Williams v. City of Montgomery

• Decision Date: 19 October 1982
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 81-323-N.
• Parties: Tate WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. The CITY OF MONTGOMERY, a municipal corporation; Emory Folmar, individually and in his official capacity as Mayor of the City of Montgomery, Alabama; the Fire Department of the City of Montgomery; Jim Sutherland, individually and in his official capacity as Chief of the Fire Department of the City of Montgomery; the Montgomery City-County Personnel Board; Ewell Green, Mrs. Ed Reid, and Charles B. Paterson, individually and in their official capacities as members of the Montgomery City-County Personnel Board, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

550 F. Supp. 662

Tate WILLIAMS, Plaintiff, v. The CITY OF MONTGOMERY, a municipal corporation; Emory Folmar, individually and in his official capacity as Mayor of the City of Montgomery, Alabama; the Fire Department of the City of Montgomery; Jim Sutherland, individually and in his official capacity as Chief of the Fire Department of the City of Montgomery; the Montgomery City-County Personnel Board; Ewell Green, Mrs. Ed Reid, and Charles B. Paterson, individually and in their official capacities as members of the Montgomery City-County Personnel Board, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 81-323-N.

United States, District Court, M.D. Alabama, N.D.

October 19, 1982.

Solomon S. Seay, Jr., Gray, Seay & Langford, Montgomery, Ala., for plaintiff.

J. Bernard Brannan, Jr., and Jim Sutherland, Robert C. Black, Hill, Hill, Carter, Franco, Cole & Black, Montgomery, Ala., for defendants The City of Montgomery, Emory Folmar, The Fire Dept. of the City of Montgomery.

Robert D. Segall, Copeland, Franco, Screws & Gill, Montgomery, Ala., for defendants The Montgomery City-County Personnel Board, Ewell Green, Mrs. Ed Reid, and Charles B. Paterson.

OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

The plaintiff Tate Williams, a black person, has brought this cause of action claiming, first, that the defendants, by terminating his employment as a fireperson because he received a felony conviction while retaining two white firepersons also convicted of felonies, denied him equal protection of the law in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983; and, second, that the defendants by their actions discriminated against him on account of his race in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e, et seq., otherwise known as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, and in violation of 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1983, 1985.¹ The defendants are the City of Montgomery and its mayor, Emory Folmar; the Fire Department of the City of Montgomery and its chief, Jim Sutherland; and the Montgomery City-County Personnel Board and its three members, Ewell Green, Mrs. Ed Reid, and Charles B. Paterson.² All of the individual defendants are white persons.

Upon consideration of this case, which was tried before the court without a jury, and for reasons which follow, the court is of the opinion that Williams' first claim, denial of equal protection, is time-barred in full; and that his second claim, discrimination on account of race, is time-barred to the extent it is premised on sections 1981, 1983 and 1985, but is not time-barred and has merit to the extent it is premised on Title VII, thereby entitling Williams to appropriate relief.

I. THE FACTS

During all times relevant, the defendant Montgomery City Fire Department had in effect a policy which required the discharge of any fireperson convicted of a felony. In August 1976, two white firepersons, firefighter William V. Morgan and Lt. Lamar Evans, were convicted, after trial in federal court, of the felony of conspiring to operate, own and conduct an illegal gambling operation in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Morgan was placed on probation for one year and Evans was placed on probation for two years. Although the department's disciplinary board, consisting of several other firepersons, recommended that Morgan and Evans not be terminated, the department's chief at the time, J.A. Odom, rejected the disciplinary board's recommendation and recommended to the director of the City Department of Public Safety, Ed. L. Wright, Jr., and the mayor at the time, Jim Robinson, that both men be discharged. Wright and Robinson accepted Odom's recommendation and Wright mailed Morgan and Evans notices of their dismissal.

Morgan and Evans appealed their dismissal to the defendant Montgomery City-County Personnel Board, which consisted of the defendants Green and Reid and a third member, Thomas M. Tyson, Sr. At the hearing before the board, the Fire Department, while acknowledging that it had an across-the-board policy, did little or nothing to have the policy upheld by the board. The board, therefore, without reviewing the two men's personnel files, but after entertaining testimony from several character witnesses and receiving a letter from the U.S. Attorney recommending that the two men not be terminated, reversed the dismissal of the two men and directed that they both be immediately reinstated without backpay and that Evans be reduced to the rank of a firefighter, with corresponding reduction in pay. It is unclear whether Morgan also suffered a reduction in pay.

