Diaz v. Pan American World Airways, Inc.

346 F. Supp. 1301, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1211, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12365, 5 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8473
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Florida
DecidedAugust 10, 1972
DocketCiv. 69-206
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 346 F. Supp. 1301 (Diaz v. Pan American World Airways, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Diaz v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 346 F. Supp. 1301, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1211, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12365, 5 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8473 (S.D. Fla. 1972).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

FULTON, Chief Judge.

BACKGROUND

This cause comes before this Court on remand from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which, on April 6, 1971, reversed the judgment entered herein on April 24, 1970. Briefly, the history of this case is as follows: On April 17, 1967 the plaintiff, Celio Diaz, Jr., applied for the position of “flight cabin attendant”' with defendant, Pan American World Airways, Inc. (“Pan Am”). His application was rejected because Pan Am had, since 1965, applied a policy of restricting new hiring for that position to females. Diaz then filed a charge under Section 703 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (“Title VII” ; “The Act”), with the Equal Employment Op-poi-tunity Commission (“EEOC”), alleging that Pan Am had unlawfully discriminated against him on the grounds of sex. The EEOC having found probable cause, and conciliation attempts having failed, Diaz filed his complaint with this Court on February 14, 1969, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated; he sought an injunction and damages.

In their pre-trial stipulation, dated September 19, 1969, the parties stipulated (1) that Diaz had applied and had been rejected for the cabin attendant position on the grounds that he was a male, (2) that other males had been rejected for similar reasons, (3) that Pan Am had, since 1965, followed a policy of not hiring males for the position, and (4) that the class of plaintiffs would consist “of males who have applied within the United States for positions as Pan American flight cabin attendants and have been rejected because of their sex.” It was also stipulated that it is an unlawful employment practice under Title VII to refuse to hire any individual because of that individual’s sex unless sex “is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary for the normal operation of that particular business.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e) (1). The mixed issue of law and fact for trial was then stipulated to be:

Whether being a female is a bona fide occupational qualification for the position of flight cabin attendant reasona *1304 bly necessary to the normal operation of defendant’s business, within the meaning of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(e)(1).

The trial was held on September 23-25, 1969 without a jury. The Air Transport Association of America, representing nearly all the certificated scheduled air carriers, the Transport Workers Union of America, representing Pan Am’s cabin attendants, the Air Line Pilots Association, International, representing cabin attendants on several other airlines, and the EEOC all filed amicus curiae briefs.

On April 8, 1971, this Court filed its memorandum opinion incorporating the Court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law (311 F.Supp. 559). The Court found that the experience of Pan Am, as well as other airlines which had employed both male and female cabin attendants over a number of years, was that, as a group, the females they hired generally performed the overall non-mechanical functions of the cabin attendant job better than the males they hired, and that, because of the great difficulty of identifying those few males who were as qualified for the position as most females, restricting cabin attendant hiring to females resulted in a greater statistical probability that the new-hire employee would be a successful employee than would a mixed male/female hiring policy. The Court then held that sex was a bona fide occupational qualification for the position of cabin attendant, reasonably necessary to the normal operation of Pan Am’s business, and therefore that Pan Am’s females-only hiring policy was not an unlawful discrimination on the grounds of sex under Section 703 of the Act.

An appeal was taken from this Court’s judgment to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The Airline Stewards and Stewardesses Association filed an amicus curiae brief; the EEOC filed an amicus curiae brief and presented oral .argument. On April 6, 1971, the Court of Appeals rendered its decision reversing the judgment of this Court and remanding the case for proceedings consistent with its opinion. 442 F.2d 385. The Court held that the bona fide occupational qualification exemption of Title VII required Pan Am to establish not merely that female cabin attendants generally perform better than males or that the addition of males to the hiring process would produce more unsatisfactory applicants and thus reduce the average level of performance, but rather that the essence of Pan Am’s business would be undermined by not hiring females exclusively. Ruling (1) that “the primary function of an airline is to transport passengers safely from one point to another,” (2) that the employment of male stewards will not “so seriously effect the operation of an airline as to jeopardize or even minimize its ability to provide safe transportation from one place to another,” and (3) that the aspects of the job in which the females generally out perform the males are not “reasonably necessary to the normal operation” of Pan Am’s business, the Court held that, while Pan Am was allowed to “take into consideration the ability of individuals” to perform the job, “Pan Am cannot exclude all males simply because most males may not perform adequately” (442 F.2d at 388).

On May 10, 1971, the Court of Appeals denied Pan Am’s petition for rehearing, and on November 9, 1971, the Supreme Court denied Pan Am’s petition for a writ of certiorari. Following the issuance of the Court of Appeals’ mandate on November 18, 1971, this Court ordered counsel for both sides to confer with respect to further proceedings in this case and to attend a conference with the Court.

Hearings were thereafter held before this Court on January 4 and 27, 1972, during which the parties stated their respective positions regarding among other things, the relief to be accorded to the plaintiff and to the members of the class represented by him. The EEOC also appeared, as amicus curiae, and presented its position. At the conclu *1305 sion of the second hearing, the Court requested the parties to submit their respective proposed final orders by February 7, 1972. The Court also entered an order permitting the Transport Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO (TWU), “to intervene as a party defendant for the limited purposes of participating in the consideration and determination of the nature of relief that shall be accorded by the Court to the class of persons represented by the plaintiff.” Proposed final orders and supporting memoranda and affidavits were thereafter filed by the parties and by the EEOC.

On March 31, 1972, a third hearing was held on the issues raised by the parties’ proposal's. On June 5, 1972, Pan Am filed an amended proposed order and supporting affidavit.

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346 F. Supp. 1301, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1211, 1972 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12365, 5 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8473, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diaz-v-pan-american-world-airways-inc-flsd-1972.