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A federal appeals court on Monday reinstated the federal government's racial harassment claim against Pemco Aeroplex Inc., saying a verdict in favor of the company in an earlier lawsuit did not prevent the government from pursuing its own suit. Thirty-six black employees sued Pemco, a military airplane repair and maintenance company, in 1999 claiming they had been subjected to a racially hostile work environment. The employees testified during a trial in Birmingham that they heard racial slurs, found graffiti in bathroom stalls and saw nooses in service bays. But a jury found in favor of the company in June 2002. Afterward the company asked U.S. District Judge William Acker Jr. to dismiss a separate lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the grounds that the matter already had been decided and that the EEOC had participated in the first suit. The EEOC, which twice was denied permission to consolidate its suit with the workers' claim, argued that its involvement in the discovery, or fact-finding, process and attendance at trial did not mean it had been a full participant in the trial. In a ruling released Monday, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed with the EEOC. [more

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