Paddison v. Fidelity Bank

60 F.R.D. 695, 7 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 185, 18 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1195, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11752, 7 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 9308
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 27, 1973
DocketCiv. A. No. 72-1319
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 60 F.R.D. 695 (Paddison v. Fidelity Bank) 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
Paddison v. Fidelity Bank, 60 F.R.D. 695, 7 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 185, 18 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1195, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11752, 7 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 9308 (E.D. Pa. 1973).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NEWCOMER, District Judge.

Plaintiff Paddison has brought this case against defendant Fidelity Bank alleging two causes of action, one under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, and one under the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1). Mrs. Paddison alleges basically that she was discriminated against in salary and promotional matters by her employer Fidelity Bank because of her sex in violation of § 2000e, and that part of that discrimination was reflected in the payment of lesser compensation than her male colleagues for work of like kind in violation of 29 U.S.C. § 206(d)(1).

Mrs. Paddison seeks to represent not only herself but those similarly situated pursuant to F.R.Civ.P. 23. The defendant has opposed this vigorously.

The four threshold requirements of Rule 23(a) present no problem here. This Court takes the numerosity of the class, the existence of common questions of fact and law, the typicality of plaintiff’s claim, and the fair and adequate representation of the class by plaintiff to have been established by the standards discussed at length in this Court’s memorandum in Williams v. Local No. 19, Sheet Metal Workers etc., and Young v. I. T. T. Nesbitt Div. et al., 59 F.R.D. 49 (1973).

The defendant has spent great numbers of pages attempting to attack the plaintiff’s typicality by proving that the charges she makes are not true. However, this is not the appropriate time for a motion for summary judgment, even by another name, see Williams and Young, supra, at p. 54, and the cases there cited. The issue now is the theoretical typicality of the claims made, not their truth in fact. This Court finds Rule 23(a) satisfied.

Plaintiff claims that both her Title VII action and her Equal Pay Act action qualify for class treatment under both 23(b)(2) and 23(b)(3). The defendant opposes any such designation.

This Court has always been hard put to understand why a defendant in a Civil Rights action opposes its designation [697]*697as a class action under 23(b)(2). This is because, first, any such action which could survive a Rule 11 challenge would almost inevitably qualify for such designation, and second, because it is really the defendant who gains, by such designation, in a legal sense at any rate.

As to the first point, see the discussion in 3B Moore’s Federal Practice, ¶ 23.10-1 (App.), and the cases cited therein.

As to the second point, a defendant loses nothing by such designation. All evidence showing a policy of discrimination toward the class is relevant to show discrimination against the individual plaintiff. Thus neither the scope of the proof nor of discovery is broadened by such a designation. Second, as was pointed out in Bailey v. Patterson, 323 F.2d 201 (5th Cir. 1963) at 207, an injunctive decree, even in an individual Civil Rights action necessarily runs in favor of the entire class. Thus the scope of the possible decree is not significantly widened by such a (b)(2) designation.1 The defendant loses nothing but the defendant gains protection against harassing and repetitive suits from such a designation, since the class is then bound by the outcome as res judicata, and if the defendant wins no member of the class may sue him again regarding the same issues. Without such a designation he is open to repetitive suits even if he wins, but does not thereby gain any assurance that class members cannot use facts necessarily established by the case as res judicata against him if he loses, because of the demise of the mutuality of estoppel rule in federal question cases after the decision of Blonder Tongue Laboratories v. University of Illinois Foundation, et al., 402 U.S. 313, 91 S.Ct. 1434, 28 L.Ed.2d 788 (1971) (a rule whose passing will be little mourned). Be that as it may, this action qualifies for treatment under 23(b)(2) as a class action and will be so designated.

One explanation for the position of defendant in opposing any class designation is the general uncertainty as to what affect a (b) (2) designation has on the issue of past money damages for class members who are not named plaintiffs.

So far as this Court is concerned, a designation under 23(b)(2) alone does not entitle the plaintiff to pursue past money damages on behalf of the class. The Advisory Committee Note to 23(b) (2) points out that “[t]his subdivision does not entend to cases in which the appropriate final relief relates exclusively or predominantly to money damages.” (emphasis supplied). While this sentence is not without some constructional difficulties, this Court takes it as a fairly clear indication that class actions administered solely under (b)(2) were to remain as free of the pitfalls of past money disputes as is consistent with the complete litigation of the causes of action of the named plaintiffs, whether or not those disputes might in some sense be called “equitable.” 2 Thus it is our position that pursuant to a (b)(2) designation standing alone, named plaintiffs may recover past damages but unnamed class members may not.

This Court is fully aware of the very strong language in such cases as Robin[698]*698son v. Lorillard Corporation, 444 F.2d 791 (4th Cir. 1971), Bowe v. Colgate-Palmolive Company, 416 F.2d 711 (7th Cir. 1971), and Local 186, Int. Pulp, Sulpher & PM Workers v. 3 M Co., 304 F.Supp. 1284 (N.D.Indiana, 1969) to the contrary. In a nutshell, these cases have allowed the very real administrative and substantive problems raised in the determination of back pay awards to individual class members to avoid the scrutiny under the criteria of 23(b)(3) to which they would normally be subject by denominating them equitable relief in the context of a Title VII action. The motivation of these decisions is admirable—a desire for full justice—bjiLfuJI—justice includes procedural fairness to a losing defendant as well. Style it what you will, back pay disputes raise all the traditional (b)(3) problems. This Court is committed to the “across-the-board” approach to Civil Rights class actions, Williams and Young, supra, Mack v. G. E., 329 F.Supp. 72 (E.D.Pa.1971). The main characteristics of this approach are the broad definition of the class and the issues relevant thereto. The advantage of this approach is the final resolution of very broad issues of the defendant’s policy. The appropriate remedial tool is the prospective injunction, supervised by the Court. To accept the implications of the above cases styling money damages as equitable relief for Rule 23 purposes in a Title VII situation puts the District Court on the horns of an intolerable dilemma which is no benefit to plaintiffs.

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60 F.R.D. 695, 7 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 185, 18 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1195, 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11752, 7 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 9308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paddison-v-fidelity-bank-paed-1973.