Penk v. Oregon State Board of Higher Education

99 F.R.D. 511, 48 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1692, 13 Fed. R. Serv. 1419, 36 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 961, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17964
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedApril 5, 1983
DocketCiv. No. 80-436 FR
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 99 F.R.D. 511 (Penk v. Oregon State Board of Higher Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Penk v. Oregon State Board of Higher Education, 99 F.R.D. 511, 48 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1692, 13 Fed. R. Serv. 1419, 36 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 961, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17964 (D. Or. 1983).

Opinion

FRYE, District Judge:

Plaintiffs have moved this court for an order compelling production of certain documents. The documents are generally affirmative action documents, files on sex discrimination complaints, and correspondence to and from defendant’s affirmative action officers or committees. Defendant resists production of these documents, arguing that disclosure of documents containing self-evaluation or self-criticism will have a substantial chilling effect on the ongoing effort to voluntarily comply with the employment discrimination laws. Plaintiffs argue that these documents are crucial in proving that the defendant acted with discriminatory intent. Both parties cite cases supporting their positions, and the court agrees that the caselaw is divided on this issue.

Although the court is aware that candid self-evaluation is probably necessary in order to achieve voluntary compliance with the employment discrimination laws, the court believes that the plaintiffs also have a strong interest in obtaining redress in the present suit. Moreover, the court is aware that litigation is itself an effective way of enforcing the employment discrimination laws. The court has accepted defendant’s argument with respect to reports that the defendant is required by law to file, but declines to extend that decision to other affirmative action documents in the absence of clear support in the caselaw for such a position.

However, the court is sensitive to the unique problems presented by the possible disclosure of complaints of sexual harassment. Plaintiffs have not alleged sexual harassment as a part of their complaint and did not intend the motion to compel to cover documents relating to charges of sexual harassment.

IT IS ORDERED that, with the exception of documents relating to charges of sexual harassment; the motion to compel is GRANTED.

Plaintiffs also moved the court for an order setting a deposition schedule. The parties have agreed to work out the deposition schedule, and the court deems the matter moot.

OPINION AND ORDER

Defendant has moved the court to compel plaintiffs to answer defendant’s fourth set of interrogatories or, in the alternative, to allow defendant to serve interrogatories directly on class members. The interrogatories request plaintiffs to describe in detail any rules, regulations, standards, policies, practices or procedures, written or unwritten, of defendant or any institution, department, etc. which the plaintiffs believe discriminate against women on the basis of sex, with one interrogatory for each alleged injury (i.e., promotion, pay, tenure). The interrogatories further request plaintiffs to describe in detail the factual basis for their belief that certain practices, procedures, etc. are discriminatory, and request plaintiffs to identify each class member plaintiffs have reason to believe was discriminated against and to describe in detail the factual basis of each such claim. Interrogatory number 11 [513]*513is different; it requests plaintiffs to identify each class member of whom plaintiffs are aware who believes that she was not discriminated against, and to describe in detail the factual basis upon which the class member believes no discrimination has occurred. Plaintiffs’ response to the interrogatories essentially is this: (1) The practice of defendant is to discriminate against women with respect to [pay, promotion, tenure, etc.]. (2) The practices are discriminatory in that women do not have the same opportunities with respect to [pay, promotion, tenure, etc.] as do men. (3) The only class members identified as having been discriminated against are few in number and are mostly named plaintiffs. Plaintiffs have named these few individuals. (4) With respect to the named plaintiffs, defendant already knows the factual background of their claims of discrimination through the extensive discovery already taken. Defendant has also already asked the named plaintiffs for their knowledge of class members’ claims. However, any information known to plaintiffs’ counsel as a result of the return of plaintiffs’ class questionnaire to counsel is confidential. (5) This also makes the information requested by interrogatory number 11 confidential and not subject to discovery.

Taken as a whole, it seems clear that the purpose of the fourth set of interrogatories is to enable defendant to defend against the class allegations made by plaintiffs. Defendant has had enough discovery to know the basis of the named plaintiffs’ individual claims, but defendant also presently faces the possibility of class-wide liability as a result of this suit. Because this motion to compel implicates the class action aspects of this suit and the ability of defendant to defend the class action aspects, the court must examine the nature of plaintiffs’ class claims more closely.

To some extent, the standards for certifying employment discrimination cases as class actions have changed since this suit was filed. Recent Supreme Court decisions, discussed at length by the parties and the court in earlier motions in this case, indicate that the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 23 must be adhered to as strictly in employment discrimination cases as in other types of cases. In the present case, then, it does not follow that the plaintiffs may prove their class claims merely by prevailing on their individual claims. The plaintiffs must show more in order to prove class-wide liability. For each alleged specific injury, if plaintiffs prove that defendant has discriminated against named plaintiff “X,” it only follows that plaintiffs will simultaneously have proved liability as to class members “Y” and “Z” if plaintiffs have also proved that there is some general set of causes that operate to produce discrimination in the same manner as to plaintiff “X” and the class members. With reference to this motion, the issue is how may the defendant disprove plaintiffs’ class claims of liability, and whether the present interrogatories are relevant and necessary to defendant’s disproof of the class claims of liability.

The primary way defendant may disprove plaintiffs’ class liability claims is by showing that no class-wide causation mechanism exists; stated another way, defendant must show that given the way salary, promotion, tenure, etc. decisions are made at the institutions, proof that one or all named plaintiffs were discriminated against does not imply that class members have been discriminated against. Defendant’s fourth set of interrogatories attempts to discover evidence tending to support such disproof in two ways: first, by asking plaintiffs to identify the class-wide causal mechanisms upon which the class-wide liability claims are based (“identify and describe in detail any rules, regulations, standards, policies, practices or procedures, written or unwritten ... which you believe have discriminated against women”), and second, by seeking information as to whether in fact most class members have suffered discrimination (interrogatory number 11).

Plaintiffs’ answers to the first ten interrogatories misconceive, in the court’s view, the meaning of the words “rules, regulations, standards, policies, practices or procedures.” Plaintiffs’ answer to interrogatory number three is illustrative:

[514]*514The practice of defendant is to make it more difficult for women faculty members to obtain tenure than for male faculty members and to make tenure track less available to women faculty than to male faculty.

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Bluebook (online)
99 F.R.D. 511, 48 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1692, 13 Fed. R. Serv. 1419, 36 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 961, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/penk-v-oregon-state-board-of-higher-education-ord-1983.