Frazer v. KFC National Management Co.

491 F. Supp. 1099, 25 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1172, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13617
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Georgia
DecidedMay 23, 1980
DocketCiv. A. 78-40-COL
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 491 F. Supp. 1099 (Frazer v. KFC National Management Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frazer v. KFC National Management Co., 491 F. Supp. 1099, 25 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1172, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13617 (M.D. Ga. 1980).

Opinion

OWENS, Chief Judge:

Congress “to promote employment of older persons based on their ability rather than age; [and] to prohibit arbitrary age discrimination in employment . . . ” 29 U.S.C. § 621, enacted the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. That Act declares that “[i]t shall be unlawful for an employer — (1) ... to discharge or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s age . . . ” 29 U.S.C. § 623(a).

On March 16, 1978, plaintiff William A. Frazer filed his complaint in this court alleging that his employer KFC National Management Company, a subsidiary of Heublein, Inc., which managed company owned Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets, unlawfully terminated his some fourteen years of employment on or about October 15, 1977, on account of his then being 61 years of age. His defendant employer after filing responsive pleadings and engaging in extensive discovery filed its motion for partial summary-judgment in which it contends that the undisputed material facts show that the plaintiff was neither discharged nor discriminated against in any manner but instead voluntarily left because of his own unhappiness over being offered a one-step lower management position which entailed neither loss of pay nor benefits. The entire file of pleadings, answers to interrogatories, depositions, admissions, affidavits and exhibits having been carefully considered, this constitutes the court’s ruling pursuant to Rule 56(c), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. That rule states “[t]he judgment sought shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.

The undisputed material facts show that William A. Frazer was born January 1, 1916, attended the public schools of Columbus, Georgia, and worked at various jobs in Columbus until he became employed by a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise owner in December 1965 as supervisor of their four stores. During the next four years the franchise added twelve more stores. Davis Food Stores purchased eight of those stores in July 1969, and Mr. Frazer became a District Manager for Davis with responsibility for the eight purchased plus six other already owned stores. By August 1969, Mr. Frazer was manager for Davis of a district which included about thirty-five stores. At that time Davis Food Service merged with KFC National Management Company, and Mr. Frazer continued with the merged company as a District Manager.

KFC National Management Company is a subsidiary of Heublein, Inc. which manages some 800 Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets that are company owned and operated throughout the United States. Some 3,000 other Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets are operated by franchisees. Geographically the company divided its operations into four regions of which the southeastern United States was Region III. Within each region the area was divided into districts. Mr. Frazer was the District Manager for one of Region Ill’s six districts, the South Geor *1101 gia-Tallahassee District. Mr. Frazer in 1977 was responsible for some 42 1 Kentucky Fried Chicken stores in his district which stretched up to Carrollton, over to Brunswick and down to Lake City, Florida. From his office in Columbus, Georgia, he kept in daily telephone contact directly or through his secretary with each store and periodically visited each store. Personnel under his supervision included area managers each of whom was responsible for an average of eight of his stores, managers of each store and store personnel. According to defendant he directly or indirectly supervised some 492 employees.

During the 1974-1977 period defendant KFC National Management Company engaged in a program of consolidating its districts and reducing its operating overhead. Interrogatory answers show that this reduced defendant’s districts from a nationwide total of 43 in June 1974 to totals of 40 in June 1975, 33 in June 1976, 22 in May 1977, and 18 in May 1978. Each consolidation of course reduced the number of district managers and increased the geographical area each had to cover.

Region III since June 1976 had been supervised by Harold Dunford, a vice president of defendant company, whose office was in Atlanta. Mr. Dunford since 1967 had been a district manager and a regional director of two other regions. He had succeeded Regional Director Russell Kuhn who was offered, accepted and still holds the next lower position of district manager for the Miami/Orlando District. Mr. Dunford states that based upon his observations of Mr. Frazer’s performance as a district manager, his conferences with Mr. Frazer in which Mr. Frazer’s shortcomings were discussed and the prior concurrence of defendant company’s president, he decided that it would be in the best interest of the company to replace Mr. Frazer as district manager by transferring Charles Farrell, a district manager whose Western Region district was being consolidated, to Region III and the South Georgia-Thomasville District. Mr. Farrell had worked from two franchisees for ten years and came with KFC from Davis Foods in 1973; he was Orlando district manager from August 1973 until he became the West Texas district manager in June 1976. He then had fourteen years of Kentucky Fried Chicken experience and was thirty-seven years of age.

On September 21, 1977, Mr. Frazer attended a district manager’s meeting in Mr. Dunford’s Atlanta office. Prior to that Mr. Frazer recalls that Mr. Dunford told him he was not building strength in his organization, that he had problems, Macon was continuing to decline and his district’s repair and maintenance was continuing to suffer. Frazer deposition at 28.

*1102 According to Mr. Frazer’s own deposition testimony, the following happened that day:

Q. Okay. You recall the September 22 meeting. What did Mr. Dunford tell you at that meeting?
A. We were told in the meeting with the district managers prior to going back in his office that he would see us one on one to give us our bonus for the previous quarter. I walked in his office. We chitchatted. He pulled out an evaluation form with a check attached. We looked over the evaluation, and he handed me the check. Then his next words were, “Bill, we are going to make a change in your district. We are going to bring some new blood in”.
Q. What else, if anything, did he say to you?
A. Then he offered me the job as an area manager.
Q. Was that all?
A. Said he would call me.
Q. Go ahead and complete what he said.
A. He asked me to go home and sleep on it and said he would call me the next morning and talk to me about it.

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Bluebook (online)
491 F. Supp. 1099, 25 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1172, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13617, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frazer-v-kfc-national-management-co-gamd-1980.