Lau

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

The complaint alleges in substance that defendant Standard Oil Company of California, engages in a general pattern of discrimination by which certain minority employees, and all women employees, including the three named plaintiffs, are by various devices denied promotional opportunities and relegated to low-paying menial positions — all because of their race and national origin, and, as to women, because of their sex; that plaintiff, Lau, an Asian-American service station employee had been discriminatorily discharged in 1971; that plaintiff, Perryman, a black service station employee had been discriminatorily demoted from his job; and that plaintiff, Rodriguez, a Chicano female stenographer at defendant’s corporate headquarters, had been discriminatorily discharged in 1971.

The case is before the Court on cross-motions for determination of class action under Rule 23; also on a still pending plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment.

Plaintiffs seek to represent a class defined as all black, Spanish surnamed, Asian, and female persons who are presently employed, who are applicants for employment, who are potential applicants for employment, and all…