Edman

MEMORANDUM ***

Douglas Edman appeals the district court’s dismissal of his action alleging discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634 , by Exxon/Mobil Corp. and seven other defendant oil companies that failed to hire him as an engineer. The district court properly dismissed Edman’s claims against each of these defendants and we affirm.

The district court did not abuse its discretion when it dismissed seven of the eight defendants that Edman alleges discriminated against him in violation of the ADEA. As the district court properly found, Edman’s complaint does not satisfy the permissive joinder language of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 20, since Edman’s claim against each defendant is separate and distinct from his claims against the other defendants. Edman does not allege that the defendants adopted a uniform hiring policy or acted in concert with each other in their hiring decisions. Rather, as understood from the complaint, the defendants are eight separate entities, each with distinct hiring practices, who independently denied Edman employment. Therefore, the district court properly severed Ed-man’s claims against each…