Waters v. Baldwin County

• Decision Date: 20 June 1996
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 95-1023-P-C.
• Citation: 936 F. Supp. 860
• Parties: Farrel WATERS, Plaintiff, v. BALDWIN COUNTY; Baldwin County Commission, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Alabama

936 F. Supp. 860

Farrel WATERS, Plaintiff, v. BALDWIN COUNTY; Baldwin County Commission, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 95-1023-P-C.

United States District Court, S.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

June 20, 1996.

Christopher E. Krafchak, Gardner, Middlebrooks & Fleming, P.C., Mobile, AL, for plaintiff.

M. Kathryn Knight, Mobile, AL, for defendants.

ORDER ADOPTING IN PART THE MJ'S REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

PITTMAN, Senior District Judge.

This matter is before the court on a Report and Recommendation issued by the Magistrate Judge (MJ) (tab 18) which recommends that defendants' motion to dismiss be granted to the following extent:

1. All claims against defendants White and Calhoun in their individual capacities should be dismissed; all claims against them in their official capacities should be dismissed as redundant, unless plaintiff can show otherwise.

2. All claims against defendant Baldwin County EMD should be dismissed.

3. Count Three of the Complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief under state law should be dismissed, without prejudice to plaintiff's filing an amended complaint not later than thirty days subsequent to the order of dismissal.

4. Plaintiff's request for punitive damages should be stricken.

No objection has been made to the MJ's recommendations numbered 3 and 4 above, and this court agrees with the MJ that Count Three should be dismissed and plaintiff's claim for punitive damages should be stricken. Accordingly, the MJ's recommendations numbered 3 and 4, with their accompanying discussions, are ADOPTED as the opinion of this court.

With regard to the MJ's recommendations numbered 1 and 2, plaintiff has filed objections (tab 20), and defendants have responded to those objections (tab 21). Having reviewed de novo the portions of the Report and Recommendation to which plaintiff has objected, the court concludes that defendant Baldwin County EMD should be dismissed. The court concludes further that defendants White and Calhoun should be dismissed in their official capacities with respect to all claims, and should be dismissed in their individual capacities, but only with respect to the ADA claim (Count One). Accordingly, the MJ's recommendation numbered 2, with its accompanying discussion, is ADOPTED as the opinion of this court, and recommendation numbered 1 is ADOPTED IN PART. The following discussion will clarify how this court's opinion differs from the MJ's recommendation.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The court adopts in full the MJ's recitation of the facts of this case.

DISCUSSION

The questions facing this court are 1) whether the individual defendants named in the complaint, Frostie White ("White") and Byron Calhoun ("Calhoun"), can be sued in their individual and/or official capacities under the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. 12102, or under Title I of the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), 29 U.S.C. 2601; and 2) whether the defendant, Baldwin County Environmental Management Department ("EMD"), should be dismissed from the suit. The court will address these questions in numerical order.

1. Defendants White and Calhoun

In its motion to dismiss (tab 8), which was referred to the MJ for review, defendants moved to have Calhoun and White dismissed in their individual capacities from plaintiff's claim under the ADA. Defendants never mentioned the FMLA claim or the defendants in their official capacities. Plaintiff filed a response to the motion (tab 15) in which he conceded that "White and Calhoun may not be held liable in their individual capacities under Title VII or the Family Medical Leave Act." Plaintiff went on to state that, "however, they are liable in their official capacities as to Plaintiffs claims under Title VII and the Family Medical Leave Act." Defendants filed a reply brief in support of their motion to dismiss in which they asserted that their motion should be granted because of plaintiff's concession.

The MJ recommends that White and Calhoun be dismissed from all claims, including the FMLA claim, in both their official and individual capacities. With respect to White and Calhoun in their official capacities, the MJ reasons that it is redundant to sue both the employer, Baldwin County, and plaintiff's supervisors, White and Calhoun. Plaintiff argues that is not redundant because Baldwin County and plaintiff's supervisors can be considered joint employers of plaintiff for purposes of both the ADA and FMLA.

