72 F.R.D. 98 | D.D.C. | 1976
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
This matter is now before the Court on the petitions of Whitfield Transportation Company, Inc. and Suburban Motor Freight, Inc. for determination of the question of jurisdiction over each of them. Each petition is substantially identical, and the government’s response to each is the same. The Court therefore treats the two petitions together.
This is a class action lawsuit in which the United States seeks relief under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for discrimination in the trucking industry against black and Spanish-surnamed persons involved in various phases of the industry. The Court has certified the suit as a class action, in which the class is a defendant class consisting of all trucking companies meeting certain criteria. Seven such companies are named defendants and have been found by the Court to satisfy the representation requirements of F.R.C.P. 23. Each member of the defendant class has been fully advised of the pendency and progress of the action, and of its right to appear personally herein.
Petitioners now seek a declaration that because they have not been personally served in this action and because under the provisions of Title VII venue would not be proper as to them had they been so named and served, they must be excused from the action and are not subject to the Court’s jurisdiction. For the following reasons, both petitions are denied.
It has long been the law in the courts of the United States that in an otherwise proper class action suit, non-party members of the class need not be brought personally before the Court, as long as the requirements of due process — in this context, primarily notice and representativeness of named class members — are afforded them. Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co., 339 U.S. 306, 70 S.Ct. 652, 94 L.Ed. 865 (1950); Supreme Tribe of BenHur v. Cauble, 255 U.S. 356, 41 S.Ct. 338, 65 L.Ed. 673 (1921); Hansberry v. Lee, 311 U.S. 32, 61 S.Ct. 115, 85 L.Ed. 22 (1940). The class action thus stands as the outstanding exception to the general rule that one is not bound by a judgment in person-
Petitioners do not appear to question the Court’s power, in the sense of jurisdiction, to hear the suit as a class action; that jurisdiction arises from Title VII itself. Rather, they assert that because venue is improper as to them, and despite the fact that they are otherwise proper members of the class, the Court must dismiss them from the action. This contention represents a basic misunderstanding of the function of venue in a class action. The central function of venue generally is to regulate the forum in which a party may appear or may force another party to appear personally, in a suit in which the court would otherwise have jurisdiction. In the ordinary case, the party has been brought personally before the court, by service of process or by filing the action, and the only question is whether the court sits in the proper district (as defined by the venue statutes) to hear the case. Venue is therefore intimately connected to and predicated upon the personal appearance of the party. Because class actions do not necessarily require the presence of a class member before the court for an adjudication of his/her rights and liabilities, venue restrictions are not determinative of the ability of the court to hear the action with respect to all members of the class. As most courts have held, the relevant venue question in such circumstances is whether venue is proper as among the parties who have in fact been brought personally before the court as named parties to the action, the parties representing and in effect standing in for the absent class members.
Accordingly, it is by the Court this 16 day of August, 1976,
ORDERED, that the Petition of Whitfield Transportation Company, Inc. For A Determination Of The Question Of Jurisdiction Over It be, and hereby is, denied; and
The fact that, as here, the class is a defendant class does not suggest a different result. The rights and liabilities of absent plaintiff and absent defendant class members are bound equally by any judgment in a class action, and an absent plaintiff choosing to appear personally is no more likely to be in a proper venue district than an absent defendant so choosing.