additional responsibility of teaching lab classes. The College put forth evidence that since joining the faculty, Swain had taught biology lecture classes, biology labs, and independent study classes, as well as general biology courses to students enrolled in the North Carolina Wesleyan College program at the College. Moreover, Swain had several times instructed other faculty at the College in his unique, multimedia approach to teaching biology for which he had become well known.

After extensive discovery, the College filed a motion for summary judgment, supported by 47 affidavits and supplementary materials. On June 29, 1994, Strag filed a motion for an extension of time to respond to the motion for summary judgment. The district...