United States Fifth Circuit

In a Title VII action brought by African-American plaintiffs alleging that defendant's practice of delegating subjective decision-making authority to its managers with respect to initial assignments and promotions disparately affected them, judgment for the employees is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated and remanded in part where: 1) a claim that the company discriminatorily assigned newly hired African Americans to a particular division was not exhausted before the EEOC; 2) there was no clear error in a finding of subjective decision making in promotions; 3) a finding that defendant's promotion practices were not capable of separation for review was not clearly erroneous; 4) a finding that plaintiffs demonstrated a statistically significant disparate impact against black employees in promotions was not erroneous; and 5) the damage, injunctive relief, and fees awards required vacatur in light of the foregoing.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/29/2008
• Published 03/03/2008

Judges

• EDITH H. JONES, Chief Judge:, Before JONES, Chief Judge, and HIGGINBOTHAM and CLEMENT, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Douglas E. Hamel (argued), Christopher Velle Bacon, Vinson & Elkins, Houston, TX, for Lufkin Industries, Inc.


• For Appellees:
  
• Teresa F. Demchak, Morris J. Baller (argued), Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian, Oakland, CA, Timothy Borne Garrigan, Stuckey, Garrigan & Castetter, Nacogdoches, TX, for Plaintiffs-Appellants-Cross-Appellees.