Miller v. Bank South Corp.

173 F.R.D. 543, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9021, 1997 WL 357928
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 31, 1997
DocketCivil Action No. 1:94-CV-1224-JOF
StatusPublished

This text of 173 F.R.D. 543 (Miller v. Bank South Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. Bank South Corp., 173 F.R.D. 543, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9021, 1997 WL 357928 (N.D. Ga. 1997).

Opinion

[544]*544 ORDER

FORRESTER, District Judge.

This employment discrimination action is before the court on the Special Master’s Report of Magistrate Judge Gerrilyn G. Brill [47-1] and Plaintiffs Objections thereto [48— 1].

I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

Plaintiff Nancy Doherty Miller commenced this action alleging that Defendant Bank South, N.A., discriminated against her based upon her pregnancy by terminating her employment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., as amended, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k), as amended. Pursuant to Internal Operating Procedure 920-2, the court has provided for automatic reference of Title VII actions to the magistrate judges as a method to meet Congress’s intent to expedite Title VII cases. Parker v. Dole, 668 F.Supp. 1563, 1572 (N.D.Ga.1987) (Hall, J. ); see also 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(5) (Title VII actions should be scheduled for a hearing “at the earliest practicable date” and must be “in every way expedited”). After this court denied a joint motion to withdraw the reference, Magistrate Judge Brill conducted a bench trial sitting as Special Master pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(5), Fed.R.Civ.P. 53, and IOP 920-2 in January 1996. The code section which provides for this reference contains no requirements that the issues be complex before the reference can be made.

In accordance with Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(a)(1), Magistrate Judge Brill issued and filed with the Clerk of Court a Special Master’s Report, which set forth her findings of fact and conclusions of law, on or about July 23, 1996. Unfortunately, the order for service that accompanied the Report erroneously indicated that Magistrate Judge Brill had issued the Report under 28 U.S.C. 636(b)(1) and that this court could adopt the Report as the opinion and order of this court if the parties failed to file objections. Based upon the misperception that this court might merely adopt the recommendation within the Report and enter judgment in favor of Defendant accordingly, Plaintiff filed objections that largely reiterate her demand for a full and fair jury trial and indicate that IOP 920-2 is inconsistent with a right to a jury trial and Fed.R.Civ.P. 53. Plaintiff has not filed any objections that address the findings of fact or conclusions of law set forth within the Special Master’s Report itself.

II. DISCUSSION

This court does not intend to deny Plaintiff’s right to a jury trial or to issue an order adopting the Special Master’s Report pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1) with a judgment in favor of Defendant to follow. In issuing this Report, Magistrate Judge Brill was acting as a Special Master in an action to be tried by a jury pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(3). See also 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(2). The provisions of this rule describing a special master’s authority under a district court’s reference also provide for the manner in which the Report may be used at trial. Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(3) explicitly states:

In an action to be tried by a jury the master shall not be directed to report the evidence. The master’s findings upon the issues submitted to the master are admissible as evidence of the matters found and may be read to the jury, subject to the ruling of the court upon any objections in point of law which may be made to the report.

Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(3).

A jury trial in which a special master’s report is involved does not occur frequently, and there is a paucity of case law to provide guidance in these matters. As best as this court can determine, however, the posture of this case raises two distinct sets of issues. One deals with the interplay between Fed.R.Civ.P. 53(e)(3) specifications as to the possible use of the special master’s report at trial and any Seventh Amendment concerns about interference with a right to a jury trial. The other set of issues deals with the objections and the proper content of such a report.

In Boyd Callan, Inc. v. United States, 328 F.2d 505 (5th Cir.1964), the former Fifth Circuit found that it was error to submit a special master’s report to a jury where the issues were not complex. The former Fifth [545]*545Circuit seemed disturbed that under the circumstances, the submission of the report somehow interfered with the right to a trial by jury. Id. at 507-08. In an earlier opinion in the ease of In re Watkins, 271 F.2d 771 (5th Cir.1959), the former Fifth Circuit granted a writ of mandamus where a judge made a reference in a matter without any complex issues. In granting the mandamus, the court acknowledged the interest in protecting the parties from the possibility of two trials. Id. at 775.

One must view these two cases as stating the law in the ordinary case where complexity of issues is the sine qua non of a valid reference to a special master. Under the circumstances at bar, however, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(5) imposes no such requirement. Instead, the special interest to be served by a special master reference pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(5) is an opportunity for a more speedy resolution of issues which may have real and very immediate ramifications for the plaintiff and for others seeking a workplace that is free of discrimination.

Today, it is thought to be good judicial management to utilize mandatory alternative dispute resolution to attempt to resolve disputes without a formal trial. The possibility that court-annexed, mandatory, non-binding arbitration may result in two trials is not seen as abridging the Seventh Amendment. See Riggs v. Scrivner, Inc., 927 F.2d 1146, 1147-48 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 867, 112 S.Ct. 196, 116 L.Ed.2d 156 (1991). In contrast, there has never been a serious doubt that the automatic use of a special master without these unexceptional circumstances, including the furnishing of a special master’s report to a jury, could constitute a major invasion into the province of a jury and absolute violation of the Seventh Amendment. See, e.g., Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood, 369 U.S. 469, 478-79, 82 S.Ct. 894, 900, 8 L.Ed.2d 44 (1962).

After reviewing the authority that discusses the implications and practice of Fed.R.Civ.P.

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Related

Dairy Queen, Inc. v. Wood
369 U.S. 469 (Supreme Court, 1962)
Parker v. Dole
668 F. Supp. 1563 (N.D. Georgia, 1987)
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe v. United States
502 U.S. 868 (Supreme Court, 1991)

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Bluebook (online)
173 F.R.D. 543, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9021, 1997 WL 357928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-bank-south-corp-gand-1997.