Gaston v. Exelon Corp.

247 F.R.D. 75, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88377, 2007 WL 4233511
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 30, 2007
DocketCivil Action No. 06-4762
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 247 F.R.D. 75 (Gaston v. Exelon Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gaston v. Exelon Corp., 247 F.R.D. 75, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88377, 2007 WL 4233511 (E.D. Pa. 2007).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

DALZELL, District Judge.

On June 14, 2007, we granted in part Ex-elon’s motion to strike plaintiffs’ class allegations from the complaint, finding that “plaintiffs could, within the bounds of [their] complaint, move to certify a class based predominantly on their allegations of systemic discrimination.” Order of June 14, 2007 (docket entry # 26) (“June 14 Order”) ¶ (hh). Plaintiffs, for reasons that we cannot fathom, have ignored this advice (and, indeed, nearly all of the June 14 Order) and now ask us to certify a class that lacks any unifying principle and is unsupported by the statistical evidence they have produced. They leave us no choice but to deny then-motion.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

The eight named plaintiffs are black current or former employees of two Exelon entities in the Philadelphia area, PECO and Exe-lon Business Services Company (“EBS”). They allege that Exelon’s facially neutral1 review and promotion practices “grant[ ] managers discretion to discriminate against Black employees.” PL Mem. at 7. In particular, plaintiffs challenge Exelon’s employee evaluation procedure, its talent spotting or 9-box process, its promotion decisions, and its compensation decisions.2

On April 23, 2007, Exelon moved to strike the class allegations from plaintiffs’ complaint, claiming that plaintiffs could prove no facts, consistent with their complaint, that would warrant class certification. We found that, because plaintiffs sought significant monetary relief in the form of back pay, and because that relief was not incidental to the requested declaratory and injunctive relief, certification under Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2) was inappropriate. We therefore struck the Rule 23(b)(2) allegations from the complaint. With regard to plaintiffs’ Rule 23(b)(3) claims, we found that, although most of plaintiffs’ allegations were not amenable to class-wide proof, it was at least conceivable that plaintiffs could seek certification of a class that could meet the requirements of Rule 23. We therefore denied Exelon’s motion with respect to plaintiffs’ Rule 23(b)(3) claims.

[79]*79Plaintiffs now ask us to certify a class consisting of:

All Black exempt employees of the Exelon subsidiaries or affiliates PECO and Exelon Business Services Company employed within the Philadelphia area at any time during the period October 24, 2002 to the present who have been or may be subjected to Exelon’s challenged policies and practices that deny Black exempt employees equal opportunity with respect to compensation, promotions and performance evaluations.

PL Mem. at 2.

II. Analysis

The class action device is appropriate in cases where it “saves the resources of both the courts and the parties by permitting an issue potentially affecting every [class member] to be litigated in an economical fashion under Rule 23.” General Tel. Co. of the Sw. v. Falcon, 457 U.S. 147, 155, 102 S.Ct. 2364, 72 L.Ed.2d 740 (1982) (quoting Califano v. Yamasaki, 442 U.S. 682, 701, 99 S.Ct. 2545, 61 L.Ed.2d 176 (1979)). Class actions exist “not to penalize defendants, but to facilitate the resolution of complex claims affecting potentially large numbers of similarly situated litigants.” Donaldson v. Exelon Corp., 2006 WL 2668573 (E.D.Pa. Sept.14, 2006) at *1.

In order to be certified as representatives of a class, the named plaintiffs must show that:

(1) the class is so numerous that joinder of all members is impracticable, (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class, (3) the claims or defenses of the representative parties are typical of the claims or defenses of the class, and (4) the representative parties will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class.

Fed R. Civ. P. 23(a). In addition, the class action must be of one of the types identified in Rule 23(b). Choosing to ignore our ruling that struck the Rule 23(b)(2) claims from the complaint, plaintiffs seek certification under both Rule 23(b)(2) and Rule 23(b)(3). Rule 23(b)(2) provides for class actions against defendants who have “acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the class, thereby making appropriate final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief with respect to the class as a whole.” Rule 23(b)(3) permits class actions where we find that “the questions of law or fact common to the members of the class predominate over any questions affecting only individual members, and that a class action is superior to other available methods for the fair and efficient adjudication of the controversy.”

A. The Class Description

As a preliminary matter, we note that plaintiffs’ class description itself defies straightforward certification.

The proposed class includes black employees in the requisite divisions and locations “who have been or may be subjected to Exelon’s challenged policies and practices that deny Black exempt employees equal opportunity with respect to compensation, promotions and performance evaluations.” This definition makes membership in the class dependent on a determination that the challenged policies discriminate against black employees. In order to determine who is a member of this class, we must first determine which, if any, policies and practices deny black employees equal opportunity and then determine which employees are subject to those policies. Plaintiffs provide us with neither sufficient evidence to make that determination nor any inkling of how we might do so at this juncture before the completion of merits discovery. In the first instance, therefore, we cannot certify such a class because we cannot, on the factual record before us, determine conclusively that anyone is, in fact, a member of such a class since doing so would necessitate concluding that the challenged policies are, in fact, discriminatory.3

B. Expert Reports

The parties have submitted competing expert reports in support of their respective views of the statistical evidence in this [80]*80case. Because of this, resolution of class certification will require some inquiry into the merits of plaintiffs’ claims. In order to resolve the issue of class certification, we are permitted to undertake such an inquiry. Newton v. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, 259 F.3d 154, 168 (3d Cir.2001). We have noted before, however, that we should “limit that inquiry to the minimum necessary at this juncture.” In re Hydrogen Peroxide Antitrust Litig., 240 F.R.D. 163, 170 (E.D.Pa.2007).

Plaintiffs’ burden at this stage in the litigation is only to demonstrate that they meet the requirements of Rule 23. There is no requirement to prove the elements of their claim4 but only to prove that those elements are amenable to resolution in a class action format. We are, therefore, not permitted to weigh the parties’ expert reports against each other and make credibility determinations. That is a question for a jury. See id. at 171.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
247 F.R.D. 75, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88377, 2007 WL 4233511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gaston-v-exelon-corp-paed-2007.