West v. Pelican Management Services Corp.

• Decision Date: 03 February 1992
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 91-0363-A.
• Parties: Matthus M. WEST v. PELICAN MANAGEMENT SERVICES CORP.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Louisiana

782 F. Supp. 1132

Matthus M. WEST v. PELICAN MANAGEMENT SERVICES CORP.

Civ. A. No. 91-0363-A.

United States District Court, M.D. Louisiana.

February 3, 1992.

Lisa Degruy, Covington, La., for plaintiff Matthus M. West.

H. Sloan McCloskey, New Orleans, La., for defendant Pelican Management Services Corp.

RULING

CHRISTINE A. NOLAND, United States Magistrate Judge.

This consent case comes before the Court on the motion of the plaintiff for a jury trial on his sex discrimination claim. The plaintiff, Matthus M. West, filed his complaint against Pelican Management Services Corporation ("Pelican") on April 2, 1991, asserting sex discrimination, age discrimination and overtime pay claims arising from his prior employment with Pelican as a real estate property manager. The plaintiff bases his request for a jury trial on his sex discrimination claim upon certain provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which was signed into law on November 21, 1991. Section 102 of the Act adds a new section, 42 U.S.C. § 1981a, which, in pertinent part, provides for the recovery of compensatory and punitive damages in intentional employment discrimination cases under Title VII and allows for a right to trial by jury when compensatory or punitive damages are sought under the new Section. 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(a)(1) & (c)(1) (1991).¹ Section 402(a) of the 1991 Act provides that "except as otherwise specifically provided, this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect upon enactment."

The basic question posed therefore is whether 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(c)(1) applies retroactively to permit a party to obtain a jury trial in a pending intentional sex discrimination case where the claim is based on alleged discriminatory practices occurring prior to the date on which the statute was enacted, November 21, 1991. The lower court authorities on this question are split. From the briefs submitted by the parties and the Court's own independent research, it appears at this writing that at least three district courts have held that a jury trial is not available under Section 1981a(c)(1) in cases based on pre-Act conduct and that at least two other district courts have taken the contrary position, holding that a jury trial is available in pending cases involving preenactment conduct. Compare Khandelwal v. Compuadd Corp., 780 F.Supp. 1077 (E.D.Va. 1992) (no jury trial); Van Meter v. Barr, 778 F.Supp. 83 (D.D.C.1991) (same) and High v. Broadway Industries, Inc., No. 90-1066-CV-W-3, 1992 WL 33860 (W.D.Mo., Jan. 7, 1992) with King v. Shelby Medical Center, 779 F.Supp. 157 (N.D.Ala.1991) (jury trial) and Mojica v. Gannett Co., 779 F.Supp. 94 (N.D.Ill.1991) (same).²

The issue presented here, however, is not simply a procedural question of whether a jury trial now is available under the Civil Rights Act of 1991 on a potential liability that existed prior to the Act. Rather, the right to a jury trial under subsection (c)(1) of Section 1981a arises only when the complaining party has a right to seek compensatory or punitive damages under the newly-adopted provisions of subsection (a)(1) of Section 1981a.³ That is, under the express language of the statute, the right to a jury trial under subsection (c)(1) turns upon the availability of the newly-created remedies of compensatory and punitive damages under subsection (a)(1).

Thus, at bottom, the controlling issue here is whether 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(a)(1) applies retroactively to permit recovery of compensatory and/or punitive damages in cases based on alleged discrimination that occurred prior to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 on November 21, 1991. If compensatory and punitive damages can be recovered under Section 1981a(a)(1) for pre-enactment conduct, then a party can obtain a jury trial under subsection (c)(1) on a claim arising prior to November 21, 1991. If, on the other hand, subsection (a)(1) is not retroactive, and if compensatory and punitive damages therefore are not available for pre-enactment conduct, then a party will not be able to obtain a jury trial under subsection (c)(1) in a case arising prior to the enactment date.⁴

