Hannigan v. Aydin Corp.

76 F.R.D. 502, 17 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 785, 24 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 610, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13097
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 4, 1977
DocketCiv. A. No. 76-551
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 76 F.R.D. 502 (Hannigan v. Aydin 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
Hannigan v. Aydin Corp., 76 F.R.D. 502, 17 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 785, 24 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 610, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13097 (E.D. Pa. 1977).

Opinion

[505]*505OPINION

JOSEPH S. LORD, III, Chief Judge.

This is an action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., by Edna T. Hannigan against her employer, Aydin Corporation, for alleged acts of sex discrimination in the compensation, terms, conditions and privileges of employment for female employees. Plaintiff has moved for certification of a class consisting of: (1) all past, present and future female employees of defendant except those who left defendant’s employ on or before November 8, 1972, and (2) all past, present and future female job applicants except those who applied for employment with defendant on or before November 8, 1972. We will grant plaintiff’s motion but limit the class as hereinafter described.

At the time plaintiff filed her complaint with the EEOC, she was employed at defendant’s Vector Division plant in New-town, Pennsylvania as a “labor grade 9” assembler. In early 1973 she had been assigned temporarily for eight months to a job in which she performed some of the duties of a higher-paying position in defendant’s “RF Laboratory”. At the end of that period, the defendant hired a male from outside the company for the lab position without affording Ms. Hannigan or any other female labor grade 9 employee an opportunity to qualify for a promotion to the lab position, and returned plaintiff to her labor grade. 9 duties.

Plaintiff timely filed a sex discrimination charge with the EEOC naming “Aydin Vector Division” as respondent. In her EEOC charge, plaintiff alleged that she was performing essentially the same work as men who were a higher grade than she was and that neither she nor any other labor grade 9 employee, all of whom were female, was given an opportunity for promotion to the lab position. The EEOC District Director found reasonable cause to believe that sex discrimination occurred in the company’s failure to offer plaintiff an opportunity for promotion. Wtíjn conciliation efforts failed, the EEOC issued a right to sue letter. Plaintiff then timely filed suit in this court.

Plaintiff’s complaint alleges “across the board” sex discrimination by Aydin Corporation against female employees. In particular, plaintiff asserts that defendant: (1) has a higher wage scale for male employees; (2) refuses to make promotional opportunities available to female employees; and (3) denies on-the-job training to female employees while making such training available to male employees. Plaintiff makes these allegations against the entire corporation, which includes plaintiff’s employer, Vector Division, and seven other divisions of the corporation. In her motion for class certification plaintiff seeks for the first time to represent female job applicants as well as female employees.

Defendant objects to class certification on several grounds. First, defendant argues that Ms. Hannigan lacks standing to represent any class. Second, defendant asserts that the plaintiff’s claim is unique and so personal that she cannot represent any class of employees. Third, defendant argues that due to statutory prerequisites- of Title VII and the requirements of F.R. Civ.P. 23(a) and (b), plaintiff is unable to represent: (1) female employees outside plaintiff’s department within Vector Division; (2) non-union employees at Vector Division; (3) job applicants; or (4) employees in divisions other than Vector Division. Finally, defendant maintains that the Title VII statute of limitations bars claims by past employees who left defendant’s employ on or before March 8, 1973, rather than the cut-off date of November 8, 1972, asserted by plaintiff.

I. STANDING

The constitutional requirement of standing mandates that a plaintiff have “such a personal stake in the outcome of the controversy” to warrant federal court jurisdiction. Baker v. Carr, 369 U.S. 186, 204, 82 S.Ct. 691, 703, 7 L.Ed.2d 663 (1962). The test of such an interest is “injury in fact”, Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. [506]*506150, 151-54, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970), which requires plaintiff to allege that he or she has suffered “some threatened or actual injury” resulting from defendant’s actions. S. v. D., 410 U.S. 614, 617, 93 S.Ct. 1146, 35 L.Ed.2d 536 (1973). Taking a broad view of standing in Title VII cases, the Third Circuit has held that if the plaintiff “claims enough injury in fact to present a genuine case or controversy in the Article III sense, then he should have standing to sue in his own right and as a class representative.” Hackett v. McGuire Bros., Inc., 445 F.2d 442, 447 (3d Cir. 1971).

Defendant argues that plaintiff has not alleged an injury in fact. However, plaintiff’s deposition and the EEOC charge, which are a part of the record, prove the contrary. Plaintiff asserts both that she was not adequately compensated and that she was discriminatorily denied promotional opportunities and on-the-job training. These allegations are sufficient to give plaintiff standing as individual claimant and as class representative.

II. JURISDICTIONAL REQUIREMENT

Before an aggrieved individual can file suit in federal court, Title VII mandates that a private sector employee must file a charge with the EEOC to afford the EEOC an opportunity to obtain a conciliation agreement with the defendant-employer. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(d), (f). Because of this jurisdictional requirement of exhaustion of administrative remedies, issues not explicitly raised in an EEOC charge have been challenged when later raised in a Title VII suit. Although the Third Circuit has not specifically addressed this problem, it has held that EEOC charges should be liberally construed when applying the jurisdictional requirements of Title VII. Canavan v. Beneficial Finance Corp., 553 F.2d 860, 864 (3d Cir. 1977); Wetzel v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 511 F.2d 199, 202-03 (3d Cir. 1975), vacated on jurisdictional grounds, 424 U.S. 737, 96 S.Ct. 1202, 47 L.Ed.2d 435 (1976). Consistent with this view, other circuits have allowed the scope of federal complaints to extend either to any discrimination “like or related to” the allegations contained in the EEOC charges or to the scope of the EEOC investigation which can “reasonably be expected to grow out of” the EEOC charge. Oubichon v. North American Rockwell Corp., 482 F.2d 569, 571 (9th Cir. 1973); Tipler v. E. I. duPont, 443 F.2d 125, 131 (6th Cir. 1971); Sanchez v. Standard Brands, Inc., 431 F.2d 455, 466 (5th Cir. 1970).

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Bluebook (online)
76 F.R.D. 502, 17 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 785, 24 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 610, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13097, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hannigan-v-aydin-corp-paed-1977.