Stacy v. Michigan Employment Security Commission

500 F. Supp. 884, 24 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 645, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15755, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 32,007
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Michigan
DecidedNovember 13, 1980
DocketNo. G76-645 CA1
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 500 F. Supp. 884 (Stacy v. Michigan Employment Security Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stacy v. Michigan Employment Security Commission, 500 F. Supp. 884, 24 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 645, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15755, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 32,007 (W.D. Mich. 1980).

Opinion

OPINION

HILLMAN, District Judge.

Plaintiff initiated this action on behalf of herself and other women similarly situated, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief regarding the deprivation of employment-related rights secured by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. Plaintiff challenges a mandatory maternity discharge policy adopted by defendant Michigan Employment Security Commission (MESC), pursuant to regulations of defendant Michigan Civil Service Commission (MCSC) and conduct toward her based on that policy.

The defendants MESC and MCSC have both filed motions to dismiss. At the time set for oral argument on these motions, defendant MESC withdrew its motion to dismiss, reserving the right to renew that motion after an opportunity for further discovery. The matter is presently before the court on defendant MCSC’s motion to dismiss brought pursuant to Rule 12(b)(1), (2) and (6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and based on lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter, lack of jurisdiction over defendant MCSC and failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.

FACTS

Plaintiff was first employed by defendant MESC as a general clerk 03 on October 10, 1960. On February 11, 1972, pursuant to a mandatory maternity discharge policy, plaintiff was terminated from her employment with MESC at the end of her seventh month of pregnancy.

This policy was adopted on February 21, 1955, and provides:

“Pregnant employees of the MESC with Civil Service Status may be retained on active duty for a period not to exceed completion of the seventh month of pregnancy.”

Plaintiff was a stenographer clerk 05 in the MESC offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at the time of her termination. At that time, plaintiff’s physician had advised MESC that she was physically able to continue work beyond February 11, 1972.

After the birth of her child, plaintiff notified MESC that she was able and prepared to return to work on July 6, 1972. Defendant MESC, on or about July 14, 1972, notified plaintiff that she would not be rehired. However, on or about August 15, 1972, MESC offered her reinstatement in a position different from that held prior to her termination and at a reduced salary. Plaintiff alleges that male employees of the defendant, upon return from leave, were reinstated in their former positions, without reduction in salary, upon informing their employer that they were prepared to return to work. This discrepancy in treatment between women returning from pregnancy related absences and men returning from absences occasioned by other physical disabilities, plaintiff claims, amounts to sex-based discrimination.

On February 8, 1972, plaintiff, in accordance with the provisions of Section 706(d) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(d), timely filed a charge with the Michigan Civil Rights Commission alleging that defendants had engaged in sex-based discrimination in violation of the Michigan Fair Employment Practices Act, M.S.A. § 17.458(3)(a) [M.C.L.A. § 423.303(a)] and Section 703(a) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). Subsequently, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) assumed jurisdiction. On March 29, 1976, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the plaintiff had been the victim of sex discrimination. On September 20, 1976, plaintiff received a right to sue letter and subsequently, on December 17, 1976, initiated [886]*886this suit in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Caroline Stacy has commenced her suit within the requisite 90 days after receipt of a right to sue letter, pursuant to the terms of the letter itself and the provisions of Section 706(f) of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1).

Plaintiff has alleged two grounds of sex-based discrimination. First, she claims that defendants by their policies, practices and conduct wrongfully terminated her employment on February 11, 1962. Secondly, defendants have wrongfully refused to reinstate her in her former position.

In her original complaint, plaintiff claimed that both actions constitute sex-based discrimination in violation of Title VII. At oral argument, however, plaintiff acknowledged that the court lacks jurisdiction to consider the original termination of her employment because the act by the defendant, in discharging the plaintiff, had been completed on February 11, 1972, before Title VII had been amended to apply to state governments as employers.1

Defendant MCSC argues that because Title VII did not apply to state governments at the time of plaintiff’s termination, that termination was not wrongful. Further, the original refusal to reinstate her and the subsequent reinstatement in a lower status and lower salaried job are merely continuing effects of the original discharge. Because the termination itself was not a violation of Title VII, according to defendant, the subsequent refusal to reinstate cannot be a violation of Title VII. Defendant claims that when plaintiff was terminated' she had no continuing rights for employment with defendant MESC and gained no new right by the intervening amendment to Title VII. Consequently, defendant argues, there is no federal question raised under Title VII by either the termination of plaintiff or subsequent refusals to reinstate her, and the court is without jurisdiction of the subject matter.

The court agrees with the parties that it lacks jurisdiction to consider the original discharge of plaintiff. Plaintiff’s complaint relating to her allegedly wrongful discharge on February 11, 1972, fails to raise a federal question under Title VII. The termination took place and the conduct of the defendant was complete on February 11, 1972. This conduct, however sex-based and discriminatory it may have been, was not prohibited by Title VII on that date. Not until March 24, 1972, some IV2 months after plaintiff was discharged, was Title VII amended to apply to state governments. The amendment to Title VII was not retroactive in its application to any conduct of defendant MESC or MCSC prior to its effective date of March 24, 1972. Accordingly, plaintiff’s complaint of wrongful discharge under Title VII, will be dismissed because the court lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter.

Defendant maintains that, after her discharge at the end of her seventh month of pregnancy, plaintiff retained no rights to be reinstated in her prior position with MESC, regardless of what may have been a discriminatory discharge and regardless of any intervening effect of the March 24 amendment to Title VII. Civil Service chose to give her some rehiring preference, but defendant claims that it was not required to offer plaintiff any preference at all in reinstatement.

The underlying issue is whether the defendants could, consistent with the newly-effective provisions of Title VII prohibiting sex-based discrimination, continue to refuse to reinstate the plaintiff based on her pregnancy related discharge.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Meehan v. New England School of Law
2 Mass. Supp. 377 (D. Massachusetts, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
500 F. Supp. 884, 24 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 645, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15755, 26 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 32,007, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stacy-v-michigan-employment-security-commission-miwd-1980.