Wajda v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance

80 F.R.D. 303, 18 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 875, 27 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 126, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14564, 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8956
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 3, 1978
DocketCiv. A. No. 76-2516
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 80 F.R.D. 303 (Wajda v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wajda v. Penn Mutual Life Insurance, 80 F.R.D. 303, 18 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 875, 27 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 126, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14564, 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8956 (E.D. Pa. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION

LUONGO, District Judge.

Joanna R. Wajda, an employee of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, filed this complaint on August 10, 1976. Wajda [305]*305alleges that many of Penn Mutual’s employment policies and practices discriminate against women, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-16 (1976). On behalf of herself and all others similarly situated, Wajda seeks broad declaratory and injunctive relief, including the implementation of an affirmative action plan, and an award of back pay. After conducting extensive discovery, Wajda moved on May 19, 1978 for class action certification under Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Penn Mutual vigorously opposes this motion, and both sides have filed lengthy briefs on the propriety of class certification. For the reasons set out in this opinion, I conclude that Wajda’s motion should be granted.

The factual record presently before me consists of the pleadings, answers to interrogatories, and the depositions of the following persons employed at Penn Mutual: Daniel E. Dawley, second vice-president for personnel (188 pp.); Richard F. Yoder, treasurer (155 pp.); Carol Page Burns, manager of employment (222 pp.); Jay L. Turn Suden, assistant treasurer (125 pp.); Ralph F. Miller, vice-president for corporate loans (160 pp.); Edwin W. Crysler, Jr., second vice-president for securities investments (81 pp.); Robert Lynch, senior vice-president for administration (210 pp.); William H. Loesche, Jr., financial vice-president (174 pp.); and Joanna R. Wajda, the plaintiff, (505 pp.). Plaintiff also sets forth, in her brief, the results of a statistical analysis of personnel records produced to her by Penn Mutual. In my view, however, the proffered analysis has little or no bearing on the question of class certification, and I shall not refer to it herein. The complaint, taken together with the depositions just referred to, provides a sufficient basis for determining whether Wajda has satisfied the requirements of Rule 23. See, e. g., Developments in the Law — Class Actions, 89 Harv. L.Rev. 1318, 1422 n.175 (1976) (“a decision on the basis of the pleadings is proper”) (collecting authorities).

Wajda has worked at Penn Mutual’s home office in Philadelphia for nearly forty years. She was hired as a file clerk on January 31, 1940, shortly after completing the commercial course at Frankford High School. Early in 1941, she became a secretary to the farm loan supervisor in Penn Mutual’s Mortgage Department. In June of 1942, she became a farm real estate clerk. In December of 1945, she became a secretary to John A. Mayer, who was then an assistant to the president of Penn Mutual, and she served as secretary to two other officers of the company between 1949 and 1952. During this period, she also took evening courses at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and she received a certificate of proficiency in accounting and finance in 1952.

In June or July of 1952, Wajda became an investment assistant in Penn Mutual’s Securities Department. The Securities Department was at that time, and is still, “responsible for investment of the Company’s assets in public and private securities.” Defendant’s Memorandum in Opposition (Document No. 40) at 1. Initially, Wajda’s principal tasks were to collect financial and statistical data on potential investments for Penn Mutual, and to help prepare reports presenting these data to the company’s executive committee. Wajda Dep. 82-3, 89. In approximately 1956, Wajda also began to assist Mr. Baggs in the field of common stocks. Wajda received an associate’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School in 1959. Thereafter, although her responsibilities grew, and although she received several salary increases, she retained the title of “investment assistant” up until December of 1973.

On September 11, 1973, Wajda filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. Id. 299-300. In the space provided for an explanation of the charge, Wajda wrote in part: “Joanna R. Wajda for many years has been and presently still continues to be discriminated against because of ‘sex’ and possibly now one might also add ‘age’ in her employment in the Securities Department of The Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company.” Wajda also attached a four-page [306]*306statement elaborating on her claim that she had wrongfully been denied various promotional opportunities, including advancement to the position of Investment Officer, within the Securities Department.

In December of 1973, Wajda became an Equities Research Analyst and Trader (an exempt position under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. § 213(a)(1) (1976)),1 and received a salary increase. The EEOC subsequently found reasonable cause to believe that Wajda’s charge was meritorious, and, after unsuccessful attempts at conciliation, it issued a right-to-sue letter on July 1, 1976. Wajda then filed this complaint on August 10, 1976. In October of 1977, more than a year later, Wajda became a Securities Analyst in the direct placement section of the Securities Department. In this capacity, she “assists Investment Officers in their investigation and analysis of the appropriateness of long term investment in particular private corporate transactions.” Defendant’s Memorandum in Opposition (Document No. 40) at 9.

Wajda alleges that Penn Mutual “maintains a pattern and practice of discrimination in employment on the basis of sex.” Complaint ¶ 19. The complaint enumerates thirty-four practices and policies that allegedly discriminate against women. In particular, Wajda alleges that Penn Mutual:

“(a) places a higher proportion of male employees in executive, managerial and professional positions than female employees;
(g) excludes or tends to exclude women from certain jobs and/or positions within the company;
(i) maintains sex segregated departments;
(I) pays men and women with equal qualifications unequal salaries;
(p) Pays women employees fewer and lower merit raises and raises for promotions than it pays male employees;
(q) fails to maintain a hiring, promotion and transfer policy based on objective job-related criteria that are uniformly applied to men and women;
(r) fails to have a system of job posting and/or job announcement, thereby virtually excluding women from bidding on open positions because of their lack of knowledge of the openings;
(s) limits job opportunities for women by promoting them primarily to jobs which have traditionally been held by women and by discouraging women from applying for jobs which have been traditionally held by men;
(u) denies secretaries (who are all of predominatly [sic] female) promotional opportunities into non-secretarial positions;
(v) hires new inexperienced college men into positions with the company without affording the same opportunities to women within the company;

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Bluebook (online)
80 F.R.D. 303, 18 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 875, 27 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 126, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14564, 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8956, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wajda-v-penn-mutual-life-insurance-paed-1978.