THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603020244
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
A judge dismissed two race discrimination lawsuits Friday against Norfolk Naval Shipyard, saying there was no evidence the workers suffered discrimination in their work assignments.
The judge let a third discrimination case continue.
Judge Henry C. Morgan Jr. made the rulings in mid-trial in Norfolk's federal court after the three workers finished presenting their cases. The remaining case probably will go to the jury Monday.
In his ruling, Morgan said he could not address the larger issue raised by the three lawsuits: Was there a pattern of race discrimination at the Portsmouth shipyard in 1994?
That issue was raised by one of the workers, Earl Walton, in a 1994 complaint he filed with the shipyard's equal employment opportunity office. The trial, however, is focused strictly on whether these particular workers suffered discrimination in work assignments in early 1994.
``Mr. Walton had a lot of complaints about the shipyard,'' the judge said in court Friday. ``Those complaints may be justified. . . But only one narrow area is before this court.''
Morgan's ruling will not affect about 80 other discrimination claims pending in the shipyard's equal employment opportunity office, said the workers' attorneys, SuAnne L. Hardee and Thomas F. Hennessy.
Those cases have not been filed in court, but may be after this trial is over, the lawyers said.
Walton, a sandblaster foreman with 21 years' experience, was the lead plaintiff. He claimed he was assigned to undesirable jobs on a barge and at the Special Projects Work Center because he is black and in retaliation for filing a complaint with the equal employment office.
Morgan, however, cited Walton's own testimony that he did not consider the barge assignment bad at first. Morgan said that Walton's assignment to Special Projects - also known as the excess labor pool - was for only four days and therefore ``interim'' and not permanent.
Walton also had complained that shipyard representatives broke into his locker and took a tool. Morgan said that ``seems a peculiar thing to do, perhaps even an unlawful thing,'' but it was not a discriminatory act.
``I'm devastated,'' Walton said after the ruling. ``I think the judge was very, very, very biased toward my particular case. I didn't get to talk about issues that are very important.'' He has other claims pending at the equal employment office.
Morgan also dismissed the case of Charles Brown, a painter mechanic with 15 years' experience. The judge berated Brown's attorneys for providing incomplete statistical evidence in an attempt to show that whites and blacks received different treatment.
``There is a great big hole in your case,'' Morgan told Hennessy, ``because you didn't prove any of your statistical information.''
Finally, the judge let stand a complaint by Carl Phillips, a painter foreman with 17 years' experience. Morgan said there may be evidence that Phillips was treated differently than comparable white workers. That is an issue for the jury to decide, the judge said.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT SHIPYARD RACE DISCRIMINATION DISMISSED by CNB