Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Fedex Ground Package System, Inc.
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Fedex Ground Package System, Inc.
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
The big issues in this case are whether the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEÜC”) can bring a federal civil lawsuit to end what it claims to be employment practices made unlawful by the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), achieve compensatory relief for specific job applicants and employees as it does so, and whether that effort requires the EEOC’s compliance with Rule 23 doctrines. The Court concludes that the answer to the first two questions is yes, and to the third, no.
FedEx Ground Package System, Inc. (“FedEx Ground”) has moved to dismiss a Complaint filed by the EEOC alleging unlawful discrimination on the basis of disability. See ECF No. 47; ECF No. 1. In the alternative, FedEx Ground has moved to strike the EEOC’s “pattern or practice” related allegations in its Complaint. ECF No. 47. The main dispute now centers on the scope of the EEOC’s litigation authority, with FedEx Ground arguing that the EEOC.must bring these claims as hundreds of individual federal lawsuits and the EEOC countering that no, it can bring them in just this one.
The issues were robustly briefed, see ECF Nos. 48; 56; 63; 67; 74, and the Court has carefully reviewed all submissions and held a lengthy oral argument on September 11, 2015. Because the Court concludes that the EEOC has statutory litigation authority to bring this suit, that Circuit precedent does not pretermit or limit the EEOC’s statutory litigation authority in this case, and that the ADA does not require identification of any singular discriminatory procedure or policy in this context, FedEx Ground’s Motions are denied.
I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND
The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is charged with enforcing federal laws that prohibit various forms of discrimination against job applicants and employees. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5; EEOC, Overview, http://www. eeoc.gov/eeoc/index.cfm (last visited Jan. 4, 2016). One form of employment discrimination outlawed in the United States is discrimination on the basis of disability. See 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a) (Section 107(a) of the Americans with Disabilities Act, incorporating by reference Section 706 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”)); 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(2) (Section 102 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991). The EEOC brought this suit to remedy what it alleges is such unlawful discrimination by FedEx Ground.
The EEOC says that FedEx Ground violated the ADA by discriminating against deaf and hárd-of-hearing individuals who worked in, and applied for, Package Handler positions with the company. See ECF No. 1. The stated qualifications for the job are modest. To be hii-ed for such entry-level positions, applicants must be at least eighteen years old and pass a criminal background check. Id. at 6, ¶¶ 16-17.
Seventeen (17) deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals filed Charges of Discrimination against FedEx Ground, which the EEOC then consolidated as part of a nationwide systemic investigation of potential ADA violations. Id. at 4-6, 8-9. The EEOC then issued Letters of Determination notifying FedEx Ground- that it had reasonable cause to believe FedEx.Ground had violated the ADA. The parties then engaged in a process of conciliation,, conference, and persuasion. Id. at 5, 9-10. Those efforts were unsuccessful and the EEOC brought this suit for the benefit of the seventeen Charging Parties and other “similarly aggrieved individuals.” See id. It seeks a permanent injunction to prevent FedEx Ground from engaging in disability discrimination; an order directing FedEx Ground to implement policies, practices, and programs to provide equal employment opportunities and reasonable accommodations for aggrieved individuals; back pay; compensation for past and future pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses; instatement of aggrieved individuals or front pay; and punitive damages. In response, FedEx Ground filed the pending Motion tp Dis'miss Plaintiffs Systemic Discrimination Complaint or, in the alternative, Motion to Strike Plaintiffs Pattern-or-Practice-Related Allegations from the Complaint. ECF No. 47.
II. STANDARDS OF REVIEW
A. Motion to Dismiss
A Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted is evaluated under the standards set forth in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007) and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L,Ed.2d 868 (2009). “[A] complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (citing Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). “A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937.
The Court must accept all facts alleged in the complaint as true and construe the complaint in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party-here, the EEO.C. See Flora v. Cnty. of Luzerne, 716 F.3d 169, 175 (3d Cir. 2015). Further, the Court may not make findings- of fact or resolve any factual disputes. Id.
