Godfrey v. City of Chicago

973 F. Supp. 2d 883, 2013 WL 5405713, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137009, 120 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 84
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 25, 2013
DocketNo. 12 C 08601
StatusPublished

This text of 973 F. Supp. 2d 883 (Godfrey v. City of Chicago) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Godfrey v. City of Chicago, 973 F. Supp. 2d 883, 2013 WL 5405713, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137009, 120 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 84 (N.D. Ill. 2013).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN J. THARP, JR., District Judge.

In this putative class action, the plaintiffs allege that, after successfully suing the City of Chicago as part of a class of African-American applicants for positions as Chicago firefighters who were discriminated against with respect to the required written examination, they then suffered discrimination anew, based on their gender, when they went through the remedial hiring process and failed the department’s physical abilities test. The City moves for summary judgment, primarily arguing that the plaintiffs’ suit is barred by the remedial injunction in the prior race discrimination case. The Court disagrees; for the reasons that follow, summary judgment is denied except — as explained in Part IV of this opinion — as to two plaintiffs who were not hired because of a non-discriminatory reason.

BACKGROUND

In Lewis v. City of Chicago, No. 98 C 5596, after many years of litigation — including a trip to the Supreme Court of the United States, see 560 U.S. 205, 130 S.Ct. 2191, 176 L.Ed.2d 967 (2010)—the City was found liable for race discrimination in hiring firefighters. The plaintiffs were African-American applicants for firefighter positions whose scores on the 1995 written examination resulted in their being designated as “qualified” but not “well qualified” on the 1996 Eligibility List, used for hiring for the next decade. Lewis culminated in a remedial order (the “injunction”). It required the employment of 111 class members as firefighter candidates (who would still have to graduate from the academy and meet all other hiring criteria), and for the rest of the class members, it provided damages characterized by the City as “backpay” awards, paid from a common fund. The process by which the 111 firefighter candidates were to be selected is set forth in the injunction. In summary, class members were given the opportunity to state their interest in pursuing one of the remedial hiring positions; 1,658 class members did so. A computerized lottery system randomly sorted these applicants by number, and the first 975 were invited to proceed in the hiring process, the next step of which was the physical abilities test (“PAT”). The plaintiffs in this case were among that group of 975; each of them took the PAT in November 2011, and each was informed in a letter dated December 1 that she had failed. Thereafter, each plaintiff was entitled to, and did, collect the backpay award. There [886]*886was no release of claims in consideration for that court-ordered relief.

In the meantime, other aspiring firefighters were taking the PAT in the ordinary course of hiring. And on July 19, 2011, a class of women who took the test from September 2007 on, and failed, brought a putative class action against the City, alleging both intentional discrimination and disparate impact claims under Title VII based on the requirements of the PAT. See Vasich v. City of Chicago, 11 C 4843. This Court narrowed the prospective class but otherwise denied the City’s motions aimed at winnowing down the claims, and ultimately the case settled (subject to final approval).1 Vasich was filed on July 19, 2011, before the final injunction was entered in Lewis on August 17, 2011, but no one informed the Lewis court of the allegations of gender discrimination with respect to the PAT.2

Godfrey was filed on October 12, 2012, within 90 days of the plaintiffs’ receipt of their right-to-sue notices from the EEOC. The first administrative charges had been filed as early as December 5, 2011, within days of the applicants learning that they had failed the PAT. The plaintiffs immediately sought to have Godfrey transferred to this Court, where Vasich was pending (and not yet settled), while the City immediately moved to have Godfrey transferred to Judge Gottschall, who presided over Lewis. Judge Gottschall rejected the City’s arguments that the case was related to Lewis such that it qualified for reassignment. She also declined the City’s invitation to dismiss Godfrey outright, as a form of “enforcing” the Lewis injunction, instead instructing the City to make its argument within the confines of the Godfrey litigation. This Court granted the parties’ agreed motion to reassign Godfrey to this Court as related to Vasich. Thereafter, the City moved for summary judgment, based primarily on its contentions that the relief sought by the Godfrey plaintiffs violates the Lewis injunction in letter and spirit.

DISCUSSION

Summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56; Hall v. City of Chicago, 713 F.3d 325, 330 (7th Cir.2013). The parties’ submissions reveal some disputes of fact, but none that the Court deems material to the legal arguments that the City raises in its motion.3 The main question is whether the Lewis injunction forecloses any further relief for the Godfrey plaintiffs; the City advances several arguments, but they all ultimately concern to the scope of the Lewis case and what the injunction means. The City’s other arguments — for example, that the Godfrey complaint violates Rule 23(b)(2) and is barred by laches — likewise raise legal issues as to which the Court gleans no material factual disputes.

I. The Effect of the Lewis Injunction on the Godfrey Claims

The thrust of the City’s argument is that because the Godfrey plaintiffs took [887]*887the PAT in 2011 only by virtue of being part of the Lems class, any relief associated with the remedial rehiring process has to come from the Lewis injunction or not at all. The City further argues that because the Lems injunction, in its view, affirmatively bars further relief for anyone on the 1996 eligibility list beyond what has been provided already, the plaintiffs’ claims are foreclosed.

A. Language of the Injunction

The City first argues that the Lewis injunction “precludes any further hiring from or other relief based on the now retired 1996 eligibility list.” The City cites a provision of the injunction that states: “The 1996 Eligibility list will be used solely for the purpose of the screening and processing of class members in order to hire the shortfall of the 111 class members as firefighters, and other than hiring of class members pursuant to this Order, there shall be no further hiring from the 1996 Eligibility List.” Inj. ¶ A6, Dkt. # 27-1 at 4. According to the City, because the remedial hiring process has been completed, the 1996 list is extinguished for all purposes, which means that the Godfrey plaintiffs, who did not receive any of the 111 academy spots, have no further avenue into the department apart from those available to the general public.

The obvious concern that both the plaintiffs and the Lewis court have identified with the City’s interpretation of the injunction is that, under that view, even if the Godfrey

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Bluebook (online)
973 F. Supp. 2d 883, 2013 WL 5405713, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137009, 120 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/godfrey-v-city-of-chicago-ilnd-2013.