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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
An Iowa federal judge has ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay $4.7 million in legal fees and costs for “unreasonable or groundless” claims in a putative class action sexual harassment lawsuit it filed against a trucking company.
In its 2007 suit, the EEOC alleged in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al. v. CRST Van Expedited Inc. that 270 women in the training program of Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based CRST were subjected to a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights act of 1967.
In 2012, a divided three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis essentially upheld a ruling by a U.S. District Court judge in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, dismissing the EEOC’s suit, which also alleged sexual propositioning, sexual assault and rape.
The 8th Circuit partially affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of the case, but reversed the lower court’s grant of summary judgment against two of the plaintiffs and remanded the case for further proceedings, said U.S. District Court Judge Linda R. Reade said in an Aug. 1 ruling that was publicized this week.
The EEOC subsequently withdrew its claim on behalf of one plaintiff, and the other case was settled for $50,000, according to Judge Reade’s ruling.
“The court previously determined that the EEOC’s claims were unreasonable, and after reviewing the record and the party’s arguments, the court essentially stands by each determination,” Judge Reade ruled.
The ruling states that “given that the EEOC should have known that it would be required to prove that CRST had actual or constructive knowledge of the sexual harassment, many of its claims were groundless.”
The $4.7 million judgment reflects $4.2 million in attorney fees, $413,000 in out-of-pocket expenses and $91,000 in taxable costs, according to the ruling.
An EEOC spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has published its latest edition of its federal sector “Digest of Equal Employment Opportunity Law,” which features recent agency decisions and federal court cases of interest that impact federal employees.