B. Motion to Strike
Under Rule 12(f), the Court has broad discretion to “strike from a pleading an insufficient defense or any redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter.” Fed: R. Civ. P. 12(f). “[I]f class treatment is evidently inappropriate from the face of the complaint,” Rule 12(f) can
III. LEGAL ANALYSIS
FedEx Ground moved to dismiss the Complaint, or in the alternative to strike what it styles as “pattern or practice related” allegations in it, based on an essentially unitary argument: that the EEOC must prove that unlawful disability discrimination resulted from some discrete and specific policy or procedure by FedEx Ground and that each deaf and hard-of-hearing employee and applicant is “qualified” under the ADA. This, FedEx Ground maintains, is an inherently fact-specific and individualized analysis precluding any sort of class-wide or “pattern or practice” treatment and therefore this suit cannot go forward in its current form. Bottom line, argues FedEx Ground, the EEOC and/or individual applicants or employees must pursue ADA claims in a series of one-off federal lawsuits. As will be seen, however, FedEx Ground underestimates the EEOC’s statutory litigation authority and confuses what the EEOC can allege with how it can prove the allegations. As such, the motions will be denied and the suit can proceed to the next step.
A. The EEOC’s Litigation Authority
The EEOC has broad power to “prevent any person from engaging in any unlawful employment practice.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5. Specifically, the EEOC is authorized to bring civil actions against discriminating employers. Id. '§ 2000e~5(f)(l). Of particular relevance here are the twin aims of such EEOC litigation. First, and most obviously, the EEOC can bring a suit on behalf of particular individuals, lending its institutional and societal heft to an effort to remedy discrete events of employment discrimination. EEOC litigation also serves an entirely separate and distinct purpose: the vindication of rights protected by federal anti-discrimination laws. That purpose exists wholly apart from securing relief for individual victims; indeed the injury that the EEOC was designed to remedy is the violation itself and not only the actual harm imposed on an employee or applicant for employment. This means that the EEOC is not simply a proxy for individual employees, see Gen. Tel. Co. v. EEOC, 446 U.S. 318,326, 100 S.Ct. 1698, 64 L.Ed.2d 319 (1980); rather it litigates in the public interest, EEOC v. Waffle House, Inc., 534 U.S. 279, 296, 122 S.Ct. 754, 151 L.Ed.2d 755 (2002).
As part of the ADA’s comprehensive mandate to eradicate unlawful disability discrimination, section 706 of the ADA (incorporating the authorizing provision of Title VII) confers direct, statutory authori
B. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 provides a “comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination against individuals with disabilities.” 42 U.S.C. § 12101 (b)(1). The ADA prohibits employers from, among other things, failing to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled employees.
‘[t]o determine the appropriate reasonable accommodation it may be necessary for the covered entity to initiate an informal, interactive process with the qualified individual with a disability in need of accommodation. This process should identify the precise limitations resulting from the disability and the potential reasonable accommodations that could overcome those limitations.’ 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(o)(3). Similarly, the EEOC’s interpretive guidelines provide that: ‘Once a qualified individual with a disability has requested provision of a reasonable accommodation, the employer must make a reasonable effort to determine the appropriate accommodation. The appropriate reasonable accommodation is best determined through a flexible, interactive process that involves both the employer and the qualified individual with a disability.’ 29 C.F.R. Pt. 1630, App. § 1630.9 at 359.
Taylor v. Phoenixville Sch. Dist., 184 F.3d 296, 311 (3d Cir. 1999). The EEOC bases its claims on this principle.
A predicate to claims under the ADA (including failure to accommodate claims) is that claimants must be “qualified individuals with disabilities,” that is to say, they must be people who have a disability
Whether this predicate of “qualification” renders the EEOC’s suit, which would benefit the seventeen Charging Parties and other unnamed “aggrieved individuals,” inappropriate for any form of collective litigation or remedy is the central issue here.
C. Hohider and Rule 23
FedEx Ground’s primary argument is that under Hohider v. UPS, Inc., 574 F.3d 169 (3d Cir. 2009), the EEOC’s “varied and divergent claims cannot be litigated on a class-wide or pattern-or-practice basis as a matter of law.” ECF No. 48, at 6; ECF No. 48, at 21 (“Hohider controls this case.”). Because consideration of Hohider is central to the parties’ arguments, a more extended discussion is warranted.
