Hively v. Northlake Foods, Inc.

191 F.R.D. 661, 46 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 816, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2012, 82 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 324, 2000 WL 224388
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedFebruary 15, 2000
DocketNo. 8:98-CV-2601-T-17F
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 191 F.R.D. 661 (Hively v. Northlake Foods, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hively v. Northlake Foods, Inc., 191 F.R.D. 661, 46 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 816, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2012, 82 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 324, 2000 WL 224388 (M.D. Fla. 2000).

Opinion

ORDER

KOVACHEVICH, Chief Judge.

This cause is before this Court on Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification (Dkt. 71) and Defendant’s response (Dkt. 76). This Court has jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § .1331 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000-e et seq., as amended. This Court also has jurisdiction over this action pursuant to 29 U.S.C. § 206(d), § 6(d); 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1).

The complaint states that Plaintiffs’ cause of action is predicated on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000-e et seq., as amended, and the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d), § 6(d); 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1) (hereinafter “EPA”).

FACTS

Plaintiff asserts the following facts in support the Motion for Class Certification:

Plaintiffs worked in the Waffle House restaurants owned and operated by Defendant. (Dkt. 1, p. 2). The four female Plaintiffs seek class action certification, claiming that Defendant has engaged in an “ongoing, company-wide policy or pattern and practice of discriminating against women in terms of pay, job assignments, promotional opportunities, and promotion.” Id.

The four Plaintiffs in this action, Jamasina Hively, Jeanie LaPlante, Patricia Meehan and Evelyn Moore all worked exclusively in [664]*664the Wesley Chapel, Florida restaurant. All, after termination or resignation, filed this action against Defendant.

Plaintiff Hively worked for Defendant for one year as a salesperson/waitress. See id. at 14. She claims that unit manager, Lenno Martinez, inquired about whether she wanted to learn to cook and be an assistant manager, but never again approached her about an assistant manager position. (Dkt. 71, p. 21). Waffle House terminated Hively on December 31, 1997 for, as Defendant asserts, making an obscene gesture. (Dkt. 76, p. 5). Hively claims that she was sexually harassed by Martinez.

Plaintiff Moore worked as a waitress, then as a cook. Moore claims that she had to wait over a year to be offered any management training. Also, she asserts that when she was offered training, she was denied pay raises and opportunities to enter management positions. In addition, she claims that males were offered higher starting rates than her present compensation, even with her one year of employment. Defendant terminated Moore, claiming insubordination and use of profanity to a supervisor.

Plaintiff Meehan worked for Defendant for six years as a waitress, grill operator and assistant manager. Meehan claims that she was not considered for an assistant manager position until after three years of employment, and during her employment males were promoted and given raises at a higher rate than her and other similarly situated females. In addition, Meehan claims that Martinez and District Manager Brown sexually harassed her by talking about sex at work and rubbing against her breasts. She resigned in July of 1998 because she claimed she was never offered a management position.

Plaintiff LaPlante worked as a cook for over one year. LaPlante claims that Defendant hired a male as a cook for a starting rate of $7.00/hour, while she made $6.30/hour after one year of employment. Plaintiff La-Plante filed only an EPA claim.

Plaintiffs claim that they represent two proposed plaintiff classes. Plaintiffs propose the first class as, “[a]ll female service employees and unit managers of Northlake Foods, Inc. who have worked, are working, or will work in Northlake Foods since December 30,1997, until the time of trial.” The second proposed class includes female service employees and not unit managers for the same class period. Plaintiffs propose this alternate class if this Court deems Plaintiffs unable to represent management level females.

DISCUSSION

Plaintiff brings this action under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (“Rule”) 23 and seeks certification of a class action. There are two claims under this action: a Title VII claim and an EPA claim.

The legitimacy of a private Title VII and EPA suit brought on behalf of a class depends upon the satisfaction of two distinct prerequisites. First, there must be an individual plaintiff with a cognizable claim, that is, an individual who has constitutional standing to raise the claim and who has satisfied the procedural requirements of Title VII. Second, the requirements of Rule 23 must be fulfilled; in other words, the individual plaintiff must be qualified to represent the members of the class in accordance with the four prerequisites of Rule 23(a) and the action must be one the three types Rule 23(b) identifies. See Andrews v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 95 F.3d 1014, 1022 (11th Cir.1996).

I. Standing

Plaintiffs must allege and show that they personally suffered injury to assert standing. See Payne v. Travenol Laboratories, Inc., 565 F.2d 895, 898 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 835, 99 S.Ct. 118, 58 L.Ed.2d 131 (1978) (“To meet the requirement for standing under Article III, a plaintiff must establish either that the asserted injury was in fact the consequence of the Defendant’s action or that the prospective relief will remove the harm.”). The Supreme Court has stated,

It is not enough that the conduct of which the plaintiff complains will injure someone. The complaining party must also show that he is within the class of persons who will be concretely affected. Nor does a plain[665]*665tiff who has been subject to injurious conduct of one kind possess by virtue of that injury the necessary stake in litigating conduct of another kind, although similar, to which he had not been subject.

Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 999, 102 S.Ct. 2777, 73 L.Ed.2d 534 (1982).

Plaintiff Hively alleged injury as a result of Defendant’s sexual discrimination. She alleges she was never offered a management position. Defendant counters Hively’s assertion by claiming she was not qualified for management. Even though Hively admitted at one time that she was not qualified for a management position, she may have been able to attain the qualifications during her employment with Defendant. Therefore, Plaintiff Hively has standing to assert her claims.

Plaintiff LaPlante did not assert a Title VII claim and is limited to her EPA claim. LaPlante asserts that Defendant hired a new male (Richard Iman) cook at a higher rate than she was making, when she worked for Defendant for more than a year. (Dkt. 72, Exhibit 9, p. 80). Defendant counters by claiming that LaPlante has no injury in fact. (Dkt. 76, p. 8).

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191 F.R.D. 661, 46 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 816, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2012, 82 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 324, 2000 WL 224388, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hively-v-northlake-foods-inc-flmd-2000.