The task of resolving this retroactivity question is not at all made easier by the fact that the legislative history contains expressions on both sides of the issue. Compare 137 Cong.Rec. S 15483 (remarks of Sen. Danforth) (Act not retroactive) with 137 Cong.Rec. S 15963 (remarks of Senator Kennedy) (Act retroactive). Nor is the task made any easier by two apparently inconsistent lines of Supreme Court authority on the statutory rule of construction to be followed in this situation. Compare Bowen v. Georgetown Univ. Hosp., 488 U.S. 204, 109 S.Ct. 468, 471, 102 L.Ed.2d 493 (1988) ("congressional enactments ... will not be construed to have retroactive effect unless their language requires this result") with Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond, 416 U.S. 696, 711, 94 S.Ct. 2006, 2016, 40 L.Ed.2d 476 (1974) ("a court is to apply the law in effect at the time it renders its decision, unless doing so would result in manifest injustice or there is statutory direction or legislative history to the contrary"); see also Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. v. Bonjorno, 494 U.S. 827, 110 S.Ct. 1570, 1577, 108 L.Ed.2d 842 (1990) (noting, but not resolving, the "apparent tension" between Bowen and Bradley); id., at 1579- 88 (Scalia, J., concurring) (advocating rejection of Bradley rule). The Court concludes, however, after reviewing the available indicia of Congressional intent, that, on balance, the better view is that the Act's provisions pertaining to recovery of compensatory and/or punitive damages and the accompanying right to a jury trial do not apply retroactively to pending cases arising out of alleged discriminatory conduct occurring prior to November 21, 1991.

Where congressional intent is clear from the plain language of the statute, that clear statutory expression of congressional intent governs. E.g., Kaiser Aluminum, 110 S.Ct. at 1577. Here, the Court will assume, arguendo, that the plain language of the statute does not clearly express congressional intent with regard to the issue of retroactive versus prospective application of the Act. Section 402(a) of the Act states that "except as otherwise specifically provided, this Act and the amendments made by this Act shall take effect upon enactment." If there truly is a difference between a statute taking effect on a certain date and the statute having effect before, on or after that date,⁵ then it would appear that Section 402(a) does not clearly speak to the question of whether the Civil Rights Act of 1991 will have retroactive as opposed to purely prospective effect. That is, the statute does not expressly state that it either will or will not have effect prior to the time that it takes effect. Or, phrased another way, the language of the statute does not explicitly address the matter of whether the Act applies to cases that are pending on the date on which it "takes effect" or, instead, applies only to claims arising on and after the date on which it takes effect. See EEOC Guidance on Retroactivity of Civil Rights Act of 1991, issued January 2, 1992, at 2.⁶ The Court therefore will assume, arguendo, that the plain language of Section 402(a) of the Act does not resolve the issue and will turn to other available interpretative tools.

Of course, the difficulty that the lower federal courts have encountered in this regard is that Bradley and Bowen do not appear to be consistent with or reconcilable with each other, leaving the basic rule of statutory construction in doubt. Bradley suggests that statutes should be construed to have retroactive effect and to apply to cases pending on their date of enactment unless there is a statutory directive or legislative history to the contrary. See 416 U.S. at 711-16, 94 S.Ct. at 2016-18. And Bowen suggests exactly the opposite, i.e., that statutes should be construed to apply only prospectively unless Congress specifies otherwise. See 109 S.Ct. at 471; see also Kaiser Aluminum, 110 S.Ct. at 1577 (a "generally accepted axiom").

Without dwelling too extensively on this conflict, which is beyond this Court's power to authoritatively resolve, it appears to this Court that Bradley should be read narrowly and that the decision does not state a rule of general application having any significant vitality outside of the particular context presented in Bradley. The Bradley decision held that Section 718 of Title VII of the Emergency School Aid Act, codified at 20 U.S.C. § 1617, which provided for the recovery of attorneys' fees in school desegregation cases, authorized an award of fees for services rendered prior to the date of the statute's enactment where the issue of the propriety of the fee award already was pending resolution on appeal in the case when the statute became law. See 416 U.S. at 710 & 724, 94 S.Ct. at 2015 & 2022. In so holding, the Supreme Court specifically and expressly noted that its decision in Bradley did not purport "to hold that courts must always ... apply new laws to pending cases in the absence of clear legislative direction to the contrary." 416 U.S. at 715, 94 S.Ct. at 2018. And, further, the Supreme Court relied upon legislative history which, although not conclusive, "seemed to provide at least implicit support for the application of the statute to pending cases."⁷ In light of these expressions in Bradley, this Court concludes that the rationale and holding of the decision do not extend to the context presented here. That is, the Court concludes that the Bradley decision — read against the backdrop of prior law holding that statutes are not to be construed to have retroactive effect except when their language directs this result⁸ — does not contemplate or require that a new statute authorizing the recovery of compensatory and punitive damages must be applied retroactively to pre-enactment conduct notwithstanding the complete...