Petit v. City of Chicago

239 F. Supp. 2d 761, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26919, 2002 WL 31409589
District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided November 14, 2002·No. 90 C 4984·Published·Cited by 8 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

HART, District Judge.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

This lawsuit involves promotions within the Chicago Police Department (“CPD”) and plaintiffs’ allegations that White police officers were discriminated against during the process. The promotions at issue were based on a sergeant promotional examination administered from 1985 to 1988 (the “Examination”). 1 Scoring of the Examina *764 tion was adjusted based on race 2 so that each racial group would be represented in the top 500 candidates expected to be hired in approximately the same percentage as they were in the entire candidate pool (the “Score Adjustments”). Also, some Hispanics were promoted outside the rank order of the adjusted scores on the Examination (the “Out-of-Rank Promotions”). 3 The promotions to the rank of sergeant based on the Examination oe-curred on five “Promotion Dates”: December 16, 1988, July 16, 1990, November 16, 1990, February 8,1991, and September 16, 1991. See generally Petit v. City of Chicago, 31 F.Supp.2d 604, 608-10 (N.D.Ill.1998). 4

When this case went to trial in January 2002, there were 82 remaining plaintiffs 5 and the only remaining defendant 6 was the City of Chicago. 7 It was undisputed *765 that defendant had adjusted the Examination scores of African-American and Hispanic candidates in a manner favorable .to those candidates and that defendant also provided Out-of-Rank Promotions to Hispanics. See Jury Instr. [330] 17 (“Defendant does not dispute that it took race and national origin into account when promoting patrol officers to sergeant.”). See also Petit II, 31 F.Supp.2d at 608-10 (undisputed facts on summary judgment). Defendant contended that this intentional use of racial criteria was justified by three compelling interests: (a) remedying the effects at the sergeant rank of prior CPD discrimination in hiring and promotion (the “Discriminatory Effects Interest”); (b) avoiding an adverse impact violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (the “Adverse Impact Interest”); and (c) the CPD’s operational néed to have a diverse work force at the sergeant rank (the “Operational Need Interest”). Defendant also contended that these interests in combination (the “Combined Compelling Interest”) constituted a compelling interest and that the “Selection Preferences” employed were narrowly tailored to the compelling interests. See Jury Instr. [330] 17-18.

These issues of liability 8 were tried to the jury. The jury was to decide as to each Promotion Date, each Identified Group, and each type of Selection Preference, whether each compelling interest existed and, if so, whether the Selection Preference was narrowly tailored. See id. at 22, Verdict Form. As to most every issue, however, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict and a mistrial was ultimately declared. The jury did unanimously agree and return a verdict as to the Discriminatory Effects Interest for the promotion of Hispanics on.all five Promotion Dates. The jury found that that interest had been proven to exist, but did not make a unanimous finding as to whether any of the Score Adjustments or Outo of-Rank Promotions of Hispanics were narrowly tailored to that interest.

At the close of the .evidence, plaintiffs moved for judgment as a matter of law on the ground that a collective bargaining agreement between the CPD and FOP (the “CBA”) (see PI. Exh. 3, Def. Exh. 59) required that the CPD make promotions without regard to race. Tr. Vol. VIII163-64 (Jan. 29, 2002). Defendant argued that the issue was waived because not previously raised during the litigation. Id. at 164-65. Plaintiffs’ motion was denied. Id. at 165. At the same time, defendant moved for judgment as a matter of law based on each of its asserted compelling interests. Id. at 165-72. Ruling on .defendant’s motion was reserved. Id. at 172.

On February 6, 2002, a mistrial was declared and the jury discharged. The order declaring the mistrial,and the filing of the verdict form were both entered on the docket on February 11, 2002. See Docket Entries 331, 333. On February 15, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(b), defendant moved for entry of judgment as a matter of law [335] and, on February 20, plaintiffs filed their motion for judgment as a matter of law [336]. Defendant thereafter moved to strike all aspects of plaintiffs’ motion other than the argument based on the CBA, contending that the additional arguments were waived because not raised in *766 the motion made at the close of evidence [339], The following order was thereafter entered:

Defendant City of Chicago’s motion to strike Part II of plaintiffs’ motion for judgment as a matter of law is denied without prejudice. To the extent defendant successfully argues that plaintiffs have waived the opportunity for a Rule 50(b) motion, plaintiffs’ motion for judgment as a matter of law will be treated as a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment. The parties will not be required to file any Local Rule 56.1 statements, but they must provide adequate citations to the record in support of their factual assertions.

Order dated Feb. 26, 2002[340].

As was clarified in part at a subsequent hearing on defendant’s motion for reconsideration, see March 13, 2002 Tr., the parties are entitled to a ruling on their Rule 50 motions for judgment as a matter of law based on the trial record. To the extent all claims can be finally resolved on defendant’s motion, judgment will be entered to that effect and the case is over in the district court. To the extent plaintiffs’ motion was to be granted as to all compelling interests, damages would remain to be resolved, but the issue of liability would be resolved in the district court. However, to the extent that no claims or only some of the claims can be resolved on the Rule 50 motions, the case would remain open in the district court and it would still be possible and appropriate to consider summary judgment motions. That is why the motions will be considered as summary judgment motions to the extent they raise issues not properly preserved for a Rule 50 motion or rely on evidence not presented at trial. Also, as was previously stated in court, even if the case can be resolved on one of the Rule 50 motions, the summary judgment issues will still be resolved so that there will be a complete record in the event any otherwise dispositive ruling is overturned or modified on appeal. Cf. Fed.R.Civ.P. 50(c)(1).

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Petit v. City of Chicago, 239 F. Supp. 2d 761, 2002 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26919, 2002 WL 31409589 (N.D. Ill. 2002).

239 F. Supp. 2d 761 (Petit v. City of Chicago) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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