Alsup v. International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen, Local Union No. 3

679 F. Supp. 716, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13049, 45 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 37,687, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 287, 1987 WL 39468
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedSeptember 9, 1987
DocketC 85-7745
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 679 F. Supp. 716 (Alsup v. International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen, Local Union No. 3) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alsup v. International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftsmen, Local Union No. 3, 679 F. Supp. 716, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13049, 45 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 37,687, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 287, 1987 WL 39468 (N.D. Ohio 1987).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN W. POTTER, District Judge:

This matter is before the Court on defendants Bricklayers Joint Apprenticeship Committee (JAC) and International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen of Toledo, Ohio, Local Union No. 3 (Local 3) motions for summary judgment or, in the alternative, motions to dismiss plaintiffs Lonnie R. Alsup (Alsup), Washington Brown Sr. (Brown Sr.), Willie Brown, Jr. (Brown Jr.), Robert Cantrell (Cantrell), Jeffrey E. Clint (Clint), Charles Foster (Foster), William Garcia (Garcia), Sylvester M. Gould Sr. (Gould), Charles Harris (Harris), Lester Hollis (Hollis), Edward Holmes (Holmes), John L. Hughes (Hughes), Richard Hunter (Hunter), Marion Legare (Le-gare), Frederick Mars (Mars), Oneis McNeil (McNeil), Lloyd A. Meacham (Meacham), Roy Meredith (Meredith), Thomas A. Mullins (Mullins), Robert Pack (Pack), James Proctor (Proctor), Lemoria Robertson (Robertson), Angelo Robinson (Angelo), Will A. Robinson (Will), Robert Singletary (Single-tary), Paul T. Sledge (Sledge), Ezra Wallace (Wallace), Robert Walker (Walker) and Isaac Watson (Watson), plaintiffs’ opposition to Local 3’s motion and Local 3’s reply- 1

As originally filed, this was an action in which 29 men who were bricklayers or wished to be bricklayers sued Local 3, JAC, two contractors’ associations, The Toledo Area Hometown Plan, and six masonry or general contractors. Plaintiffs’ suit alleges a pattern or practice of racial discrimination in the bricklayer trade in. the Toledo area.

Plaintiffs’ first claim alleges that the contractors associations and The Hometown Plan entered into a conspiracy depriving blacks of their civil rights and privileges. This claim is made under 42 U.S.C. *719 § 1985(3). Plaintiffs’ second claim for relief alleges that the contractors associations and The Hometown Plan interfered with the access by blacks to federal court, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(2). Plaintiffs’ third cause of action alleges a claim of racial discrimination in employment against all defendants under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Plaintiffs’ final claim alleges that defendants denied them the right to contract for employment, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

JAC and Local 3, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ. P. 12(b)(6), move to dismiss Counts I and II of the complaint for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. A motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim should not be granted unless “it appears beyond doubt that plaintiffs can prove no set of facts in support of their claim which would entitle them to relief.” Banks v. City of Forest Park, 599 F.Supp. 465, 468 (S.D.Ohio 1984). The factual allegations in the complaint are considered as true and all reasonable inferences are construed in favor of the non-moving party. Id. at 468. However, the court is “required to accept only well pleaded facts as true ... not the legal conclusions that may be alleged or that may be drawn from the pleaded facts.” Blackburn v. Fisk University, 443 F.2d 121, 124 (6th Cir.1971). Furthermore,

[a] plaintiff pursuing a theory of conspiracy under the civil rights act is “bound to do more than merely state vague and conclusory allegations respecting that existence of a conspiracy. It [is] incumbent upon him to allege with at least some degree of particularity overt acts which defendants engaged in which were reasonably related to the promotion of the claimed conspiracy.”

Taylor v. Flint Osteopathic Hospital, Inc., 561 F.Supp. 1152, 1156 (E.D.Mich.1983) (citations omitted). The complaint must also. contain specific allegations regarding the involvement of each defendant. Oldland v. Kurtz, 528 F.Supp. 316, 322 (D.Colo.1981).

Counts I and II of plaintiffs’ complaint states as follows:

The defendant contractors Associations, the Administrative Committee and Executive Director of the Toledo Area Hometown Plan have entered into a conspiracy for the purpose of depriving blacks of their civil rights and privileges as citizens of the United States. Since 1977 the Contractors Association has financed the Hometown Plan and paid the salaries of its employees. Under the plan individual contractors submit a monthly statistical profile of their workforce including those contractors who have government contracts to the Executive Director of the Hometown Plan, The Administrative Committee’s function is to monitor and enforce the Department of Labor’s guidelines but it has failed to do so. Despite the knowledge that all mason contractors are discriminating in employment, the Administrative Committee and its Director has failed to inform the OFCCP of the underutilization of blacks and has failed to recommend that any sanctions be taken against the contractors. The result of this conspiracy by the Contractors Associations and the Administrative Committee has been to injure blacks, union members, and potential black applicants to the exercise of their civil rights and privileges as citizens of the United States.
The Contractors Associations and the Administrative Committee of the Toledo Area Hometown Plan by secreting all the contractors EEO reports showing unde-rutilization and violations of Executive Order No. 11246, Title VII and 42 U.S.C. Section 1981, have interfered with the access by blacks to the federal court.

Complaint at 1144-45.

Count I of plaintiffs’ complaint purportedly alleges a violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3). A claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3) must allege:

the defendants did (1) “conspire or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another” (2) “for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws.” It must then assert that one or *720 more of the conspirators (3) did, or caused to be done, “any act in furtherance of the object of [the] conspiracy,” whereby another was (4a) “injured in his person or property” or (4b) “deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States.”

Griffin v. Breckenridge, 403 U.S. 88, 102-03, 91 S.Ct. 1790, 1798-99, 29 L.Ed.2d 338 (1971).

Count II of plaintiffs’ complaint purportedly alleges a violation of 42 U.S.C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Medrano v. MCDR, INC.
366 F. Supp. 2d 625 (W.D. Tennessee, 2005)
Small v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
759 F. Supp. 1427 (W.D. Missouri, 1991)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
679 F. Supp. 716, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13049, 45 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 37,687, 45 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 287, 1987 WL 39468, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alsup-v-international-union-of-bricklayers-allied-craftsmen-local-union-ohnd-1987.