However, at least in Title VII suits, as defendants have pointed out, "official-capacity suits generally represent only another way of pleading an action against an entity of which an officer is an agent." Monell v. New York Dep't of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 690 n. 55, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 2036 n. 55, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978); Busby v. City of Orlando, 931 F.2d 764, 772 (11th Cir.1991) ("We think the proper method for a plaintiff to recover under Title VII is by suing the employer, either by naming the supervisory employees as agents of the employer or by naming the employer directly.") The court finds there is no need for plaintiff to sue both his employer and his supervisors in their official capacities because of the law of agency. Therefore, although defendants did not move to dismiss White and Calhoun in their official capacities from either the ADA or the FMLA claim, the MJ properly dismissed them in the interest of efficiency from both claims.

With respect to White and Calhoun in their individual capacities, plaintiff argues first that in his response to the motion to dismiss, he inadvertently conceded that they should be dismissed. Second, plaintiff contends that White and Calhoun should not be dismissed from the FMLA claim because they are "employers" for purposes of potential liability under the FMLA.

The court agrees that White and Calhoun should not be dismissed in their individual capacities from plaintiff's claim under the FMLA. Defendants never moved to have White and Calhoun dismissed in their individual capacities from plaintiff's claim under the FMLA, and moreover, defendants have not shown that White and Calhoun are not "employers" under the FMLA. Therefore, defendants have not shown that plaintiff has failed to state a claim against White and Calhoun under the FMLA.

In their motion to dismiss, defendants moved to dismiss White and Calhoun from the ADA claim only. There was no mention of the FMLA claim. It was plaintiff who offered that the FMLA claim should be dismissed when he filed his response to the motion to dismiss. Because defendants never asked the court to dismiss the FMLA claim, this court finds that the MJ's recommendation that all claims against White and Calhoun should be dismissed was in error.

Defendants now ask that the court hold plaintiff to his concession that the FMLA claims should be dismissed. Plaintiff argues that when he made that concession, he did not intend that White and Calhoun be dismissed in their individual capacities under the FMLA. The court reads this to mean that plaintiff intended to concede that the ADA claim should be dismissed against White and Calhoun, but not the FMLA claim. Given that defendants never moved to dismiss the FMLA claim, the court will not hold plaintiff to a concession that it should be dismissed. Plaintiff has explained sufficiently what he intended to state.

Whether an employee's supervisor can be sued in his or her individual capacity under the FMLA is a question of first impression in this circuit. The FMLA entitles employees to "take reasonable leave for medical reasons, for the birth or adoption of a child, and for the care of a child, spouse, or parent who has a serious health condition." 29 U.S.C. § 2601(b)(2). The FMLA allows employees to sue employers for interfering with the entitlement to take leave. The act describes "employer" in the following manner:

(4) Employer. (A) In general. The term "employer" —

(i) means any person engaged in commerce or in any industry or activity affecting commerce who employs 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year;

(ii) includes —

(I) any person who acts, directly or indirectly, in the interest of an employer to any of the employees of such employer; and (II) any successor in interest of an employer; and

(III) includes any "public agency"....

29 U.S.C. § 2611(4)(A). Defendants assert that because White and Calhoun are not "employers", they cannot be sued under the FMLA. In support, defendants argue that courts in Title VII cases have consistently held that supervisors cannot be sued as employers, and that this court should apply that rule. Plaintiff, on the other hand, contends that the Title VII definition of employer should not apply here. Plaintiff cites a case in which a district court in the Seventh Circuit facing this question rejected the Title VII line of cases and instead, applied a line of cases under the Fair Labor Standards Act in which "employer" is generally interpreted more broadly. Freemon v. Foley, 911 F.Supp. 326 (N.D.Ill.1995).

The court finds that the plain language of section 2611(4)(A)(ii)(I) of the FMLA includes White and Calhoun as employers of plaintiff. The court also finds that the reasoning set forth by the court in Freemon is persuasive. In Freemon, the court stated:

The defendants argue that we should look to these other employment discrimination statutes for guidance in interpreting the FMLA. However, the definition of an "employer" under Title VII, the ADEA, and the ADA differs from that used in the FMLA. The former statutes define an employer as a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who employs a certain number of people, "and any agent of such person." 42 U.S.C. § 12111(5)(A) (ADA), § 2000e(b) (Title VII); 29 U.S.C. § 630(b) (ADEA). In contrast, the FMLA extends employer status to "any person who acts, directly or indirectly, in the interest of an employer to any of the employees

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