Stringfellow v. Monsanto Company, ED 69-C-48.

• Decision Date: 29 December 1970
• Docket Number: No. ED 69-C-48.,ED 69-C-48.
• Citation: 320 F. Supp. 1175
• Parties: Howard M. STRINGFELLOW, John D. McDonald, C. D. Phillips, George N. Hudson, Leonard B. Wells and Lavelle L. McGaugh, Plaintiffs, v. MONSANTO COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Arkansas

320 F. Supp. 1175

Howard M. STRINGFELLOW, John D. McDonald, C. D. Phillips, George N. Hudson, Leonard B. Wells and Lavelle L. McGaugh, Plaintiffs, v. MONSANTO COMPANY, Defendant.

No. ED 69-C-48.

United States District Court, W. D. Arkansas, El Dorado Division.

December 29, 1970.

John P. Sizemore, Youngdahl, Sizemore, Brewer, Forster & Uhlig, Little Rock, Ark., for plaintiffs.

William J. Wynne, Crumpler, O'Connor & Wynne, El Dorado, Ark., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

OREN HARRIS, Chief Judge.

The plaintiffs bring this action against the defendant, Monsanto Company (hereinafter referred to as Monsanto), under the provisions of the newly enacted Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Pub.L. 90-202, Dec. 15, 1967; 81 Stat. 602; 29 U.S.C.A. § 621 et seq. No other case brought pursuant to this Act has been cited and the Court does not know of any proceedings heretofore involving the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

Each of the plaintiffs is an employee within the meaning of Section 11(f) of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 630(f).¹ The plaintiffs have been long-time nonbargaining unit employees of Monsanto. They contend that their employment was terminated by the company which resulted in discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Each of the plaintiffs is and was at all times material to these proceedings at least forty years of age, but less than sixty-five years of age.

The Defendant Monsanto is an employer within the meaning of Section 11(b) of the Act, employing more than twenty-five employees. 29 U.S.C.A. § 630(b).² The defendant is a corporation engaged in business in numerous places of the United States of America, and elsewhere, including El Dorado, Union County, Arkansas, where the plaintiffs have been employed giving rise to this action.

The plaintiffs were involuntarily terminated effective May 1, 1969, and each qualified for and are presently receiving early retirement benefits pursuant to the Employee Benefit Plan of Monsanto. They were salaried employees and seek reinstatement, wages from date of discharge, damages, costs and attorney's fees.

The required notice of intent to file this action was given the Secretary of Labor pursuant to 29 U.S.C.A. § 626(d).³

This Court has jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of this cause of action. 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 211(b), 216 (except subsection (a) thereof), 217 and 626(c).⁴

Plaintiffs allege that Monsanto discharged them and has failed and refused to remploy them and thus discriminated against them because of age. Each plaintiff testified concerning his length of service, plant experience, performance and training and that the allegation of age discrimination was based upon the fact that certain younger employees were retained. In support of their contention various charts and exhibits were introduced for the purpose of indicating the relationship of the ages of the plaintiffs to certain other employees.

Defendant denies having wilfully violated the Act and the commission of any act of discrimination against the plaintiffs because of their age or otherwise. Witnesses appearing on behalf of the defendant testified that economic factors required Monsanto to reduce substantially the nature, scope and extent of such chemical plant facility with the resultant effect of requiring the elimination of a large number of preexisting jobs and a substantial reduction in the number of its employees. It is the contention of Monsanto that the ultimate decision to effect such reduction was made in the early fall of 1968, at which time the method of implementing such plan was formulated. In conformity therewith, the plant manager testified that he instructed the Superintendents of Maintenance, Manufacturing and Personnel to forecast their respective departmental employee requirements following such substantial shutdown and to formulate a plan of evaluation of each employee in order that those persons retained would be most capable and competent to perform the jobs remaining.

