Hervey v. City of Little Rock

101 F.R.D. 45, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 784, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19559
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedFebruary 10, 1984
DocketNos. LR-C-80-44, LR-C-79-235 and LR-C-80-311
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 101 F.R.D. 45 (Hervey v. City of Little Rock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hervey v. City of Little Rock, 101 F.R.D. 45, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 784, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19559 (E.D. Ark. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

HENRY WOODS, District Judge.

I.

THE PLEADINGS

On January 24, 1980 two black males, Robert Hervey and Robert Walker, filed a class action complaint (No. LR-C-80-44) against the City of Little Rock claiming violations of Title VII and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983. The city was charged with discrimination in classification, compensation, hiring, testing, pay, transfer, promotion and performance evaluation with respect to members of the class’. With regard to class representative Hervey, it was alleged that he was hired as a mechanic in 1973 and had been denied promotion on account of his race. It was alleged that class representative Walker had been a full-time mechanic until he was injured on the job on December 4, 1978, that he was denied transfer and light work, which had been accorded to whites similarly situated, and that he was subject to a racist attitude on the job. Plaintiffs prayed for monetary and injunctive relief. The attorneys for the plaintiffs were Perlesta A. Hollingsworth and Janet Pulliam. On February 13, 1980 an answer was filed on behalf of the City of Little Rock by City Attorney Jack Ma-gruder and Philip Kaplan denying the allegations in the complaint.

On April 11, 1980 Philip K. Lyon and Stephen Jones were substituted as counsel for the City in the place of Philip Kaplan. Plaintiffs through their attorneys moved for class certification on May 23, 1980. On August 19, 1981 Mr. Hollingsworth and Ms. Pulliam filed a petition that Robert McGruder be permitted to intervene in the class action. By an agreed stipulated order dated October 26, 1981 the class action case was consolidated with two individual claims of discrimination against the City of Little Rock, No. LR-C-79-235 in which Mollie White was the plaintiff and LR-C-80-311 in which Estella Robinson was the plaintiff. These two plaintiffs were represented by Messrs. John Walker and Richard Quiggle. In the same order it was agreed that Robert McGruder and Belinda Mitchell might intervene in the class action and the following classes and subclasses were stipulated:

1. All nonuniformed, nonmanagement, nonsupervisory black persons employed by the defendant who have allegedly been discriminated against because of their race in promotions or transfers [47]*47since January 24, 1977 for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and since 180 days prior to May 28, 1981 for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e.
2. All nonuniformed, nonmanagement, nonsupervisory black persons employed by the defendant who have allegedly been discriminatorily discharged because of their race from their employment since August 19, 1979 for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and since 180 days prior to May 28, 1981 for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e.
3. All nonuniformed, nonmanagement, nonsupervisory black persons employed by the defendant who have allegedly been discriminated against in the terms, conditions and privileges of their employment because of their race, for purposes of injunctive relief only, since January 24,1977 for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and since 180 days prior to April 2, 1979 for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e.

The class representatives were stipulated as follows:

Fourth, plaintiffs Hervey and Robinson are the proper class representatives for the subclass 1 above. Plaintiff McGru-der and intervenor Mitchell are the proper class representatives of subclass 2 above. All of the plaintiffs are proper class representatives for subclass 3 above.
Fifth, each of the plaintiffs will continue to prosecute and try their individual claims of racial discrimination, and the plaintiffs Mollie White and Estella Robinson will also continue to prosecute and try their individual claims of sexual discrimination.
Sixth, the intervention of Robert McGru-der, who has already applied for intervention, and of Belinda Mitchell, who has not yet applied for intervention, is proper and will be allowed. Mr. McGruder will be allowed to intervene for both class and individual purposes, and Ms. Mitchell will be allowed to intervene for the purposes of her individual case and as a class representative for subclass 2.

It was agreed that the matter would first be tried on liability and later on damages and remedies.

Mr. Hollingsworth and Ms. Pulliam petitioned that Leo Anderson and Powell Tid-well be permitted to intervene in this case. The petition was granted as to Anderson and denied as to Tidwell on May 11, 1982. On June 1, 1982 these same attorneys petitioned that Jesse MacHenry Johnson, Jr. be permitted to intervene. On June 2, 1982 this motion was granted. Johnson’s intervention complaint was based on failure to promote, as was the individual complaint of class representative Estella Robinson. Mollie White was not a class representative.

During the course of this litigation, considerable antagonism developed among the attorneys for the original class plaintiffs, Walker and Hervey, the intervenors McGruder, Anderson and Johnson (Holl-ingsworth and Pulliam) on the one hand and the attorneys for the plaintiffs Robinson and White in the consolidated eases and the intervenor Mitchell (Walker and Quiggle). The animosity culminated in Walker and Quiggle’s filing a motion to disqualify Hollingsworth and Pulliam for conflict of interest because Philip Kaplan, a present associate of Hollingsworth, had filed an answer to the class action suit and had deposed Mollie White, a plaintiff in No. LR-C-80-311. The answer filed by Mr. Kaplan to the class action was a pro-forma general type pleading and was made on February 13, 1980, nineteen days after the complaint was filed. At that time Mr. Ka-plan was not associated with either Mr. Hollingsworth or Ms. Pulliam. A month later Mr. Kaplan withdrew from the case and had no further association with it. Over a year later Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Holl-ingsworth merged their firms. With regard to the White deposition, I did not regard the taking of her deposition as significant because she is not a class representative and is only pursuing an individual claim. ' Judge Overton had ruled in Ms. White’s individual case that she could not be a class representative because of Mr. Walker’s failure to timely file a motion for class certification and that her case could [48]*48only proceed individually. The order was upheld by the Eighth Circuit on October 15, 1980. The stipulated class certification order recognized that Ms. White is not involved in the class action litigation with the other plaintiffs. The City has waived any objection of the participation of Mr. Holl-ingsworth and Ms. Pulliam in this matter.

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Related

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796 F.2d 1009 (Eighth Circuit, 1986)
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Hervey v. City of Little Rock
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Bluebook (online)
101 F.R.D. 45, 40 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 784, 1984 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hervey-v-city-of-little-rock-ared-1984.