According to FedEx Ground, the Third Circuit in Hohider, and district courts in the Circuit subsequently applying Hohi-der, have held that the “qualified individual” inquiry — a prerequisite for showing discrimination under the ADA — is always far too fact-specific and individualized to permit collective treatment in any federal court litigation. ECF No. 48, at 14. Further, FedEx Ground says “Hohider applies with full force here.” Id. at 15. The EEOC counters that reliance on Hohider is totally inapposite. See ECF No. 56, at 13. It says that Hohider's holding applies only to private Rule 23 class action suits under the ADA. Therefore, the EEOC claims, ADA “class actions”
In Hohider, a group of private plaintiffs sought to bring a Rule 23 class action to vindicate alleged employment discrimination on the basis of disability. 574 F.3d at 172. The nub of their claims was that the employer, UPS, discriminated against them by failing to accommodate their disabilities after returning to work from medical leaves of absence. Id. The district court certified the class under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23(a) and (b)(2). Id. at 174. That trial court decided that the issues of “qualification” under the ADA and liability due to UPS’s policy could be separated, using the two-step Teamsters
As a preliminary matter, it is plain that Hohideds central holding addresses only private class actions under Rule 23. Hohider says so, 574 F.3d at 183, 203. The Circuit’s reasoning is clear — Rule 23’s commonality and typicality strictures require that there be a high level of homogeneity among the private class members. In Hohider, there was no such unity because the plaintiffs, in a wide array of jobs, suffered from all manner of disabilities and the only thing bringing them together was UPS’s alleged policy of not accommodating them upon returning from their medical leaves of absence. There was no unifying disability, or even a unifying job, position, or decisional process that brought them together. Thus, a court would have to determine whether each individual “with or without reasonable accommodation; [could] perform the essential functions of the employment position that such individual holds or desires.” 42 U.S.C. § 12111(8). With the extreme diversity of job positions, claimed disabilities,. and return-to-work decisions of those potential class plaintiffs, the Circuit held that it was inappropriate to litigate the claims on a. class-wide basis because it would be super difficult, if not impossible, to satisfy Rule 23’s commonality and typicality requirements.
It is also plainly evident that the EEOC is not subject to Rule 23’s requirements. Gen. Tel. Co., 446 U.S. at 324, 100 S.Ct. 1698 (the EEOC’s “authority to bring such actions is in no way dependent upon Rule 23, and the Rule has no application to a § 706 suit.”). That is so given the.independent litigation interests that the EEOC has, apart from those of any individual plaintiffs. See id. at 329, 100 S.Ct. 1698 (“it is clear that the Rule was not designed to apply to EEOC actions brought in its own name for the enforcement of federal law”); see also EEOC v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 216 F.Supp.2d 935, 938 (D.Minn. 2002). Thus, the Court concludes that Hohider's, central holding simply does not apply in this case.
In its later briefs, FedEx Ground appeared to ease off its argument that Hohi-der is a complete bar to litigating ADA cases on a class-wide basis.
The issue then appears to boil down to one of case management, with FedEx Ground cautioning the Court about the anticipated need to hold hundreds of “mini-trials” with the EEOC’s use of individual proof models as to each individual employee or applicant. See ECF No. 63, at 11. That and the resulting discovery, FedEx Ground says, would be “incredibly burdensome and unmanageable not only for the parties, but also for the Court.” Id. n.2. While the Court appreciates this legitimate concern, the fact that it may be hard
At bottom, this dispute is about what exactly the"' EEOC is alleging. FedEx Ground attempts to deposit the ADA claims brought by the EEOC into one or another of only two buckets, either: (1) discrimination relating to a specific discriminatory procedure or policy that can be proven only with the Teamsters eviden-tiary framework, or (2) claims that do not identify a specific procedure or policy and thus cannot, under any circumstances, be subject to any form of collective treatment. See ECF No. 48, at 6. The EEOC maintains that it is simply bringing an employment discrimination .case, with the discrimination affecting a lot of individuals (starting with the seventeen specific claimants named in its Complaint) with one overall disability — they have trouble hearing. ECF No. 56, at 7. It says that whether it uses any specific proof framework or identifies one specific unlawful procedure or policy is irrelevant to whether it may exercise its statutory authority to advance the claims it pleads.
