Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Maryland Cup Corporation

785 F.2d 471, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 22747, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 35,954, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 475
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 28, 1986
Docket84-2128
StatusPublished
Cited by52 cases

This text of 785 F.2d 471 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Maryland Cup Corporation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit 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. Maryland Cup Corporation, 785 F.2d 471, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 22747, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 35,954, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 475 (4th Cir. 1986).

Opinions

BUTZNER, Senior Circuit Judge:

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission appeals the district court’s order denying in part and granting in part enforcement of an administrative subpoena issued to Maryland Cup Corporation. We vacate the order and remand with instructions to enforce the subpoena subject to a slight modification.

On February 9, 1979, the EEOC served notice on Maryland Cup Corporation that a member of the commission had filed a charge of employment discrimination against the company, alleging that since 1974 Maryland Cup at five facilities had discriminated against blacks and women with respect to recruitment, hiring, training, job assignments, promotions, and salaries, in violation of section 703(a) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. section 2000e-2(a).1 The EEOC sent Maryland Cup a questionnaire seeking information on the company’s organization; information on its policies concerning recruitment, hiring, and promotion; and a list of employees hired, promoted, or fired at each facility for the years 1976 through 1979, indicating the race and sex of these individuals. The company did not produce this information but attempted to negotiate with the EEOC, requesting that the commission join it in an internal audit. After prolonged negotiations the company produced some of the requested documents. The company explained that the EEOC would have to pay the cost of copying the remainder of the documents requested. The company also refused to compile the list of employees.

[475]*475On March 1, 1982, the EEOC served the subpoena at issue. Maryland Cup appealed the subpoena within the commission. As modified upon administrative appeal, the subpoena sought payroll and personnel summary cards for the years 1976 through 1980, containing information on each employee’s race, sex, job classification, promotions, and salary. The subpoena also sought, for the same years, documents describing applicants’ race, sex, testing and interviewing results, and referral sources. The subpoena demanded documents describing the company’s training programs and the race, sex, and success of each trainee. Finally, the subpoena sought a list of all persons hired from 1976 through 1980, identified by sex and race.2

Maryland Cup notified the EEOC that it would not produce the required documents unless the EEOC agreed to reimburse it for the costs of copying the documents. Alternatively, the company offered to allow the EEOC to bring its own copier to the company’s facility to copy the documents. The company agreed to compile a list indicating race of employees for the years 1979 through 1981. The company refused to do so for the years 1976 through 1978, on the ground that this information was not documented and could be compiled only by examining photo identification badges still existing for about 40 percent of the former employees and by interviewing these employees’ former supervisors and coworkers.

On July 26, 1984, the EEOC petitioned in district court for an order to show cause why the subpoena should not be enforced. At the hearing on the enforcement petition, the EEOC offered to copy the documents at its Baltimore office, one box at a time, to save the company the expense of making copies. The EEOC refused to compromise its demand for racial identification of persons employed from 1976 through 1978. The district court ruled that the EEOC lacked the authority to require the production of documents without reimbursing the company for copying costs. Accordingly, the court declined to enforce the portion of the subpoena requiring Maryland Cup to produce the documents. The court instead required the company only to make the documents available to the EEOC on the company’s premises and to allow the EEOC to copy the documents there, at the EEOC’s expense. Alternatively, the EEOC could seleet the documents to be copied by Maryland Cup and later reimburse the company at a negotiated price per page. The district court also ruled that the EEOC had no authority to require the company to conduct an internal investigation in order to respond to a subpoena. Consequently, the court declined to enforce the subpoena’s requirement that Maryland Cup compile data on the race and sex of persons employed by the company during the years 1976 through 1978.

The EEOC appeals both rulings. Because the district court’s rulings were based on the legal conclusion that the EEOC lacked the authority to make the demands, we review the district court’s order for errors of law. FTC v. Texaco, Inc., 555 F.2d 862, 882 (D.C.Cir.1977) (en banc); see Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 287, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 1789, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982).

I

Administrative subpoenas are subject only to limited judicial review. See, e.g., NLRB v. G.H.R. Energy Corp., 707 F.2d 110, 113 (5th Cir.1982) (interpreting a statute granting a subpoena power identical to that of the EEOC). Upon petitioning for enforcement of an administrative subpoena, the issuing agency must make a threshold showing that the subpoena is within the agency’s authority, that the agency has satisfied statutory requirements of due process, and that the information sought is relevant and material to the investigation. EEOC v. Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 719 F.2d 1426, 1428 [476]*476(9th Cir.1983) (en bane); see United States v. Powell, 379 U.S. 48, 57-58, 85 S.Ct. 248, 254-255, 13 L.Ed.2d 112 (1964). Once the agency makes this showing, the court must enforce the subpoena unless the party being investigated demonstrates that the subpoena is unduly burdensome. EEOC v. Children’s Hospital Medical Center, 719 F.2d at 1428; EEOC v. Bay Shipbuilding Corp., 668 F.2d 304, 313 (7th Cir.1981); EEOC v. South Carolina National Bank, 562 F.2d 329, 332 (4th Cir.1977). Cf Oklahoma Press Publishing Co. v. Walling, 327 U.S. 186, 217, 66 S.Ct. 494, 509, 90 L.Ed. 614 (1946).

The EEOC has met its threshold burden in this case. The EEOC is authorized to issue subpoenas by section 710 of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. section 2000e-9, incorporating by reference section 11 of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U.S.C. section 161.3

Section 11 of the National Labor Relations Act requires that the commission offer an internal appeal mechanism. The commission must revoke the subpoena “if in its opinion the evidence whose production is required does not relate to any matter under investigation” or “does not describe with sufficient particularity the evidence whose production is required.” 29 U.S.C. § 161(1). The EEOC complied with these due process requirements, granting Maryland Cup an administrative appeal pursuant to its internal regulations. See 29 C.F.R.

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785 F.2d 471, 1986 U.S. App. LEXIS 22747, 39 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 35,954, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-maryland-cup-corporation-ca4-1986.