League of United Latin American Citizens v. City of Salinas Fire Department

88 F.R.D. 533, 28 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 470
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedAugust 19, 1980
DocketNo. C-78-2608 SW (SJ)
StatusPublished

This text of 88 F.R.D. 533 (League of United Latin American Citizens v. City of Salinas Fire Department) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
League of United Latin American Citizens v. City of Salinas Fire Department, 88 F.R.D. 533, 28 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 470 (N.D. Cal. 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION AND ORDER RE CLASS CERTIFICATION

SPENCER WILLIAMS, District Judge.

This action is brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17, the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, to redress alleged discrimination against Mexican-Americans practiced by defendant City of Salinas Fire Department and the other defendants with respect to promotions and hirings for the Fire Department. In previous proceedings, the court has concluded the promotions aspect of the case with a finding of discrimination against plaintiff Gilbert Padilla. By the present motion, plaintiffs League of United Latin American Citizens, Monterey County Chapter (“LU-LAC”), and Gilbert Padilla, and plaintiff-intervenor Mario Martinez move for an order permitting this action to be maintained as a class action pursuant to Rule 23(a) and (bX2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure with respect to plaintiffs’ claims of discrimination in defendants’ hiring process. The proposed class consists of:

[A]ll those Mexican-Americans who have applied for employment or may apply for employment with the defendant Salinas Fire Department and who have been or may be denied employment because of their race, color or national origin.

The court finds that class action status is appropriate for this case. As is detailed below, however, the definition of the class must be somewhat narrowed to take into account applicable jurisdictional requirements of Title VII and statutes of limitations governing 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, and because the court declines to certify a class including future applicants. In addition, for purposes of administration, three subclasses shall be declared, one composed of class members asserting Title VII claims, and the other two composed of class members asserting claims under section 1981 and 1983 respectively.

I.

ISSUES PRESENTED

Before an action may be maintained as a class action, each of the prerequisites of Rule 23(a) as well as the requirements of one of the three subsections of Rule 23(b) must be satisfied. Rule 23(a) establishes four prerequisites to the maintenance of a class action: (1) numerosity, (2) common questions of law or fact, (3) typicality of the claims or defenses of the representative party, and (4) adequacy of representation. Rule 23(b)(2) applies to situations in which the party opposing the class has acted or refused to act on grounds generally applicable to the class.

Satisfaction of the numerosity and commonality requirements is not contested by defendants, and the court is persuaded these prerequisites have been met. With respect to the 1981 and 1983 subclasses, the evidence shows that since December 1976 at least forty-six Mexican-Americans have applied for entry level firefighter positions with the Salinas Fire Department, and nine others have applied for entry level fire cadet positions; with respect to the Title VII subclass, since May 1977 at least forty-two Mexican-Americans have applied for entry level firefighter positions and nine for entry level fire cadet positions.1 Questions of law and fact common to the class will include the alleged adverse impact of the entry [537]*537level examinations given by defendants and the possible job-relatedness of those tests.2

Likewise, defendants do not contend this case falls outside the ambit of Rule 23(b)(2). In fact, this case is a fairly classic example of one in which it is alleged “the party opposing the class has 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.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 23(b)(2).

Defendants have opposed certification on but one ground: that none of the proposed class representatives, namely LULAC, Padilla and Martinez, is suitable. This objection may be viewed as going both to the typicality and adequacy of representation requirements.

In this Opinion, the court first sets out several governing legal rules and policies, and then considers how and why the proposed class must be narrowed regardless of the suitability of the proposed class representatives. Finally, the court discusses the suitability of each of the proposed class representatives.

II.

RELEVANT LEGAL PRINCIPLES

Resolution of the issues presented by this motion requires this court once again to confront the awkward interface of Title VII’s jurisdictional filing requirements and Rule 23’s class action prerequisites.3 This is an area with which courts have struggled ever since Title VII became the law. Unfortunately, it promises to continue to occupy an inordinate amount of court time until Congress recognizes the problem and rationalizes the legislative scheme. Much of the difficulty may be traced to conflicting underlying policies, particularly between the congressional intention that the Title VII administrative conciliation process be initiated by laypersons and the courts’ often strict interpretations of the class action requirements of Rule 23. In resolving such conflicts, this court is guided by several basic principles concerning Title VII class actions.

Title VII’s administrative filing requirements are jurisdictional prerequisites to suit in this court. The purpose of the filing requirements is to give reasonably prompt notice to the charged party of the existence of a discrimination complaint and to involve the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) in the dispute as an investigator and mediator in the hopes of arriving at a voluntary conciliation. All members of an employee class claiming classwide illegal discrimination need not file and comply with Title VIPs jurisdictional prerequisites in order to share in court ordered relief as members of a class in whose behalf suit has been brought because timely administrative filing by one class member adequately serves the purposes of the filing requirements with respect to all other members.4 Nevertheless, because an EEOC filing by one class member cannot revive the claims of others which were no longer viable at the time of that filing, only members capable of having made a timely EEOC filing on or after the date of that filing are eligible to join in a class action based on that person’s filing date. Furthermore, as this court ruled in Inda v. United Air Lines, Inc.,5 only the filing dates of the representative plaintiffs or of persons who are permitted to intervene as class representatives are relevant.6 Finally, in fitting together Title VII’s filing requirements with Rule 23’s prerequisites to class treatment, it must be borne in mind [538]

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Bluebook (online)
88 F.R.D. 533, 28 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/league-of-united-latin-american-citizens-v-city-of-salinas-fire-department-cand-1980.