All parties agree — and the statute and case law support the view — that the first step in an ADA discrimination case is to show the aggrieved individuals are “qualified.” Where FedEx Ground’s argument derails is its position that Hohider facially precludes any inquiry into qualification in a litigation context other than a single-plaintiff, one-off federal lawsuit. See Section III.C, supra. ' Where it leaves the tracks altogether is what FedEx Ground says is a necessary next step: “[t]o show that FedEx Ground engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination — i.e., to create an inference of discrimination for purposes of the first Teamsters phase.” ECF No. 48, at 16.
As the EEOC points out, “pattern or practice” is not itself a legal claim. It is one evidentiary framework with which discrimination may be proved. See Hohi-der, 574 F.3d at 184 (holding the district court erred in using “pattern or practice” elements to define a discrimination claim); see also, e.g. Serrano v. Cintas Corp., 699 F.3d 884, 898 (6th Cir. 2012) (“Teamsters provides an evidentiary framework pursuant to which the EEOC may seek to prove its allegations of intentional discrimination, not an independent cause of action.”) (citing Hohider, 574 F.3d at 183); EEOC v. PBM Graphics, Inc., 877 F.Supp.2d 334, 343 (M.D.N.C. 2012) (pattern or practice cases are not “separate and free-standing cause[s] of action.”). Nevertheless, in the face of the EEOC’s invocation of its Section 706 authority, ECF No. 1, at 1, ¶ 1, FedEx Ground claims that the EEOC must necessarily meet the standard it would need to meet under Section 707. ECF No. 63, at 2. As a logical matter, that does not add up. What the EEOC must demonstrate, as discussed above, is a pri-ma facie case of disability discrimination-not necessarily the existence of one specific policy or procedure, or a “pattern or practice.” And fatal to FedEx Ground’s attempt to pigeonhole this case into being one about a “pattern or practice” is the Supreme Court’s pronouncement that federal court complaints need not commit to a specific evidentiary framework, especially where the appropriate one may not become apparent until after discovery. See Swierkiewicz v. Sorema NA., 534 U.S. 506,
Moreover, the Court concludes that this suit could fairly and properly be characterized as alleging an unlawful “centralized or blanket policy adopted or applied by FedEx Ground.” ECF No. 48, at 19. The EEOC pleads that “FedEx has not implemented a corporate-wide procedure” for accommodating deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals. ECF No. 1, at 9, ¶ 32. This is not, as FedEx Ground would have the Court believe, the “antithesis” of a standard operating procedure. See ECF No. 48, at 19. The law imposes affirmative obligations on employers to engage in interactive processes as they make reasonable accommodations for otherwise qualified individuals with disabilities. See Taylor, 184 F.3d at 311. A blanket failure to engage in any interactive process or to make any reasonable accommodations can, from where the Court sits, constitute a standard operating procedure resulting in unlawful discrimination. Without an affirmative obligation, this sort of “failure to seek out reasonable accommodations” claim might fall short of the mark. But faced with a legal duty to seék reasonable accommodations, an employer’s complete and uniform failure to do so can fairly be conceptualized as a standard operating procedure of unlawful conduct.
Additionally, FedEx Ground’s assertions of prejudice at having to litigate against “hundreds of unnamed aggrieved individuals” appear overstated. EEOC has provided, and at oral argument FedEx Ground acknowledged possessing, a list of 168 named individuals that are the subject of this shit. And while the EEOC generally “may not use discovery ... as a fishing expedition to uncover more violations,” EEOC v. CRST Van Expedited, Inc., 679 F.3d 657, 674 (8th Cir. 2012), cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 582 (Dec. 4, 2015) (No. 14-1375) (internal quotation marks omitted), here the EEOC has already cast its net, see ECF No. 1, at 5, ¶ 9 (noting the nationwide systemic investigation it conducted).
The EEOC has pled facts sufficient to state a claim for disability discrimination. The EEOC, in its Complaint, alleges that the Charging Parties and other aggrieved individuals are qualified and disabled within the meaning of the ADA, ECF No. 1, at 6, ¶ 19; the aggrieved individuals were either applicants for or employed as Package Handlers, id. at 5, ¶ 15; and they suffered unlawful discrimination because FedEx Ground failed to accommodate their disabilities,
E. FedEx Ground’s Motion to Strike
FedEx Ground .also argues that the EEOC’s “pattern or practice” related claims, and/or any references to as-yet-unnamed aggrieved individuals should be stricken under Rule 12(f).. Rule 12(f), however, “may not serve as an avenue to procure the dismissal of- all or part of a Complaint.” Davila v. N. Reg’l Joint Police Bd., 979 F.Supp.2d 612, 620, 624 (W.D.Pa. 2013) (vacated in part upon reconsideration). “Striking some or all of a pleading is considered a drastic remedy to be granted only when required for the purposes of justice.” Id. Justice does not so require here.
