George Feldman v. Buddy Boy Inc.

MEMORANDUM

Plaintiff George Feldman appeals the district court’s decision granting Buddy Boy, Inc.’s motion to dismiss on the basis that it employed fewer than fifteen employees and thus was not subject to suit under Title VII.

I

Contrary to Feldman’s assertions, Buddy Boy and other members of the Ca-priotti’s Sandwich Shop franchise were not operating as an integrated enterprise, and their personnel cannot be aggregated to meet the employee-numerosity requirement in Title VII. See Morgan v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 884 F.2d 1211, 1214 (9th Cir.1989) (finding no centralized control of labor relations, and thus no integrated enterprise, where one company had no control over the personnel decisions of another); see also Herman v. United Bhd. of Carpenters & Joiners of Am., 60 F.3d 1375, 1383-84 (9th Cir.1995) (concluding that a local union chapter and the larger international union were not a common enterprise even though the local union paid dues to the international union, the international union had the power to dissolve the local union or place it in a trusteeship, and the local union was required to follow the rules of the international union). As Feldman does not contest the…