William Earl Warren III v. City of Carlsbad Brian Watson James Thompson Frank Mannen Raymond Patchett Stewart Gary Ann Jansen

Plaintiff William Earl Warren III appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants, the City of Carlsbad and city employees (collectively “the City”), and the district court’s grant of Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 sanctions against him and Thomas Gill, an attorney (not of record) who helped him with the case. Warren alleges that the defendants violated Title VII of the CM Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., by not promoting him to the position of fire captain because of his national origin. We reverse.

FACTS

Warren worked for the City of Carlsbad as a fire fighter from January 29, 1973 until his discharge on May 4, 1990. In October 1988, Warren took a promotional test for the position of fire captain. He scored 8th highest out of the twenty applicants who took the test. An outside consulting firm conducted the test which included a fire simulation, an “in-basket” exercise, and an evaluation of certain record-keeping and communication skills. Besides Warren, who is of Mexican descent, all the other applicants for the position of fire captain were white.

The twenty applicants, ranked in order by their performance on the test, became the “employment…