Rios v. Marshall

100 F.R.D. 395, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10925
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedDecember 12, 1983
DocketNo. 79 Civ. 5711
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 100 F.R.D. 395 (Rios v. Marshall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rios v. Marshall, 100 F.R.D. 395, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10925 (S.D.N.Y. 1983).

Opinion

OPINION

GAGLIARDI, District Judge.

This action was commenced by thirty-eight United States citizen migrant farm-workers, who allege that seven New York apple growers, two New York apple growers’ cooperatives (collectively referred to as the “New York apple defendants”), and their agents, including two Florida sugar cane growers’ associations (collectively referred to as the “Florida sugar defendants”), conspired to replace plaintiffs in the New York apple harvest with temporary foreign workers from Jamaica.1 Named as defendants in addition to the New York apple defendants and the Florida sugar defendants are officials of the United States Department of Labor, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the New York Department of Labor (collectively referred to as the “government defendants”), who allegedly failed to fulfill their statutory duties and aided the aforementioned conspiracy.2 Plaintiffs’ claims arise under section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1; 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3); the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1101 et seq.; and the Wagner Peyser National Employment System Act, 29 U.S.C. § 49 et seq. (“Wagner Peyser Act”). Plaintiffs have moved pursuant to Rule 23, Fed.R.Civ.P., for the certification of both a plaintiff and a defendant class.

At issue in this action are the interstate clearance system for recruitment of citizen workers and the temporary foreign worker certification program, both of which were established pursuant to the Wagner Peyser Act. The workings of the interstate clearance system and the certification program are described in detail in the court’s decision with regard to the motions to dismiss this action, Rios v. Marshall, 530 F.Supp. 351, 356-57 (S.D.N.Y.1981), and that description will only be summarized briefly here. The programs at issue provide that a United States employer may secure the admission of foreign workers only after the employer has attempted to hire citizen workers by filing job offers, called “clearance orders,” with the state employment services. The employer may not offer the foreign workers terms and conditions of employment more favorable than those offered domestic workers. 43 Fed.Reg. 10313 (1978).

The named plaintiffs are United States citizen migrant farmworkers, each of whom worked for at least one of the New York apple defendants during at least one of the apple harvests between 1977 and 1979. Plaintiffs claim that the New York apple defendants and the Florida sugar defendants conspired to avoid the requirements of the programs described above. Plaintiffs allege first that the New York apple defendants, in violation of section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1, conspired to depress the domestic job market for the annual New York apple harvest during the years from 1975 to 1979 by offering plain[402]*402tiffs housing, food, transportation and other working conditions of an artificially low quality.3 Plaintiffs claim that the conspiracy enabled the New York apple defendants to offer non-competitive employment conditions and thereby furthered those defendants' goal of replacing United States workers in the apple harvests with foreign laborers. See Rios v. Marshall, supra, 530 F.Supp. at 357-58. Plaintiffs also allege that during the harvests at issue, defendants, in violation of the Wagner Peyser Act, offered more favorable living and employment conditions to foreign workers. Plaintiffs further contend that this alleged conspiracy to deprive them of their federal rights on the basis of their national origin violates 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), which prohibits two or more persons from conspiring to deprive any person of equal protection of law. See Rios v. Marshall, supra, 530 F.Supp. at 362-63.

Plaintiffs allege further that the Florida sugar defendants participated in the conspiracy described above by serving as multiemployer bargaining agents for all United States employers of temporary foreign labor in negotiations with the British West Indian government concerning the terms of employment for Jamaican workers in the New York apple harvests. Finally, plaintiffs claim that the government defendants furthered this conspiracy by failing to fulfill their statutory duties to protect the rights of citizen laborers. For example, plaintiffs charge that certain officials of the New York and United States Departments of Labor accepted or distributed clearance orders for citizen labor which had the effect of discriminating against plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also allege that the government defendants did not investigate plaintiffs’ administrative complaints with regard to the interstate clearance system for recruitment of agricultural workers.

Discussion

Plaintiffs have moved for certification of a plaintiff class comprised of

all U.S. migrant farmworkers who, from 1975 to 1979, were employed or applied for employment in the New York apple harvest with defendant growers, co-operatives, or defendant class [of New York apple .growers who applied for certification for the use of temporary foreign workers], and who suffered unlawful treatment in respect to working and living conditions by said defendants as well as ... those U.S. migrant farmworkers who would have applied for employment in this period but who were discouraged from doing so by said defendants’ unlawful acts.

Pursuant to Rule 23(c)(4), plaintiffs have requested that this class be broken into two sub-classes: “Puerto Rico-based migrant farmworkers” and “Florida-based migrant farmworkers.”

Rule 23 authorizes the certification of a class which meets all the conditions set forth in subdivision (a) of that rule and one of the alternative requirements set forth in subdivision (b).4 The court will consider the [403]*403proposed plaintiff classes according to these criteria and then turn to plaintiff’s request for certification of a defendant class.

A. Plaintiff Class in Claims against Private Defendants

Plaintiffs argue that, with respect to the claims against the private defendants, the proposed plaintiff class fulfills the four requirements of Rule 23(a) as well as the requirement of Rule 23(b)(3). As an initial matter, the private defendants object that the proposed plaintiff class is too amorphous to permit certification in that it includes citizen laborers who never applied for work in the relevant apple harvests. Although Rule 23 does not expressly discüss the need to define a class with specificity, it nevertheless has been held that a proposed class must be clearly defined in order to make it “administratively feasible for the court to determine whether a particular individual is a member.” 7 C. Wright and A. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1760 at 581 (1972). See Simer v. Rios,

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Bluebook (online)
100 F.R.D. 395, 1983 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10925, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rios-v-marshall-nysd-1983.