Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Carrols Corp.

215 F.R.D. 46, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6157
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. New York
DecidedFebruary 18, 2003
DocketNo. 5:98-CV-1772(FJS)
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 215 F.R.D. 46 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Carrols Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Carrols Corp., 215 F.R.D. 46, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6157 (N.D.N.Y. 2003).

Opinion

Decision and Order

SHARPE, United States Magistrate Judge.

Pending are cross-motions to compel discovery by plaintiff, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), and the defendant, Carrols Corporation (“Carrols”). See DM. Nos. 21, 25-26, 29-33; 53-54.

I. Background

Carrols, a Burger King franchisee, operates approximately three hundred restaurants in fourteen states. The restaurants are subdivided into six regions, and each region is headed by a general manager and human resources department. Nonetheless, the restaurants and regions are centrally managed and subject to a company-wide sexual harassment policy.

On May 1 and July 2,1996, Wendy McFarlan, a Glens Falls, New York, employee filed a sex discrimination charge with the EEOC. The EEOC began a McFarlan investigation, and subsequently expanded it to include all Carrols’ employees from 1990 to present.1 Apparently unable to negotiate a conciliation agreement, the EEOC sued on November 17, 1998.

EEOC’s complaint asserts that Carrols has engaged in a “pattern and practice” of unlawful employment practices on the basis of sex, retaliation and constructive discharge. See Civil Rights Act of 1964, §§ 703-704, 707, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2(a), 3(a) and 6. It further alleges that Carrols has fostered a hostile work environment resulting in explicit physical and verbal sexual conduct directed at its female employees, all while the corporation has taken few, if any, remedial measures to curtail the conduct. Instead, complainants have suffered retaliation through adverse employment conditions and constructive ' discharge. Accordingly, the EEOC seeks a permanent injunction precluding Carrols from engaging in such conduct, an order directing that Carrols institute new remedial measures to eradicate the conduct, and compensatory and punitive damages.

Carrols denies the allegations, asserting that its corporate policies forbid such conduct, that remedial procedures exist to deal with complaints, and that its managers receive sexual harassment training. Carrols also complains that the suit exceeds the permissible scope of any reasonable investigation precipitated by the original McFarlan charge.

The parties’ divergent views concerning the scope of the litigation have generated their discovery disputes. Both concur that the EEOC’s focus on Carrols began with the 1996 McFarlan complaint. Consistent with its statutory obligations, the EEOC notified Carrols of the complaint, conducted an investigation and sought to conciliate the controversy before suing. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b). Carrols asserts that the EEOC focused on McFarlan, and never filed a Commissioner’s charge formally notifying Carrols of a [49]*49wide-spread pattern and practice investigation.

During discovery, the EEOC obtained Carrols’ database for the years 1994-1998, and mailed cover letters and questionnaires to employees. See Carrols Ltr., Ex. C, Dkt. 21. It received hundreds of written and verbal responses from former and current employees. According to the EEOC, those responses disclosed substantial information about sexual harassment, retaliation and constructive discharge. In fact, the EEOC asserts it now has identified more than one hundred and fifty instances of physical abuse, and has developed substantial information to support the argument that Carrols’ has no real sexual harassment policy whatsoever.

Carrols counters that the pattern and practice claims are essentially de minimis in light of the geographic breath and extended time frame of the investigation, and given the sheer number of employees involved. It reiterates that the complaint covers four hundred restaurants in thirteen states, and between one and two hundred thousand employees over a ten year period. Carrols complains that the EEOC intends to prove pattern and practice through unrelated and statistically insignificant, individual cases, requiring Carrols to respond with a broader picture. Accordingly, it claims its discovery needs are different.

II. The Discovery Disputes

On March 5, 2001, Carrols complied with this District’s Local Rules, and sought judicial intervention to resolve the discovery disputes. See Mar. 2, 2001, Carrols Ltr. and Attachments, Dkt. 21. The EEOC responded on April 9 and Carrols replied on April 16. See EEOC Ap. 6, 2001, Ltr., Dkt. No. 25; Carrols Ap. IS, 2001, Ltr., Dkt. No. 26. The court then conducted a discovery hearing on April 17. See Transcript, Dkt. No. SO. At that hearing, the court resolved some disputes and refined others, and the parties then filed their motions to compel.2

Furthermore, the discovery motions have been supplemented in accordance with Judge Scullin’s order permitting additional discovery pursuant to Rule 56(f) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Carrols continues to oppose production of its employee data base, and the EEOC seeks depositions of Carrols’ managers. See Dkt. Nos. 5S-5L

In summary, Carrols now seeks: (1) copies of completed questionnaires received by the EEOC from those designated as claimants or potential claimants; (2) statements of fact certified by the EEOC that reflect “communications” between the EEOC and claimants or potential claimants (e.g., communications through mediums other than the questionnaires); (3) pattern and practice statistical data derived by the EEOC through the use of questionnaires; (4) statistical and comparative data in the EEOC’s possession or subject to its control relative to similar sexual harassment complaints in companies of a size comparable to Carrols; and, (5) the identification of Carrols’ written policies and programs that the EEOC claims are evidence that Carrols intentionally tolerated sexual harassment. Dkt. No. 29. In its cross-motion, the EEOC seeks production of Carrols’ employee database from 1999-present, and managerial depositions. Dkt. No. SI at 9 and Ex. 1; Dkt. No. 5J.

As to Carrols’ demands, the EEOC responds: questionnaires and certified factual summaries of claimant communications are protected by the work product doctrine and the attorney client privilege; it did not compile statistical data concerning the mailing and receipt of questionnaires; the production of statistical and comparative data would be burdensome and necessary only if Carrols retains an expert for comparative purposes; and, to compel it to identify specific written policies and procedures it claims are evidence that Carrols intentionally tolerated sexual harassment would compel unwarranted legal conclusions. As to facts generated by the [50]*50questionnaires and subsequent communications, the EEOC has offered to provide factual detail in a narrative form. See May 23, 2001, EEOC Ltr., Dkt. No. 31 at p. 2, fn. 4-

As to the EEOC demands, Carrols has refused to supply an updated employee database, arguing that some outside parameters to the EEOC investigation must be fixed. Otherwise, it is compelled to defend a moving target that constantly expands. The EEOC responds that it must fulfill its responsibilities to the public and potential claimants.

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