Allen v. International Truck And Engine Corporation

358 F.3d 469 (2004)

Facts

Ps are 27 current or former employees at International (D). Ps allege that white employees at the plant evinced pervasive hostility toward, and harassment of, their black co-workers, and when black employees complained, the plant's top supervisors told them that nothing would be done. Ps seek both financial and equitable relief and sought to be certified as representatives of a class of the plant's current and former black employees, some 350 in number during the period covered by the complaint. The district judge found that all requirements of Fed. R. Civ. P. 23(a) were satisfied but declined certification under 23(b)(2). It held that the presence of individual claims made class treatment of damages imprudent, and the seventh amendment rendered class treatment of the equitable theories improper. Ps appealed under Rule 23(f).