The facilities at Monsanto's El Dorado plant for manufacturing urea, ammonia, and nitrogen solutions were shut down and abandoned in their entirety. In addition, portions of the power section, water section, ammonia storage and shipping section were likewise reduced. The abandonment and plant shutdown of this magnitude necessarily eliminated previously existing jobs not only within these assigned areas, but in those related service units of the plant facility. As a result, the required reduction in the employee complement could not be accommodated by normal attrition. Such reduction resulted in the elimination of two hundred eight hourly jobs of a total of four hundred nineteen and the termination of forty-seven salaried employees of a group of one hundred nineteen. Plaintiffs were employed within such latter group. Four of them, C. D. Phillips, John D. McDonald, Howard M. Stringfellow and Leonard B. Wells, were classified as shift foremen and the remaining two plaintiffs, Lavelle L. McGaugh and George N. Hudson, were classified as guards.

In conformity with the instructions that such superintendents received, the Superintendent of Manufacturing formulated a plan of employee evaluation utilizing techniques and criteria for determining the degree of individual job performance from materials published by the American Management Association and other similar recognized sources which were obtained and studied during the course of management seminars which such supervisory personnel had attended. A similar technique was utilized by the Superintendent of Maintenance.

The plan of evaluation as formulated by the Superintendent of Manufacturing was distributed to the Supervisors of the Ammonia Area, the Supervisor of the Acid and Solutions Area and to the Supervisor of the Fertilizer Area, in order that each such supervisor might respectively evaluate all salaried personnel subordinate to them. The individual evaluations of job performance of each employee was made on the basis of eighteen criteria. These evaluations were then reviewed by such Supervisors with the Superintendent of Manufacturing and he then undertook to analyze, correlate, compile and prepare a summarization of the performance evaluation of each salaried employee in the Manufacturing Department. A copy of that summary listing the names of each of the twenty-two employees who were so evaluated in the Manufacturing Department and the respective ratings which each such employee obtained pursuant to such plan of evaluation was introduced in evidence. Based upon that evaluation, the Superintendent of Manufacturing recommended to the Plant Manager the names of the twelve employees who should be retained for the jobs remaining in the Manufacturing Department after plant shutdown and the names of the ten employees who should be terminated. The Plant Manager testified that he concurred in those recommendations. The ratings of the plaintiffs, McDonald, Stringfellow, Phillips and Wells were shown in comparative form with all salaried employees in the Manufacturing Department who were evaluated pursuant to said plan and on the basis of that evaluation, these four plaintiffs were terminated. Only one of such twenty-two persons evaluated in this manner was under the age of forty. The remaining twenty-one were within the age group of forty to sixty-five years.

As a result of such substantial reduction, it was further determined that two guards would no longer be required of the four guards previously employed. The Superintendent of Personnel testified that he determined from his discussions with the Supervisor of Safety, to whom such guards reported directly, that firefighting skill, experience and ability were the essential factors upon which the guards should be evaluated in view of the change of responsibilities in this job classification which would occur following plant shutdown. On that basis, plaintiffs, Hudson and McGaugh, were terminated. It was undisputed that guards implemented the firemen in firefighting when the necessity arose and that guards received fire training in their employment. These training sessions were, however, conducted by firemen who were primarily responsible for and in control of the firefighting equipment at the plant. While guards were available to assist firemen in firefighting, guards were not included upon the emergency callout list in the event an emergency occurred. A list of the four firemen and the four guards who were evaluated in this manner was introduced during the course of the trial. The basis of such evaluation on firefighting skill, experience and ability and the names of the persons to be retained for the jobs remaining following such plant reduction were similarly reported to the Plant Manager who testified that he concurred therewith. All eight of the persons evaluated in this manner were within the age group of forty to sixty-five years.

A plan of evaluation similar to that utilized in the Manufacturing Department was formulated by the Superintendent of Maintenance for purposes of evaluating the job performance of all employees within the Maintenance Department. On this basis, twenty-two employees were evaluated from which nine were selected for termination on the basis of job performance. Only two of these twenty-two employees were under the age of forty and the remaining twenty were within the age group of forty and sixty-five years. Of the nine selected for termination, one was under the age of forty and the remaining eight were within the age group of forty to sixty-five years. In like manner, the Superintendent of Maintenance reported to the Plant Manager the names of the persons to be retained for the jobs remaining and he testified that he concurred therewith.

The purpose of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is expressed in the statement of Congressional intent in 29 U.S.C.A. § 621.⁵ Congress in its...