Williams v. TENN. VALLEY AUTHORITY, 75-186-NA-CV.

• Decision Date: 13 February 1976
• Docket Number: No. 75-186-NA-CV.,75-186-NA-CV.
• Citation: Williams v. TENN. VALLEY AUTHORITY, 415 F.Supp. 454 (M.D. Tenn. 1976)
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee
• Parties: John H. WILLIAMS v. TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY et al.

415 F. Supp. 454

John H. WILLIAMS v. TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY et al.

No. 75-186-NA-CV.

United States District Court, M. D. Tennessee, Nashville Division.

February 13, 1976.

Avon N. Williams, Jr., Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff.

Herbert S. Sanger, Jr., Gen. Counsel, Justin M. Schwamm, Asst. Gen. Counsel, James E. Fox, Thomas F. Fine, TVA, Knoxville, Tenn., for defendant.

Bernard E. Bernstein, Knoxville, Tenn., for Salary Policy Employee Panel.

MEMORANDUM

MORTON, District Judge.

This action is presently before the court pursuant to the hearing held on December 5, 1975, to determine the propriety of entertaining plaintiff's suit as a class action. The facts out of which the present controversy arose have been detailed in a previous memorandum and will not be repeated here.

The central question at issue here is whether, assuming the requirements of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are met, this suit can be maintained as a class action under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16, despite the fact that other members of the class have not yet exhausted their administrative remedies.

Defendants argue that the language of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c), which authorizes civil litigation within thirty days of notice of "the final disposition" of an aggrieved employee's complaint, is jurisdictional in nature, and thus, only those employees who have actually received some "final disposition" of their grievance by the agency have standing to sue in federal district court. Therefore, defendants contend, plaintiff cannot maintain his suit as a class action since he is the only member of his alleged class who has exhausted his remedies at the administrative level.

In support of their position defendants rely on Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, 45 L.Ed.2d 522 (1975). In that case the Supreme Court held that the provision in the Social Security Act authorizing review of a "final agency decision" in district court constituted a "jurisdictional basis for the District Court's consideration" of the case. Hence, the Court reasoned, members of the plaintiff class who had failed to obtain the final decision of the agency respecting their grievance, had not met the jurisdictional prerequisite to district court litigation.

The specific language relied on by the Court appears in 42 U.S.C. § 405(g):

Any individual, after any final decision of the Secretary made after a hearing to which he was a party, irrespective of the amount in controversy, may obtain a review of such decision by a civil action commenced within sixty days after the mailing to him of notice of the decision or within such further time as the Secretary may allow.

Defendants focus on the term "final" in the above passage, arguing that Salfi stands for the general principle that "where any statute `empowers district courts to review a particular type of decision . . . that type being those which are `final' then those potential class members who have not secured such a decision have not met the `statutorily specified jurisdictional prerequisite' and cannot proceed under the statute."

Such a reading of the case is, in this court's view, unnecessarily broad. The Court in Salfi was dealing with a very specific statute designed to accomplish a very specific purpose — namely, the resolution of individual claims which arise out of unique and independent factual backgrounds. Noticeably absent in typical Social Security claims are any allegations of systemic deprivations which might make class relief appropriate. It is simply too much to suppose that Congress anticipated class claims arising under the Social Security Act since the Act's entire thrust is toward providing relief on an individual, case by case basis.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Act, on the other hand, was expressly designated by Congress as a broad, remedial statute aimed at eliminating discrimination against certain "classes" of employees. The Senate committee report accompanying the 1972 proposed provisions of § 706 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5) of the Act made this purpose quite clear:

This section is not intended in any way to restrict the filing of class complaints. The committee agrees with the courts that Title VII actions are by their very nature class complaints and that any restriction on such actions would greatly undermine the effectiveness of Title VII. Legislative History of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, at 436. 92nd Cong. 2d Sess. (Comm. Print 1972).

Not only is the nature and purpose of the Social Security Act markedly different than that of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act; a careful reading of the pertinent language of each statute demonstrates that their express procedural requirements are readily distinguishable.