Approximately three years later, in November 1979, the plaintiff Williams was convicted, after trial in state court, of the felony of false pretense in violation of § 13-3-92, Code of Alabama 1975, and he was placed on probation for a period of thirteen months. The defendant Sutherland, who had replaced Odom as chief, recommended to the defendant Folmar, who had replaced Robinson as mayor, that Williams be discharged as a firefighter with the city. Folmar accepted the recommendation and Williams was dismissed on November 14, 1979.

As did Morgan and Evans, Williams appealed his dismissal to the personnel board, which still consisted of the two defendants Green and Reid and Thomas M. Tyson, Sr., who has since left the board and has been replaced by the defendant Paterson. However, unlike in the Morgan and Evans cases, the board on January 25, 1980, sustained Williams' dismissal; but as in the Morgan and Evans cases, it reached its decision without consulting Williams' personnel file.

Williams filed a timely charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sometime shortly after March 13, 1981, received a "Notice of Right to Sue within 90 Days" from the commission. Williams then filed an action in the court on June 10, 1981.

II. THE LAW

As already noted, Williams has two claims against the defendants. The first claim is that the defendants by their actions denied Williams equal protection of the law. See, e.g., Zeigler v. Jackson, 638 F.2d 776 (5th Cir.1981) (the plaintiff's right to equal protection of the law was denied where defendants failed to offer a rational justification for the plaintiff's discharge as a police officer due to his criminal convictions, while three other police officers were retained despite their criminal convictions.)³ This first claim does not involve or turn on Williams' race. The second claim, however, is that the defendants by their actions discriminated against Williams on account of his race. See, e.g., Brown v. A.J. Gerrard Manufacturing Co., 643 F.2d 273 (5th Cir. 1981) (evidence reflected that black employee, discharged for work absences while white employees absent under similar circumstances not discharged, was discriminated against on account of his race.)

The defendants maintain that the first claim, which is premised on section 1983, and the second claim, to the extent it is premised on sections 1981, 1983 and 1985, are barred as not timely filed. The court agrees. Since these sections do not contain any limitations period for filing claims, a court, in considering limitations challenges under these sections, must look to applicable state law; and, further, the Alabama limitations statute applicable to claims brought under these sections is, as the defendants contend, § 6-2-39, Code of Alabama 1975, which contains a one-year limitations period. Doyle v. University of Alabama in Birmingham, 680 F.2d 1323, 1325 (11th Cir.1982) (section 1983); Rubin v. O'Koren, 644 F.2d 1023, 1025 (5th Cir.1981) (section 1983); Dumas v. Town of Mount Vernon, Alabama, 612 F.2d 974, 977 (5th Cir.1980) (sections 1981, 1983 and 1985); Beards v. Stephens, 372 F.2d 685, 688-89 (5th Cir.1967) (section 1985). Williams' contention that Alabama's ten-year limitations statute, § 6-2-33(3), Code of Alabama 1975, governs claims under these sections is without merit. Nathan Rodgers Construction & Realty Corp. v. City of Saraland, Alabama, 670 F.2d 16 (5th Cir. Unit B 1982).

Since Williams' claims arose, at the latest on January 25, 1980, when the personnel board sustained his dismissal, and yet this cause of action was not filed until June 10, 1981, more than a year later, his claims under sections 1981, 1983 and 1985 are barred as untimely by section 6-2-39. This result, however, still leaves for the court's consideration Williams' second claim to the extent it is based on Title VII. The defendants do not contend that this claim of racial discrimination under Title VII is barred as untimely and the court, therefore, now turns to and considers the merit in the claim, according to Title VII law.

Proof establishing racial discrimination is seldom direct; rather, in most cases a court must look to surrounding circumstances, circumstantial evidence, to make a determination as to whether a person has been the victim of racial discrimination. Therefore, in Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 254, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981), the Supreme Court set forth the manner in which trial courts should consider claims based on Title VII when the evidence is primarily circumstantial. Lee v. Russell County Board of Education, 684 F.2d 769, 774 (11th Cir.1982). A plaintiff has the initial burden of establishing a prima facie case of racial discrimination by a preponderance of evidence, Burdine, supra, 450 U.S. at 254, 101 S.Ct. at 1093, which once established raises a presumption that the plaintiff was discharged by the defendant on racially discriminatory grounds, id., 450 U.S. at 254, 101 S.Ct. at 1094. If the plaintiff establishes a prima facie case, the burden then shifts to the defendant to rebut the presumption by producing sufficient evidence to raise a genuine issue of fact as to whether the defendant discriminated against the plaintiff. This may be done by the defendant articulating a "legitimate, non-discriminatory reason" for the discharge, a reason which is "clear and reasonably specific" and worthy of credence. Id., ...