FedEx Ground’s tacked-on Motion to Strike appears to be. another shot at dismissal if the Motion to Dismiss didn’t work out. There is little in the record that supports the argument that “pattern or practice” claims are here immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous as those terms are used in Rule 12(f).
IV. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, FedEx Ground’s Motion to Dismiss and in the alternative Motion to Strike is DENIED.
An appropriate Order will issue.
. For purposes of addressing FedEx Ground’s Motions, the Court accepts as' true the factual allegations in the EEOC’s Complaint. See Flora v. Cnty. of Luzerne, 776 F.3d 169, 175 (3d Cir. 2015).
. "[W]e are persuaded that, pursuant to Title VII and the ADA, whenever the EEOC chooses from among the many charges filed each year to bring an enforcement action in a particular case, the agency may be seeking to vindicate a public interest, not simply provide make-whole relief for the employee, even when it pursues entirely victim-specific relief. To hold otherwise would undermine the detailed enforcement scheme created by Congress simply to give greater effect to an agreement between private parties that does not even contemplate the EEOC’s statutory function.” Waffle House, Inc., 534 U.S. at 296, 122 S.Ct. 754.
. "The ADA specifies that an employer discriminates against a qualified individual with a disability when the employer does 'not mak[e] reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of the individual unless the [employer] can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business of the [employer].' ” Taylor v. Phoenixville Sch. Dist., 184 F.3d 296, 306 (3d Cir. 1999) (citing 42 U.S.C. § 12112(b)(5)(A)).
. "A 'disability' is defined as: '(A) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of [an] individual; (B) a record of such impairment;
."[T]he ADA explicitly-incorporates this inquiry into its-definition of prohibited discrimination, and thus generally requires an evaluation of whether a disabled individual is ‘qualified’ as defined under the statute to determine not only whether discrimination on the basis of disability has occurred, but more fundamentally, whether such discrimination against that individual is unlawful.” Hohider, 574 F.3d at 192.
. The EEOC disclaims that this lawsuit is a ‘‘class action” at all, even though it sprinkles that phrase across its briefs.
, Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters v. United States et al., 431 U.S. 324, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977).
.. Hohider was directed to “private-plaintiff class actions under the ADA," and "whether the class action [before the court] can go forward under the Teamsters framework in a manner consistent with Rule 23.” Hohider, 574 F.3d at 183. Whatever the breadth of Hohider, the Court does not read it as inherently “amending away” the EEOC's statutory litigation authority. See id. at 180 n. 12.
. While FedEx Ground raises the fact that hearing loss falls on a spectrum (allegedly making these a diverse set of disabilities), the Court concludes those concerns are a bit overblown in this context. The disabilities are
. Compare with Hohider, 574 F.3d at 174 n. 6.
. And the Court is not so sure it will be. First, employees and applicants for only one position are involved. Second, only one type of disability is involved. Third, as the Court observed at oral argument, industrial hygienists, for decades, have been able to objectively measure and evaluate hearing acuity in workplace settings. Fourth, it is not obvious that novel or cutting-edge ‘‘remedial” technology is necessarily involved here (consider closed-captioning/SAP feeds on televisions, for instance). The Court does not doubt the good faith of FedEx Ground’s case management concerns, given that they come at a very early stage of the case, when the slate is somewhat blank. By the same token, the Court believes that these parties will likely bring to the case management table a better-than-usual ability to gather facts about FedEx Ground's operations and employee/applicant pool.