As indicated above, defendants emphasize the "finality" requirement common to both statutes. A closer analysis of the provisions of the Social Security Act relied on in Salfi, however, reveals that not only is a final agency decision required, but that the decision must be rendered "after a hearing to which the claimant was a party." The hearing requirement is significant in two respects. First, it is a specific, finite event which must occur before a claimant can take his case to federal court, unlike the more generalized reference to "final action" or "final disposition" which appears in 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c). Second, it emphasizes the individualized nature of a claim arising under its provisions by expressly specifying that the claimant be a party to the hearing. No such procedural specification appears in § 2000e-16(c).

Moreover, the Social Security Act specifically provides that "the findings of the Secretary as to any fact, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive . . ." 42 U.S.C. § 405(g). Thus, the district court's function is expressly limited under the Act to a review of the administrative record. It is not surprising, then, that the Court in Salfi held a class action impermissible, since the district court would have no record to review for persons who had not exhausted their administrative remedies. Such is not the case under the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, for, if this court is correct in its conviction that a trial de novo is warranted under § 2000e-16, the interests of each member of the class could be fully set forth at trial.

The holding in Salfi, then, is not controlling in the instant suit. See Predmore v. Allen, 407 F.Supp. 1067, 10 E.P.D. ¶ 10,260 (D.Md.1976). Defendants' contention that failure to exhaust available administrative remedies is a complete bar to district court litigation places too narrow a reading on the language of § 2000e-16 and certainly misconceives its primary objective. As the Supreme Court observed in McKart v. United States, 395 U.S. 185, 193, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 1662, 23 L.Ed.2d 194 (1969), the doctrine of exhaustion of administrative remedies "is applied in a number of different situations and is, like most judicial doctrines subject to numerous exceptions. Application of the doctrine to specific cases requires an understanding of its purposes and of the particular administrative scheme involved."

Looking, then, to the broad, remedial purpose of Title VII, and bearing in mind that "racial discrimination is by definition class discrimination. If it exists it applies throughout the class . . ." Hall v. Werthan Bag Corp., 251 F.Supp. 184, 186 (M.D.Tenn.1966), the exhaustion requirement urged upon this court by defendants begins to take on the appearance of hollow procedural formality. If indeed the gravamen of the complaint is systemic discrimination against a class, then what purpose is served by requiring that each class member individually run that allegation through the administrative machinery before bringing it to federal court? If administrative tribunals perceive no discriminatory conduct in the practices or policies of the federal agency under examination in one case, it is unlikely that they will be persuaded of its existence in another. And while the factual pattern of individual cases may differ, the central question upon which relief is dependent in each is whether defendants are guilty of discrimination against the class as a whole. The equitable remedies available to the court are such that individual claims may be accommodated contemporaneously with or subsequent to the granting, if allowed, of class relief.

As this court declared in its previous memorandum filed in this cause on November 21, 1975, it is firmly convinced that Congress intended federal employees to have the same remedies as private sector employees under the Act. The procedural provisions applicable to private litigants are expressly adopted as governing federal litigants in § 2000e-16(d). It is now clear that private sector employees may maintain a class action under Title VII even though only one member of the class has exhausted his administrative remedies. See Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 414, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2370, 45 L.Ed.2d 280, 294 (1975); Tipler v. E. I. duPont de Nemours and Co., 443 F.2d 125 (6th Cir. 1971); Carr v. Conoco Plastics, Inc., 423 F.2d 57 (5th Cir. 1970); Barela v. United Nuclear Corp., 462 F.2d 149 (10th Cir. 1972); Macklin v. Spector Freight Systems, Inc., 156 U.S.App.D.C. 69, 478 F.2d 979 (1973). Thus, it is only reasonable to conclude that federal employees should be accorded the same right. Indeed, several courts have reached that very conclusion. See Chisholm v. U. S. Postal Service, 9 E.P.D. ¶ 10,212 (W.D.N.C.1975); Ellis v. Naval Air Rework Facility, 404 F.Supp. 377, 10 E.P.D. ¶ 10,422 (N.D.Cal. 1975); Sylvester v. U. S. Postal Service, 393 F.Supp. 1334, 9 E.P.D. ¶ 10,210 (S.D.Tex. 1975); Keeler v. Hills, 408 F.Supp. 386 (N.D.Ga.1975). See also, Richerson v. Fargo, 61 F.R.D. 641 (M.D.Pa.1974); Barrett v. U. S. Civil Service Commission, 69 F.R.D. 544, 11 FEP Cas. 1089 (D.D.C.1975); Hackley v. Roudebush, 171 U.S.App.D.C. 376, 520 F.2d 108, 152, at...