Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Fotios

671 F. Supp. 454, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13894
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Texas
DecidedJuly 15, 1987
DocketCiv. A. SA-85-CA-448
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 671 F. Supp. 454 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Fotios) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Texas 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. Fotios, 671 F. Supp. 454, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13894 (W.D. Tex. 1987).

Opinion

PRADO, District Judge.

This case was brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, on behalf of eight plaintiffs, alleging sexual harassment and constructive discharge from employment pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

After a three day trial on the merits on February 24-26,1987, the parties agreed to settle the liability issue and leave to the court the question of damages for each individual claimant. By separate order entered today, the parties agreed to a permanent injunction prohibiting Defendant from engaging in any form of sexual discrimination and allowing the Commission enforcement and monitoring authority for the next three years.

I. DAMAGES

The matter now before the court is the question of damages. The Commission filed a brief in support of monetary relief on March 6, 1987. Defendant was given *456 until March 26, 1987 to respond, but has filed nothing with the court. Although the court generally does not engage in lengthy analysis when one party shows such little interest in the litigation, the fact that the Commission’s position is uncontested does not mean that all eight claimants are entitled to the full amount of damages alleged as a matter of law. In the interest of brevity the court will only discuss the individual damage claims which present difficult legal questions.

1. MARGARET MUNRO

Margaret Munro was constructively discharged from employment by Defendant on October 25, 1984. Plaintiffs Exhibit 29, whose admissibility was stipulated to by the parties, reflects the dates of employment and unemployment Ms. Munro experienced during the class period (the Commission has only requested damages until December 81, 1986).

Ms. Munro’s job at Globe Security was a second job; in addition, she worked forty hours a week for Baptist Memorial Hospital. After her constructive discharge she continued working for Baptist Memorial and in January of 1986 she took a second non-salaried job as a caretaker for an elderly woman. Although Ms. Munro was not paid for this job, she did receive free room and board. It is well settled that such fringe benefits are to be included in calculating back pay awards for Title VII claimants. See, e.g., B. Schlei & P. Gross-man, Employment Discrimination Law 2d (1983) at 1441.

Although the general rule in most discrimination cases is to require a hearing to determine the amount of individual damages after a finding of liability, International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 361, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1867, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977), an individual hearing is not required in all cases. C. Richey, Manual on Employment Discrimination Law and Civil Rights Actions in the Federal Courts (Federal Judicial Center rev. ed. 1986) at A-61. When any attempt to reconstruct an individual work history would drag the court into a “quagmire of hypothetical judgments,” see e.g., Segar v. Smith, 738 P.2d 1249, 1290 (D.C.Cir.1984), cer t. denied, 471 U.S. 1115, 105 S.Ct. 2357, 86 L.Ed.2d 258 (1985), an individual hearing is not required. Even if Ms. Munro were to testify about the room and board received as in-kind compensation, the court would have to make an estimate about the monetary value of the compensation received. Accordingly, no hearing is required in this case.

The Commission contends that no adjustment in Ms. Munro’s back pay award should be made for her non-salaried job as a caretaker. Two arguments are made in support of this position. First, the Commission argues that the purpose of Title VII is to make injured parties whole and to place them in the position they would have occupied absent the discriminatory actions. Second, the Commission argues that even if the caretaker job should be considered in calculating back pay, no offset should be made because the meals and housing Ms. Munro received were impossible to calculate and any ambiguities should be resolved against the discriminating employer.

The Court has some difficulty discerning the Commission’s first argument. The Commission cites testimony from Ms. Munro that she would not have taken the unpaid secondary job if she had continued working for Globe. Apparently, the Commission wants the court to conclude that the caretaker job must be disregarded to place Ms. Munro in a similar position because she would not have agreed to take the secondary job absent the discrimination. This is axiomatic. But the purpose of Title VII back pay awards is to place injured parties in the same financial position they would have occupied, not the same physical position, which would of course be impossible. If the court concludes that the caretaker job was a replacement job for Ms. Munro’s job at Globe, any back pay award should be commensurately reduced.

While it is true that a fundamental purpose of Title VII is to make injured parties whole, see, e.g., Nord v. U.S. Steel Corp., 758 F.2d 1462 (11th Cir.1985), an equally *457 important principle is that injured parties should not receive a windfall in any back pay award. Schlei & Grossman, supra, at 1432. To completely disregard Ms. Munro’s caretaker job in this case would result in a windfall.

In determining whether any reductions should be made for Ms. Munro’s secondary employment as a caretaker, the court must decide whether the in-kind benefits received were “interim earnings.” 1 As a general rule, fringe benefits are included in back pay calculations. See Schlei & Gross-man, supra, at 1441. An analogous principle is that in-kind compensation for services rendered are part of interim earnings. See id. at Supp. 285 (1985 ed.), citing, McCluney v. Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co., 540 F.Supp. 1100 (E.D.Wis.1982) (value of ownership interests in oil, coal, and gas exploration ventures to be deducted from awardable back pay; value of in-kind compensation at time received by discrimination victim, not value at time of trial, is amount to be deducted from back pay).

The Fifth Circuit analyzed the interim earnings classification problem in Bing v. Roadway Express, Inc., 485 F.2d 441, 454 (1973). The Bing court defined “interim” as meaning temporary or provisional and concluded:

If a supplemental or moonlight job is one that the discriminatee cannot perform when he wins his new position, the supplemental job is necessarily temporary, provisional or ‘interim.’ By contrast, if one can hold his supplemental job and his desired full time job simultaneously and there is reason to believe he mil do so, the supplemental job assumes a permanent rather than interim nature. Those earnings would be independent of the position sought and should not be taken into account in back pay calculations, (emphasis added).

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Bluebook (online)
671 F. Supp. 454, 1987 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13894, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-fotios-txwd-1987.