Ferrell v. Busbee

91 F.R.D. 225, 33 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 300, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14003
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedAugust 19, 1981
DocketCiv. A. No. C80-1751A
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 91 F.R.D. 225 (Ferrell v. Busbee) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ferrell v. Busbee, 91 F.R.D. 225, 33 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 300, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14003 (N.D. Ga. 1981).

Opinion

ORDER

NEWELL EDENFIELD, District Judge.

This action alleging employment discrimination based on race in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2000e-17, and the Civil Rights Act of 1870, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, is before the court on plaintiff’s motions to amend the complaint, Rule 15(a), Fed.R.Civ.P., plaintiff’s motion to enlarge the discovery period, Rule 6(b), Ped.R. Civ.P., plaintiff’s motion to certify a class, Rule 23(c), Fed.R.Civ.P., and defendants’ motion to dismiss, Rule 12(b), Fed.R.Civ.P., or for summary judgment, Rule 56(b), Fed. R. Civ.P.

This action was previously before the court on these same motions. At that time plaintiff had not filed a timely response to defendants’ motion to dismiss or for summary judgment. The court, taking notice of the fact that plaintiff had filed the above-listed motions subsequent to defendants’ motion, did not consider defendants’ motion to be unopposed as the court could have done under Rule 91.2, Local Court Rules. Rather, the court deferred consideration of all pending motions for twenty days to allow plaintiff a final opportunity to respond to defendants’ motion. See Order of June 1, 1981. Plaintiff having finally responded, the court is now in a position to deal with the various motions before it.

The facts of the case, as set out in the June 1 order, are as follows:

Plaintiff was employed in 1975 by the Georgia Department of Offender Rehabilitation as a probation and parole supervisor (Parole Officer I). In 1977 he was transferred to the State Board of Pardons and Paroles in the same capacity. In January 1979, plaintiff was placed on a “working test” (apparently a form of provisional promotion) for Parole Officer II, the next higher level of probation and parole officer.

Plaintiff subsequently was suspended from his employment, with pay, in May 1979, as part of an investigation into certain alleged misconduct by him. On May 30, 1979, while plaintiff was under suspension, his supervisor informed him that he was being returned to his original level as a Parole Officer I.

Plaintiff’s suspension was then terminated, but he was transferred on June 25, 1979 to Gainesville from the Atlanta office. His supervisor later informed him that his transfer was caused by the refusal of certain police departments to work with him.

On June 20, 1979, plaintiff filed a charge with the Georgia Office of Fair Employment Practices (GOFEP), complaining that his “demotion” and transfer to Gainesville were based upon racial discrimination and for the purpose of harassing him. GOFEP held a hearing on this charge in August 1979. Plaintiff subsequently sought in writing to withdraw his charge, stating that he learned at the fact-finding hearing that racism was not a factor in the actions he complained of. GOFEP approved his withdrawal of the charge on September 12, 1979.

Plaintiff worked in Gainesville from June 25,1979 until about September 3 or 4, 1979. By a letter dated September 7, 1979, plaintiff resigned his employment effective September 15, 1979.

[228]*228On January 18, 1980, plaintiff filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), again alleging racial discrimination in his “demotion” and transfer. He also again filed a similar charge with GOFEP on February 8, 1980. Both EEOC and GOFEP subsequently issued determinations that found no reasonable cause to believe plaintiff’s charges were true.

Plaintiff then filed the instant action, seeking relief for himself and for all other blacks who ever have applied for employment with, or have been employed by, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, or who will apply or be employed in the future. The Section 1981 Claim

In plaintiff’s belated response to defendants’ motion, he has made no attempt to answer defendants’ arguments regarding his claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The court, after giving plaintiff two chances to do so, must assume that defendants’ motion to dismiss this claim is unopposed.1 Rule 91.2, Local Court Rules. At any rate, the court finds that the section 1981 claim is barred by the eleventh amendment and the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Alabama v. Pugh, 438 U.S. 781, 98 S.Ct. 3057, 57 L.Ed.2d 1114 (1978) (per curiam); Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 651, 94 S.Ct. 1347, 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974); Sessions v. Rusk State Hospital, 648 F.2d 1066 (5th Cir. 1981).

Therefore, defendants’ motion to dismiss the claim under section 1981 is GRANTED. The Title VII Claim

Defendants assert four grounds in support of their motion — the employment practices complained of by the plaintiff were not racially motivated; the EEOC charge was not timely filed; the complaint in this action was not timely filed; and the only defendant named in plaintiff’s EEOC charge was the Georgia Department of Pardons and Paroles, which defeats jurisdiction over the remaining defendants.

Taking the last ground first, the court hereby GRANTS defendants’ motion to dismiss the Title VII claim against defendants Governor George Busbee, the State of Georgia and the State Merit System of Personnel Administration due to the fact these defendants were not named in plaintiff’s EEOC charge. Crawford v. Western Electric Co., Inc., 614 F.2d 1300, 1306 (5th Cir. 1980); Batis v. Great American Federal Savings & Loan Ass’n, 452 F.Supp. 588 (W.D.Pa.1978). “This court’s jurisdiction extends only to those defendants named in plaintiff’s EEOC complaint.” Coley v. M&M Mars, Inc., 461 F.Supp. 1073, 1075 (M.D.Ga.1978); Batis, supra, 452 F.Supp. at 590.

There are two important reasons for this jurisdictional prerequisite. First, the charged party is notified of the alleged violation. Also, “it brings the charged party before the EEOC and permits effectuation of the Act’s primary goal, the securing of voluntary compliance with the law.” Ba-tís, supra, 452 F.Supp. at 590. The situation here is similar to that in Batís, and the result must be the same:

It is uncontroverted that the . . . defendants [listed above] were not named in plaintiff[’s] initial charge with the EEOC [Complaint, Paragraph VII, page 6] and whether these [defendants] were in fact notified of the filing of plaintiff[’s] charge with the EEOC is not shown by plaintiff[]. There is no evidence in the record that the . . . defendants had the opportunity to meet with the EEOC representatives in any conciliatory conferences and no evidence that these defendants were named in the factual allegations in the charge. Therefore, a primary goal of the Act has been frustrated by the omission of these [defendants] in the charge and the inclusion of them in the complaint.

Id.

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Bluebook (online)
91 F.R.D. 225, 33 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 300, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14003, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ferrell-v-busbee-gand-1981.