McCray v. Standard Oil Co.

76 F.R.D. 490, 18 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 758, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13112
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedNovember 3, 1977
DocketNo. 76 C 3438
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 76 F.R.D. 490 (McCray v. Standard Oil Co.) 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
McCray v. Standard Oil Co., 76 F.R.D. 490, 18 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 758, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13112 (N.D. Ill. 1977).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

MARSHALL, District Judge.

By her second amended complaint, the plaintiff Jessie L. McCray seeks damages and declaratory and injunctive relief on behalf of herself and a group of employees similarly situated to redress deprivation of rights secured by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., by 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and by the Equal Pay Act of 1963, 29 U.S.C. § 201 et seq. The defendant is Standard Oil Company of Indiana (Standard).

Plaintiff, a black female, was employed as an administrative support secretary in the defendant’s main Chicago office from September 17, 1969 until March 31, 1975, when she was discharged. She filed complaints with the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charging Standard with racial discrimination in reprimanding her for conduct which her white coworkers practiced without censure, in eliminating her position, and in failing to promote her or transfer her to a new job. Neither commission found reasonable cause to support the charges. Plaintiff received her right to sue letter from the EEOC on June 21,1976 and filed a timely pro se complaint in this court on September 16, 1976.

On October 27, 1976, court-appointed counsel filed an amended complaint under Title VII alleging that her supervisor at Standard intentionally discriminated against her on the basis of race by harassing her with threats of prospective discharge, by phasing out her job without lawful justification, by arranging numerous in-tracorporate interviews as a “transparent ruse” to create the impression of maintaining her employment, and by then discharging her when the interviews were unproductive. In addition, the amended complaint alleged that after plaintiff’s discharge Standard continued its discriminatory practices by refusing to recommend her to prospective employers and by telling them she had been fired rather than informing them that her job had been eliminated. Plaintiff sought injunctive relief, reinstatement, back pay, costs, attorneys’ fees, and $10,000 in punitive damages.

On February 25, 1977 plaintiff filed a second amended complaint which substantially expanded the scope of her suit. She introduced fresh allegations that defendant had violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and the Equal Pay Act, and had discriminated on the basis of sex, national origin and religion as well as race. The suit metamorphosed from an individual to a class action, with plaintiff seeking to represent all present, past and future female Standard employees or potential female employees on a nationwide [495]*495basis. The dimensions of the challenged employment practices also swelled. Plaintiff now attacked Standard’s policies and practices on an across-the-board basis, including recruitment, hiring, promotion, transfer, wages, job classification, job assignments, lay off, recall and training. Commensurate with this quantum leap in alleged discriminatory conduct, plaintiff’s prayer for relief has expanded and now demands comprehensive injunctive and declaratory relief, one million dollars in compensatory damages for mental distress, and a half million dollars in punitive damages. For the first time, a jury trial is demanded.

Subsequently, we granted plaintiff’s motion to dismiss allegations of her complaint relating to religious discrimination and violations of the Equal Pay Act. This deletion left plaintiff’s § 1981 claim and her Title VII claim of racial, sex and national origin discrimination outstanding. Pending for decision are plaintiff’s motion for class certification and defendant’s motion to dismiss or in the alternative strike certain allegations of the second amended complaint. In its motion, Standard argues that the complaint fails the specificity standards of Rule 8(a)(2), Fed.R.Civ.P., impermissibly exceeds the scope of the charges plaintiff raised before the FEPC and the EEOC, falls far short of meeting Rule 23’s class action requirements, asks for compensatory and punitive damages which cannot be recovered in such actions, and contains no issues which would give rise to a right to a jury trial.

Although Standard’s attack on the complaint applies a number of legal theories, these challenges are merely different arrows directed at the same target. Standard believes plaintiff’s second amended complaint is overbroad and seeks to limit its scope to her individual claim of racial discrimination under Title VII. Standard does not challenge the procedural sufficiency of this individual claim, but objects strenuously to any broadly-based “fishing expedition” into other types or instances of discriminatory employment practices.

Our first problem is determining the order of deciding the issues raised by the motions. When presented with a motion for class certification and a motion directed to the merits, the court should generally resolve the class issue first. Peritz v. Liberty Loan Corp., 523 F.2d 349, 353 (7th Cir. 1975). The purpose of this rule is to preserve the purely procedural character of a determination on the maintainability of a class action. Plaintiff should not be prematurely excluded as a class representative because she cannot succeed on the merits of her individual claim or because her claim does not state a cause of action. However, the distinction between a motion which does and does not touch the merits is an elusive one. Courts which have applied the rule to condemn a preliminary judicial inquiry seem to be primarily concerned with a premature evidentiary hearing into the likelihood of plaintiff’s ultimate success in the lawsuit. Eisen v. Carlisle & Jacquelin, 417 U.S. 156, 94 S.Ct. 2140, 40 L.Ed.2d 732 (1974); Huff v. N. D. Cass Co. of Alabama, 485 F.2d 710 (5th Cir. 1973). Here defendant’s motion to dismiss, while focusing on the disposal of plaintiff’s claims at an early juncture, is not based on factual matters beyond the face of the pleadings. It raises purely legal questions concerning the facial sufficiency of the allegations as judged by Rule 8 standards, the scope of the complaint as compared to the EEOC charges, and the appropriateness of a jury trial and monetary relief. The resolution of these issues prior to class certification may restrict the size of the class and the scope of the relief, but it does not prejudice our evaluation of plaintiff’s capabilities as a class representative or the merit of her underlying claim of discrimination. To some extent, the court must be able to define the legal framework of the complaint—jurisdiction, the statutory and constitutional foundation, and the parameters of the challenged conduct—in order to be able to even apply the requirements of Rule 23. Hence, we will first consider defendant’s arguments concerning Rule 8(a)(2) and the scope of the EEOC charges before reaching the motion for class certification.

[496]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Harvell v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
2006 OK 24 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2007)
Robin v. Doctors Officenters Corp.
686 F. Supp. 199 (N.D. Illinois, 1988)
Ferleger v. First American Mortgage Co.
662 F. Supp. 584 (N.D. Illinois, 1987)
Olin v. Prudential Insurance Co. of America
798 F.2d 1 (First Circuit, 1986)
Witten v. A.H. Smith & Co.
100 F.R.D. 446 (D. Maryland, 1984)
Otto v. Variable Annuity Life Insurance
98 F.R.D. 747 (N.D. Illinois, 1983)
In re Industrial Gas Antitrust Litigation
100 F.R.D. 280 (N.D. Illinois, 1983)
Herman v. National Broadcasting Co., Inc.
569 F. Supp. 282 (N.D. Illinois, 1983)
Nash v. City of Oakwood
90 F.R.D. 633 (S.D. Ohio, 1981)
Setser v. Novack Investment Co.
638 F.2d 1137 (Eighth Circuit, 1981)
Scaramuzzo v. Glenmore Distilleries, Co.
501 F. Supp. 727 (N.D. Illinois, 1980)
Seymore v. Reader's Digest Ass'n, Inc.
493 F. Supp. 257 (S.D. New York, 1980)
Tucker v. Harley Davidson Motor Co.
454 F. Supp. 738 (E.D. Wisconsin, 1978)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
76 F.R.D. 490, 18 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 758, 1977 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccray-v-standard-oil-co-ilnd-1977.