Mosley v. General Motors Corp.

63 F.R.D. 127, 7 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 848
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedOctober 11, 1973
DocketNo. 72 C 551 (3)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 63 F.R.D. 127 (Mosley v. General Motors Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mosley v. General Motors Corp., 63 F.R.D. 127, 7 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 848 (E.D. Mo. 1973).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

HARPER, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on the motions of one of the defendants, General Motors Corporation (hereinafter referred to as General Motors), to strike portions of each count of Plaintiffs’ twelve-count complaint, to dismiss Counts XI and XII, to make portions of Counts I through XII more definite, to determine the propriety of Counts XI and XII as class actions, to limit the scope of the class purportedly represented, and to determine under which section of Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Counts XI and XII are maintainable as class actions.

Plaintiffs, eight of whom are employed by General Motors at its Chevrolet Motors Division facility in St. Louis, Missouri, and two of whom are employed by General Motors at its Fisher Body Division facility in St. Louis, Missouri, bring this action individually in Counts I through X, and as members and representatives of the class of black employees at the Chevrolet Division located in St. Louis, Missouri, in Count XI. In Count XII, the two plaintiffs who are employed by Fisher Body Division also bring this action as members and representatives of the class of black employees in the Fisher Body Division located in St. Louis, Missouri. The class which plaintiffs seek to represent in Count XI is further defined in that count as “black employees who have been employed by Chevrolet Division, St. Louis, Missouri, who have been and continue to be or might be adversely affected by the practices complained of herein, and members of Local 25, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America.” The class which the plaintiffs employed by Fisher Body Division seek to represent is defined in exactly the same language except that “Fisher Body Division” is substituted for “Chevrolet Division”.

Plaintiffs in their complaint seek the protection of, and redress for the deprivation of, rights secured by 42 U.S.C. § 1981, 2000e-2(a) (1) and (2), 2000e-2(c)(1), (2), and (3), and 2000e-3(a) and (b). This Court is alleged to have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(4) and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f).

Plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and the class they purport to represent, seek both injunctive relief from and back pay lost because of alleged unlawful employment practices. It is alleged in each count of the complaint that General Motors has intentionally engaged in unlawful employment practices by:

“a) Discriminating against Negroes as regards promotions, terms and conditions of employment;

[129]*129“b) Retaliating against Negro employees who protested actions made unlawful by Title VII of the Act and by discharging some because they protested said unlawful acts;

“c) Failing to hire Negro employees as a class on the basis of race;

“d) Failing to hire females as a class on the basis of sex;

“e) Discharging Negro employees on the basis of race;

“f) Discriminating against Negroes and females in the granting of relief time.”

It is further alleged in each count of the complaint that “said plaintiff lost wages by reason of said unlawful employment practices of defendants, and has earned less money than he would have earned because of said unlawful employment practices.”

Each of the individual plaintiffs has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). On May 11, 1972, the EEOC, considering simultaneously approximately seventy charges, including the charges plaintiffs filed against the Chevrolet and Fisher Body Divisions, determined that reasonable cause existed to believe that General Motors had engaged in unlawful employment practices in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. The determination of the EEOC was attached to plaintiffs’ complaint and incorporated therein. The unlawful employment practices of General Motors which the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe existed are identical to those alleged in plaintiffs’ complaint.

An affidavit was filed in support of defendant’s motions. The affidavit placed before the Court employment records of the individual plaintiffs and the charges filed by the individual plaintiffs with the EEOC. These documents, along with the determination of the EEOC which was incorporated in plaintiffs’ complaint, show that this Court is presented with a situation similar to that facing the court in Smith v. North American Rockwell Corporation, Tulsa Division, 50 F.R.D. 515 (N.D.Okla. 1970), where that court observed that the case presented a variety of issues having little relationship to one another except for the fact that the same defendant was involved. The complaints filed with the EEOC by plaintiffs show a great variety of issues. The only portions of those complaints that have a common element and are made by more than one of the plaintiffs are the general allegations of discrimination and the allegations of five of the eight plaintiffs employed by the Chevrolet Division and of one of the plaintiffs employed by the Fisher Body Division that they had been discharged for complaining and protesting about the racially discriminatory practices of the company.

The court in Smith v. North American Rockwell Corporation, Tulsa Division, supra, considered the question of mis-joinder. The court relied on Rule 20(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which requires that there must be a right to relief arising out of the same transaction, occurrence or series of transactions or occurrences, and that must be a question of law or fact common to all of the plaintiffs which will arise in the action. Statements made in that case are directly applicable to the instant situation. In that case the court held at pages 522, 523:

“[Ljitigation of even any purported general policy of defendant, as it might affect each plaintiff here, would inevitably focus in detail on the separate work histories of each plaintiff. On its face it would be practically impossible to litigate fairly and efficiently in one lawsuit all of the factual and legal issues which the present plaintiffs seek to raise. It would be unnecessarily burdensome and time-consuming for all the parties to do so. The determination of the facts and scope of the testimony, and defenses [130]*130relating thereto, with respect to one plaintiff would have little relevance to issues raised by another plaintiff. Instead, there would be an evaluation of the administration of varying company rules by different supervisory personnel in different departments, all in the context of dissimilar job functions. Such assessment would require a most precise and careful weighing of individual motives within quite different contexts. * * * Only in an ultimate and abstract sense do the allegations of the complaint share anything in common: all deal with purported racial discrimination in employment.

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Bluebook (online)
63 F.R.D. 127, 7 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mosley-v-general-motors-corp-moed-1973.