Resnick v. American Dental Ass'n

90 F.R.D. 530, 26 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 35, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13400, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 31,936
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMay 18, 1981
DocketNo. 79 C 3785
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 90 F.R.D. 530 (Resnick v. American Dental Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Resnick v. American Dental Ass'n, 90 F.R.D. 530, 26 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 35, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13400, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 31,936 (N.D. Ill. 1981).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SHADUR, District Judge.

Nancy Resnick (“Resnick”) sued the American Dental Association (“ADA”) on her own behalf and as a representative of all women similarly situated, alleging that ADA has engaged in a series of employment practices discriminating unlawfully against women. Now at issue are a number of motions, each directly or indirectly relating to Resnick’s request for class certification. For the reasons stated in this memorandum opinion and order:

(1) Resnick’s motion for leave to file a second amended complaint (the “Complaint”) has been granted.1
(2) Resnick’s motion for class certification is granted in principal part, though denied to the limited extent discussed in this opinion.2
(3) Resnick’s motion to compel discovery is granted.

Facts 3

Resnick was employed by ADA in its Chicago headquarters from October 1973 through February 1979. She served as one of two Associate Editors in ADA’s Editorial Department, with major responsibility for a publication entitled the “ADA News.” ADA’s other Associate Editor was male and, according to Resnick, received greater pay for equivalent work.

Resnick filed her two-count complaint after receiving a right to sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). In Count II Resnick alleges [534]*534that ADA violated the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d), by paying her less than her male counterpart. In Count I Resnick seeks individual and class relief under Title VII. As to ADA’s alleged class-wide violations Resnick claims that:

Defendant has maintained a continuing policy and practice of denying women equal employment opportunities, in the following and other related ways:
(a) Women employees have been limited to positions of lower pay and less responsibility through discrimination in job assignment, training, promotion and transfer. This discrimination against women has been facilitated by a highly discretionary policy for awarding job opportunities ....
(b) Women employees have been discriminated against in terms of pay by receiving less pay than men doing similar work, or by receiving less pay than they would have received had they been men.
(c) Women applicants have been denied employment or assigned to positions of lower pay and less responsibility. Women employees are adversely affected by these hiring practices because the absence of more than a token number of women in supervisory and management positions perpetuates and exacerbates other policies and practices of discrimination.

For her individual cause of action Resnick alleges that:

(1) She has been injured by “defendant’s continuing policy and practice of discriminating against women in terms of pay.”
(2) All the policies in paragraphs (a), .(b) and (c) above “have deprived Ms. Resnick of her right to work in an integrated environment and have made her more vulnerable to sex discrimination.”

In the Complaint Mona Signer (“Signer”) is named as an additional plaintiff. Signer was employed by ADA at its Chicago headquarters as an Assistant Secretary for the Council on Dental Health from February 1977 until her discharge in April 1979. Signer alleges that ADA has discriminated against her by:

(1) limiting job opportunities available to women;
(2) “discriminating against women in terms of pay”;
(3) discriminating against her on account of her sex with respect to discipline and discharge;4 and
(4) implementing “discriminatory hiring, assignment, promotion and discharge policies ... [that] have deprived Ms. Signer of her right to work in an integrated environment and have made her more vulnerable to sex discrimination.”

Resnick has moved “to certify this cause as a class action on behalf of all women applicants and all women who have or will be employed by defendant American Dental Association, in all of its offices.” ADA opposes both class certification and the addition of Signer as plaintiff. On the discovery front, Resnick has moved to compel ADA to answer certain interrogatories and comply with certain document requests.

Three Contested Motions

Resniek’s Motion for Leave To File the Complaint

Resnick moved for leave to file the Complaint. It differs from the first amended complaint by (1) adding Signer as an additional plaintiff and (2) (in Resnick’s words) “clarifypng] the claims of Ms. Resnick and the proposed class.” ADA objected only to the first of the revisions, asserting that Signer cannot properly be joined in this action.

Resnick maintains that Signer may be joined as an additional plaintiff under Fed. R.Civ.P. (“Rule”) 20(a):

All persons may join in one action as plaintiffs if they assert any right to relief jointly, severally, or in the alternative in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences and if any question [535]*535of law or fact common to all these persons will arise in the action.

She argues that the requirements of Rule 20(a) are met because “both Resnick and Signer allege that the injuries they suffered are a part of defendant’s ongoing policy of discriminating against women” (the “same transaction ... or series of transactions” requirement), and a determination “whether the ADA did in fact maintain a policy of limiting women to positions of lower pay and less responsibility” (the “common question” requirement) is relevant to both plaintiffs’ claims. Resnick further contends that “substantial savings of time and resources of the Court and the parties” will result from joinder, for in the absence of joinder Signer will bring an individual suit. Each suit would allegedly require substantially identical “discovery of personnel practices and of data on which to base a statistical showing of discrimination.”5

ADA argues that joinder is improper because the claims of Resnick and Signer “arise out of wholly separate and distinct transactions.” It urges that Resnick and Signer were employed in different departments and for the most part allege different types of discrimination, Resnick alleging discrimination in pay while Signer’s claims involve pay, promotional opportunities, discipline and discharge.

This Court agrees that the allegations of the Complaint satisfy the Rule 20(a) requirements. Discrimination directed at each of Resnick and Signer allegedly resulted from the same general policy, administered by the same ADA personnel. That policy is the “transaction” common to each plaintiff’s claim, about which questions of .law and fact “common” to both claims may be raised. See, e. g., Mosley v. General Motors Corp., 497 F.2d 1330, 1332-34 (8th Cir. 1974).

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Bluebook (online)
90 F.R.D. 530, 26 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 35, 1981 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13400, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 31,936, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/resnick-v-american-dental-assn-ilnd-1981.