Beane v. Millers Mutual Insurance Ass'n of Alton

412 N.E.2d 1124, 90 Ill. App. 3d 258, 45 Ill. Dec. 542, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3919, 36 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 78, 25 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 31,498
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 12, 1980
Docket80-69
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 412 N.E.2d 1124 (Beane v. Millers Mutual Insurance Ass'n of Alton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beane v. Millers Mutual Insurance Ass'n of Alton, 412 N.E.2d 1124, 90 Ill. App. 3d 258, 45 Ill. Dec. 542, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3919, 36 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 78, 25 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 31,498 (Ill. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

Mr. JUSTICE HARRISON

delivered the opinion of the court:

Appellant Herschel Beane appeals from an order entered by the circuit court of Madison County denying his motion for leave to file a third amended complaint and granting appellee Millers Mutual Insurance Association’s objections thereto. Appellant contends that three of the counts of his proposed third amended complaint state causes of action. We disagree and affirm.

Plaintiff was employed by defendant from 1954 to 1976 and held the position of manager and assistant vice-president of the Mill and Elevator Department when he was terminated in May of 1976. On July 12, 1977, plaintiff filed suit in the circuit court of Madison County alleging that he had been fired in retaliation for his alleged outspoken opposition to defendant’s policies of sex discrimination against women. The one-count complaint alleged violations of article I, section 17 of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 and section 3(d) of the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 48, par. 853(d)), both prohibiting sex discrimination. This complaint was dismissed on September 9, 1978.

Plaintiff filed a three-count amended complaint on October 30,1978, two of the counts realleging the matter contained in his original complaint and a third count alleging violation of the free speech clauses of the State and Federal constitutions (U.S. Const., amend. 1; Ill. Const. 1970, art. I, §4)- This complaint was dismissed on April 4, 1979. Plaintiff filed yet a second amended complaint on June 14,1979, realleging three free speech violations and a separate count for cause of action under title VII, sections 703 and 704 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. §§2000e — 2(a), -3 (1976)). The second amended complaint was dismissed on July 20, 1979.

Among defendant’s contentions in its motions to dismiss the complaints were the following: The count regarding the State constitutional prohibition against sex discrimination should be denied because plaintiff lacked standing to challenge sex discrimination against women employed by defendant. The counts alleging violation of the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Act should be dismissed because such complaints fell under the aegis of the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission and plaintiff had failed to pursue his administrative remedies. The constitutional free speech allegations should be denied because an employer was entitled to terminate an employee with or without cause and therefore no cause of action existed under these constitutional provisions. The Civil Rights Act count should be dismissed because plaintiff failed to file his charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within the statutorily mandated 180 days and he had failed to obtain his “right to sue letter” from the EEOC.

Notwithstanding these three previous denials, plaintiff filed his motion for leave to file a third amended complaint on August 15, 1979. The proposed complaint, attached to the motion, was in four counts and realleged the same matter relating to unconstitutional sex discrimination, sex discrimination prohibited by State and Federal statute, and constitutional free speech, except that in regard to the Civil Rights Act claim, plaintiff alleged that he filed a charge with the EEOC on June 19,1979, and had received a “Notice of Right to Sue” dated July 30, 1979. Defendant filed an objection to the motion, alleging among other things that these matters had been raised and dismissed previously. On January 4, 1980, the trial court denied plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend and granted defendant’s objection thereto. It is from this order that plaintiff appeals, with the exception that he has abandoned the count relating to the alleged violations of his constitutional rights of free speech.

Section 46(1) of the Civil Practice Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1979, ch. 110, par. 46(1)) states that the trial court may allow amendments to pleadings on “just and reasonable terms.” Accordingly, the trial court has broad discretion in ruling on motions to amend pleadings and denial of such motions will not be reversed on appeal unless there is a manifest abuse of that discretion. (Payne v. Murphy Hardware Co. (1978), 62 Ill. App. 3d 803, 809, 379 N.E.2d 817; Beagley v. Andel (1978), 58 Ill. App. 3d 588, 589, 374 N.E.2d 929, cert. denied (1979), 440 U.S. 917, 59 L. Ed. 2d 467, 99 S. Ct. 1235.) Moreover, if the proposed amendments “made no substantial change in the complaint previously held bad, the court had a right to reject an attempt to re-litigate the same points already decided,” and this is a sufficient basis, in and of itself, to affirm the trial court’s rejection of the proposed amendment. (Richardson v. Eichhorn (1958), 18 Ill. App. 2d 273, 277,151 N.E.2d 819; accord, Payne v. Murphy Hardware Co. (1978), 62 Ill. App. 3d 803, 809.) The amended complaints in the present case were but reallegations of matter previously rejected save the additional allegations, which will be disposed of hereafter, in the proposed third amended complaint that a charge had been filed with the EEOC and a right to sue letter obtained. Hence, denial of the motion for leave to file such complaint was proper on these grounds alone.

Even so, each count of the proposed amended complaint fails to state a cause of action. With respect to the constitutional prohibition against sex discrimination, appellant lacks standing to challenge appellee’s policies toward women. Even if his charges are true, he is not a member of the class sought to be protected by this constitutional provision, he has not been discriminated against because of his sex and he cannot assert constitutional infringement based on the sex of other persons. (In re Estate of Karas (1975), 61 Ill. 2d 40, 54-55, 329 N.E.2d 234, overruled in part on other grounds in Trimble v. Gordon (1977), 430 U.S. 762, 52 L. Ed. 2d 31, 97 S. Ct. 1459; Mac Donald v. Chicago Board of Education (1976), 43 Ill. App. 3d 570, 572-73, 357 N.E.2d 604.) Moreover, appellant has not demonstrated that the women allegedly suffering discrimination at the hands of appellee are incapable of or unwilling to represent their own interests before the judiciary such that he should be allowed to champion their cause in the courts. Absent the requisite standing, the substantive constitutional question cannot be reached and the trial court properly denied appellant’s attempt to raise it.

Another count in the proposed third amended complaint alleges a violation of the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Act, now the Illinois Human Rights Act (Ill. Ann. Stat., ch. 68, par. 1 — 101 et seq. (Smith-Hurd Supp. 1980-1981).) However, the act in force at the time of the alleged violation gave the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission the power to hear and investigate complaints (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1977, ch. 48, par.

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412 N.E.2d 1124, 90 Ill. App. 3d 258, 45 Ill. Dec. 542, 1980 Ill. App. LEXIS 3919, 36 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 78, 25 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 31,498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beane-v-millers-mutual-insurance-assn-of-alton-illappct-1980.