McNasby v. Crown Cork & Seal, Inc.

698 F. Supp. 1264, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12327, 48 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 365, 1988 WL 116523
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 1, 1988
DocketCiv. A. 82-4258
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 698 F. Supp. 1264 (McNasby v. Crown Cork & Seal, Inc.) 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
McNasby v. Crown Cork & Seal, Inc., 698 F. Supp. 1264, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12327, 48 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 365, 1988 WL 116523 (E.D. Pa. 1988).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

GILES, District Judge.

In September of 1982, Elizabeth McNas-by (McNasby) filed the present action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., as a class action on behalf of female workers at Crown Cork & Seal, Inc. (Crown). The complaint alleged that Crown and the Sheet Metal Production Workers Union, Local 266, had engaged in a pattern and practice of sex discrimination, particularly during the period between October 17, 1970 and December 31, 1975. McNasby filed her complaint with the EEOC on May 17, 1971. None of the other plaintiffs filed such a complaint.

The events from which McNasby’s claims arise were also the subject of hearings before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC). McNasby had filed a written complaint with the PHRC in June of 1971. The PHRC then filed an amended complaint which detailed the allegations of discrimination by the defendants and included affidavits from most of the plaintiffs in the present action. The Commission held thirty-seven days of public hearings on the allegations of the complaint. On September 29, 1981, the PHRC issued its findings of fact and its final order. The Commission concluded that McNasby and the other plaintiffs were victims of discrimination, but granted very limited monetary relief to the victims.

McNasby and the other plaintiffs appealed the PHRC’s decision to the Pennsylvania state appellate courts and to the United States Supreme Court. The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the PHRC’s *1267 decision. See Murphy v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 77 Pa.Commw. 291, 465 A.2d 740 (1983); Murphy v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 506 Pa. 549, 486 A.2d 388 (1985). McNasby’s appeal to the United States Supreme Court was dismissed for want of a substantial federal question. See Murphy v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 471 U.S. 1132, 105 S.Ct. 2669, 86 L.Ed.2d 689 (1985).

McNasby had amended her EEOC complaint while the state court appeals were pending and brought the current action in federal court in September of 1982. The case was placed on the civil suspense docket pending the outcome of the state appeals and was returned to the active case list in December of 1985. Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment in January of 1986, but this motion was denied on the grounds that the PHRC was not entitled to res judicata effect because the PHRC did not fashion the “make-whole” remedy to which plaintiffs were entitled under Title VII, 656 F.Supp. 206.

Defendant Crown now moves for summary judgment based upon the recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Gregory v. Chehi, 843 F.2d 111 (3d Cir.1988). Crown claims that the class action stands or falls on McNasby’s claims because she is the only plaintiff who filed a charge with the EEOC, a prerequisite to filing a Title VII action. Plaintiff does not dispute this.

A federal court is bound by the Full Faith and Credit statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1738, in applying preclusion principles and must therefore give a prior state judgment the same preclusive effect as would be given to that judgment under the law of the state in which the judgment was rendered. Gregory v. Chehi, 843 F.2d at 116. If state law does not preclude relitigation, then the federal action may go forward. If state law does preclude relitigation, then the court must consider whether any circumstances exist which would prevent the application of § 1738.

I. The Pennsylvania Claim Preclusion

a. Statutory Preclusion

Defendant contends that, under both Pennsylvania statutory and common law, McNasby’s claims would be precluded in the Pennsylvania state courts. It argues that, under § 1738, plaintiff’s action must also be barred in federal court.

Defendant maintains that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), under which McNasby brought her claim at the state level, contains a section which provides the Pennsylvania rule of claim preclusion. The statute provides:

[A]s to acts declared unlawful by section five of this act the procedure herein provided shall, when invoked, be exclusive and the final determination therein shall exclude any other action, civil or criminal, based on the same grievance of the complainant concerned.

Pa.Stat.Ann. tit. 43, § 962(b) (Purdon Supp. 1988).

In Kremer v. Chemical Construction Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 463, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 1888, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982), the Supreme Court addressed the issue of whether a federal court in a Title VII case should give preclusive effect to a decision of a state court upholding a state administrative agency’s rejection of an employment discrimination claim as meritless. Defendant argues that the Court in Kremer based its decision on a New York statute that is “virtually identical” to the PHRA statute in this case.

In Kremer, the New York administrative agency’s decision was affirmed by both the agency’s appeals board and the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. The Court stated:

There is no question that this judicial determination precludes Kremer from bringing “any other action, civil or criminal, based upon the same grievance” in the New York courts. N.Y.Exec.Law § 300 (McKinney) 1972. By its terms, therefore, § 1738 would appear to pre- *1268 elude Kremer from relitigating the same question in federal court.

Kremer, 456 U.S. at 467, 102 S.Ct. at 1890.

Plaintiff has not directly addressed the issue of the statute. Plaintiff’s arguments are made under the Pennsylvania common law.

b. The Pennsylvania Courts’ Jurisdiction

Plaintiff first argues that Pennsylvania courts would not apply claim preclusion to McNasby’s Title VII claim because Title VII claims are within the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal courts. Under Pennsylvania law, a second tribunal will be bound by the findings of a first tribunal if the first court to adjudicate the matter had jurisdiction to hear the omitted claim. See City of Philadelphia v. Stradford Arms, Inc., 1 Pa.Commw. 190, 274 A.2d 277, 280 (1971);

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Related

McNASBY v. CROWN CORK AND SEAL CO., INC.
888 F.2d 270 (Third Circuit, 1989)
McNasby v. Crown Cork & Seal Co.
888 F.2d 270 (Third Circuit, 1989)

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698 F. Supp. 1264, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12327, 48 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 365, 1988 WL 116523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcnasby-v-crown-cork-seal-inc-paed-1988.