. On the ground, this case and Hohider appear to be quite different. Hohider involved (allegedly) over 36,000 potential claimants. 574 F.3d at 172 n. 4. So far, in this case there are fewer than 200. Hohider himself had a multitude of potentially impairing physical limitations-disc herniation, left leg radiculo-pathy, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and an undefined neck injury. He was a part-time loader/unloader, a loader, a sorter, and a package-car driver. See id. n. 3. The various jobs at UPS in Hohider had a seventy pound lifting requirement, which the plaintiffs there said was not necessarily ‘‘job-related,” and the Hohider plaintiffs claimed that UPS used, in every case, a ten-step job re-entry accommodation process involving multiple management assessments. In contrast, this case involves one job, with two rather objective core job qualifications (being eighteen and having a clean criminal record), and one form of asserted physical limitation that can be objectively measured with a rather standard hearing test. See, e.g., Disability Evaluation Under Social Security, § 2.00(B) Special Senses And Speech-Adult, available at https://www.ssa. gov/disabili1y/professionals/bluebook/2.00-SpecialSensesandSpeech-Adult.htm; EEOC, General Information About Hearing Impair
. It does appear to the Court that to a degree, the EEOC is trying to have it both ways. It invokes its Section 706 authority to bring this lawsuit in furtherance of the Charges of Discrimination referenced in its Complaint. Then, at argument, it referenced the 168 other claimants it has identified and used verbiage that began to drift into Section 707 territory. Also, whether as a factual matter it “conciliated” the breadth of the case it seeks to litigate here (FedEx Ground argues that it did not) may be a matter yet to be resolved, since even under the modest Mach Mining standard, Mach Mining, LLC v. EEOC, - U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 1645, 191 L.Ed.2d 607 (2015), FedEx Ground's argument would appear to have an inherent factual overlay not resolvable at this juncture. Further, as this Court has noted in other settings, see EEOC v. Ruby Tuesday Inc., 919 F.Supp.2d 587, 592-93 (W.D.Pa. 2013), the EEOC, like any other litigant, has a duty to put its cards on the table, face up, as to the relief it seeks, for whom it seeks it, and the factual and legal basis for its doing so. For the reasons the Court has stated here, in this case those matters go to the management of the litigation .and the disclosure and discovery obligations of the parties, not whether the Complaint plausibly states a legally cognizable claim.
. The Court also notes that under Mach Mining, the EEOC must provide an employer with notice of its specific allegation and offer the employer an opportunity to remedy it. Beyond that, the EEOC has significant discretion to investigate discrimination claims and upon so doing, to litigate on behalf of a potential group of aggrieved people. See id. at 1652 (noting the EEOC satisfies its conditions precedent by telling the employer what practice ‘‘has harmed which person or class”); see also EEOC v. Rhone-Poulenc, Inc., 876 F.2d 16, 17 (3d Cir. 1989) (the EEOC can maintain class action suits even where i.t does not attempt to conciliate on behalf of each member or potential member of the class).
. In fact, the lack of impermissible prejudice is reinforced by the fact that it is impossible to provide relief to unnamed individuals. If they remain unnamed, the EEOC cannot prove that they suffered discrimination and if they do not exist, there is no one to compensate. Nonetheless, if it turns out that some unjust or unfair prejudice on the part of FedEx Ground is discerned as the case unfolds, that issue can be litigated on a tangible record then developed.
. FedEx Ground takes issue with what it characterizes as the broad array of disabilities alleged in the Complaint. See ECF No. 48, at 16 (noting large variations in levels of hearing impairment). While the Court recognizes that hearing loss falls along a spectrum and that there are a variety of potential accommodations raised by the EEOC, the problem FedEx Ground asserts does not necessarily exist since the disabilities alleged are of a kind. The EEOC is not alleging, for example, disability discrimination on behalf of deaf individuals, blind individuals, individuals who must use wheelchairs, and individuals who cannot use their arms, all in the same suit. Here, it appears to the Court that an accommodation for the most severely disabled person (one who is completely deaf) would also serve someone who had a lesser degree of hearing loss (e.g., close captioning on training videos). At this juncture, the Court divines no unfair or unjust prejudice -FedEx' Ground would face by litigating all of these related claims, for related disability discrimination, as to one specific job classification, which has ■ modest entry qualifications, in one lawsuit. More than that, it would appear that if the EEOC were forced 'to' file (and FedEx Ground forced to defend) 168 separate, "related” lawsuits, at 168 docket numbers, and then litigate them seriatim, the case management and prejudicial impact would actually be much, much greater than exists here.
.Such as has been found when pleadings -contain ad hominem attacks, Vay v. Huston,
Reference
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- EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION v. FEDEX GROUND PACKAGE SYSTEM, INC.
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- 9 cases
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