Colindres v. Quietflex Manufacturing

228 F.R.D. 567, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15062, 2005 WL 1367102
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedMay 26, 2005
DocketNo. CIV.A. H-01-4319
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 228 F.R.D. 567 (Colindres v. Quietflex Manufacturing) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Colindres v. Quietflex Manufacturing, 228 F.R.D. 567, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15062, 2005 WL 1367102 (S.D. Tex. 2005).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROSENTHAL, District Judge.

Plaintiffs, present and former employees of defendants, Quietflex Manufacturing Co., L.P., Quietflex Holding Co., Goodman Manufacturing Co. L.P., and Goodman Holding Co., moved for class certification of this employment discrimination suit. The proposed class seeks injunctive and declaratory relief, back pay, and punitive damages.1 In November 2004, this court held an evidentiary hearing on class certification. During the hearing, this court asked questions about pay calculations for putative class members. In March 2005, the parties submitted supplemental expert reports on the ability of the proposed class to seek back pay. On May 5, 2005, defendants’ expert stated in his deposition that before writing his supplemental report, he had sent an e-mail to defense counsel addressing some of the court’s questions on pay calculations. Plaintiffs seek discovery of the e-mail under Rule 26(a)(2)(B). Defendants have moved for a protective order on the basis that the document is protected as attorney work-product and argue that plaintiffs have received all expert discovery related to the supplemental report. (Docket Entry Nos. 229, 231).

Based on the pleadings; the motion, response, and reply; the parties’ submissions; and the applicable law, this court denies defendants’ motion for a protective order and orders production of the e-mail. The reasons are set out below.

I. Background

Defendants produce flexible air conditioning ducts and component products. In Quietfiex’s manufacturing plant in Houston, Texas, employees are assigned to work in one of six departments that execute a specific step in the production process. Plaintiffs, employees or former employees of Department 911 and Department 906, allege that defendants segregate — and for a decade or longer have segregated — their unskilled workforce. Departments 911 and 906 are virtually all Latino, while Department 910 is [569]*569virtually all Vietnamese. Department 910 makes cores and jackets for the ducts. Department 911 assembles the core, jacket, and fiberglass components to create the finished product. Department 906 ships and receives the assembled products. Plaintiffs allege that defendants “systematically initially assign Latinos into Department 911” and “systematically refuse to assign Latinos into Department 910.” “The segregation cannot be explained by job skill differences, because Departments 910 and 911 have the same entry requirements: no skills required.” (Docket Entry No. 55, f 4).

Plaintiffs allege that workers in Department 911 and 906 receive lower wages than workers in Department 910; have more physically demanding and dangerous jobs; must work more hours to meet their minimum production quotas; are provided inadequate safety equipment; are more frequently injured; and are required to perform menial tasks, such as cleaning the lunchroom and the bathroom, without compensation. (Id. at ¶¶ 36-53).

Plaintiffs move for certification under Rules 23(b)(2) and 23(b)(3). In addition to injunctive and declaratory relief, plaintiffs seek back pay and punitive damages for the proposed class. Plaintiffs seek to certify a class of:

All current and former Latino employees who worked in Departments 911 and 906 at any time during October 10, 1997 to the present and who were subjected to Defendant’s discriminatory policies and practices.

(Docket Entry No. 213, p. 6). Plaintiffs also seek certification of two subclasses that consist of the following:

All current and former Latino employees who worked in Departments 911 and 906 at any time during October 10, 1997 to the present and who were subjected to Defendant’s discriminatory policies and practices and who will not seek back bay for work not performed.
All current and former Latino employees who were fired by the Company on or about January 10, 2000 after a group of class members complained about discriminatory conditions at the QuietFlex facility.

(Id., p. 6).

Workers in Departments 910 and 911 receive piece rate wages. In response to plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, defendants presented the expert opinion of Dr. David Jones, an industrial organization psychologist. Jones submitted an initial expert report dated January 27, 2004. (Docket Entry No. 169, Ex. 5). In the report, Jones identified three reasons for differences in average pay between the two departments: job content, “going rates” in the labor market, and employee-related differences such as tenure, pay increases, and training time. (Id., p. 6). Jones opined that because Department 911 experienced a high level of turnover of employees “early on the productivity curve,” a gross comparison of average pay may offer misleading conclusions as to the extent of pay disparity. (Id., p. 50). Plaintiffs submitted the export report of Dr. Charles Mann, a statistician. In his report, Mann opined that defendants’ payroll and employment records show statistical evidence of disproportionate racial assignment and disproportionate pay rate between the two departments; Latinos were assigned to Department 911 and Department 911 workers received lower wages.

At the November 2004 evidentiary hearing, Jones testified that Mann’s statistical analysis of Department 911 versus Department 910 compensation was overly simplistic. Defendants argued that because of the piece rate compensation system, the calculation of back pay will require complex and individualized inquiries because the pay varies among all the workers due to the individual employee’s productivity and tenure at the company. This court asked about using the existing payroll data to determine the degree of variation of an individual employee’s wages from pay period to pay period and whether productivity in Department 911 was a reliable proxy for productivity in Department 910. After the hearing, both parties submitted supplemental expert reports on the issue of whether back pay could be calculated on a class-wide basis, given the piece rate compensation. Plaintiffs argue that the payroll data provides for mechanical calculation be[570]*570cause it shows that variations in individual workers’ wages correlate to department productivity.

On March 8, 2005, Jones submitted a supplemental report, “An Analysis of Pay Data for Employees Moving From Department 911 to Department 910 During the Period October 1997 through December 2004.” (Docket Entry No. 229, Ex. 5). During his deposition, Jones testified that before he submitted his supplemental export, he had sent an e-mail to defense counsel, unsolicited, addressing the questions raised in the hearing. Jones testified:

[D]uring the hearing I was asked a couple of questions by the court regarding whether certain analyses could be done or certain issues could be explored given the data that we already had in hand. And I indicated to the court at that time that — I believed the questions [the court] asked could be answered given the data we had available. The first thing I did after the hearing was to summarize for counsel, defendant counsel, what questions I thought had been asked of me and how I thought those analyses could be done. And then I communicated that thinking to counsel.

(Docket Entry No. 229, Ex. 1, p. 5). Plaintiffs requested production of the e-mail and defendants declined.

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228 F.R.D. 567, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15062, 2005 WL 1367102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/colindres-v-quietflex-manufacturing-txsd-2005.