Grant v. The New York Times Co.

Ernestine Grant and Stephen Walker, as administrator of the estate of Marjorie Walker, on behalf of themselves individually and on behalf of all similarly situated persons, Plaintiffsv.The New York Times Company, Mark Thompson, in his individual and professional capacities, and Meredith Levien, in her individual and professional capacities, Defendants

OPINION AND ORDER Plaintiffs Stephen Walker, as administrator of the estate of Marjorie Walker, and Ernestine Grant, on behalf of themselves and all similarly situated persons, assert that defendants The New York Times Company (“the Times”), and two executives at the Times, Mark Thompson and Meredith Levien, discriminated against them on the basis of race, age, and, in Ms. Walker’s case, disability, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §2000e et seq. (“Title VII”), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. §621 et seq., the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §12101 et seq., the Civil Rights Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. §1981 (“Section 1981″), the New York City Human Rights Law, N.Y.C. Admin. Code §8-101 et seq., and the New York State Human Rights Law, N.Y. EXEC. L. §290 et seq.¹Defendants have moved to strike the race-and age-based class claims brought under Title VII, Section 1981, and the corresponding state and city law claims in the Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) pursuant to Rule 12(f), Fed. R. Civ. P. Defendants claim that plaintiffs cannot meet the numerosity requirement to certify a class pursuant to Rule 23(a)(1), Fed. R. Civ. P. Defendants do not seek to strike the disability claims or any claims brought on behalf of the individually-named plaintiffs. For reasons that will be developed, defendants’ requested relief will be granted under Rule 23(d)(1)(D), Fed. R. Civ. P.²BACKGROUNDA description of plaintiffs’ claims has been set out in detail in the Court’s Memorandum and Order of September 14, 2017, and the Court assumes familiarity with these claims. See Grant, 2017 WL 4119279, at *1−3. Relevant here, plaintiffs seek to certify a class of “Black employees who have been, are now or will be employed by the [Times] in its Business division as Account Managers,” (“Race Class”) (SAC 224), and a class of “older employees who have been, are now or will be employed by the [Times] in its Business division as Account Managers” and who are over the age of forty (“Age Class”). (SAC 248; see SAC