Svc. Professionals v. Allstate Insurance

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT

ORLANDO L. HARRIS,

Plaintiff,

and

SERVICE PROFESSIONALS, INC., No. 01-6226

Plaintiff - Appellant,

v.

ALLSTATE INSURANCE CO.,

Defendant - Appellee.

ORDER
Filed November 26, 2002

Before SEYMOUR, ALDISERT,* and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

Appellants’ petition for rehearing is denied.

The petition for rehearing en banc was transmitted to all of the judges of the court

*
The Honorable Ruggero J. Aldisert, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, sitting by designation.
who are in regular active service. As no member of the panel and no judge in regular

active service on the court requested that the court be polled, that petition is also denied.

The panel has amended the opinion filed August 15, 2002. A copy of the opinion,

with amendments to paragraph 21 and footnote 3, is attached to this order.

Entered for the Court
PATRICK FISHER, Clerk of Court

by: /s/ Opal Carter
Deputy Clerk

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 F I L E D
United States Court of Appeals
Tenth Circuit
PUBLISH
AUG 15 2002
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
PATRICK FISHER
TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk

ORLANDO L. HARRIS,

Plaintiff,

and

SERVICE PROFESSIONALS, INC.,
No. 01-6226
Plaintiff - Appellant,

v.

ALLSTATE INSURANCE CO.,

Defendant - Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Oklahoma
(D.C. No. CIV-99-987-M)

Mark Hammons, Hammons & Associates, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Plaintiff-
Appellant.

Jefferson I. Rust (Jim T. Priest with him on the brief), McKinney & Stringer, P.C.,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before SEYMOUR, ALDISERT,* and EBEL, Circuit Judges.

*
The Honorable Ruggero J. Aldisert, Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, sitting by designation.
EBEL, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant Service Professionals, Inc. (“SPI”) is a minority-owned

business. Defendant-appellee Allstate Insurance Company maintains a list of vendors to

which it refers its insureds for repair work. SPI was on this list, but allegedly received a

disproportionately low number of the referrals. SPI filed the present suit alleging that

Allstate’s referral practices amounted to racial discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C.

§ 1981. The district court granted Allstate’s motion for summary judgment on all claims,

and we AFFIRM.

BACKGROUND

SPI is an African-American owned business that repairs and cleans smoke, fire,

and water damage to property in Oklahoma City. In 1992, Allstate established a program

it called the Quality Vendor Procedure (“QVP”). Under the QVP program, Allstate

maintained a list of approved vendors of emergency repair services. SPI was included on

the list of approved vendors. When one of Allstate’s insureds needed a particular

emergency repair service, Allstate would allow the insured to choose from the QVP

vendors who provided that service. (Although insureds were not obligated to use QVP

vendors for their repairs, Allstate encouraged their use by guaranteeing the work of QVP

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vendors.) SPI alleges that insureds rarely had a preference and that in such circumstances

Allstate would select the vendor.

SPI asserts that Allstate “promise[d] . . . to provide business to its QVP vendors.”

In response, Allstate counters with evidence that its QVP vendor form, filled out by SPI,

stated that “Allstate personnel will utilize the [QVP] in such a way as to maximize

customer service. We have no obligation to refer customers to this particular vendor.” In

his deposition, SPI co-owner Orlando Harris admitted having filled out this form, but

stated without elaboration that “they told me that it was on a rotating basis,” apparently

meaning that Allstate told him that, when insureds expressed no vendor preference,

Allstate would rotate which vendor it chose for the insured.

The same QVP form also stated:

The following is a record of quotations which have been received from this
vendor. It is not a contract or agreement of any kind between this vendor and
Allstate. The only agreement in effect between Allstate and this vendor is that
if and when this vendor performs work for which Allstate is responsible, it will
follow the procedures outlined in Section II below.

Section II established standards that the vendor “will comply with” for service, billing,

and recordkeeping.

The district court viewed SPI’s complaint as asserting two distinct § 1981 claims.

The first was that Allstate’s delay in adding SPI to the QVP program amounted to a

racially discriminatory refusal to contract under § 1981 (“failure to contract claim”). On

appeal, SPI disavows any intention to have asserted such a claim. The second was that

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Allstate’s failure to refer insureds to SPI amounted to a discriminatory referral practice

motivated by racial animus and/or desire to retaliate against SPI for alleging racial

discrimination (“discriminatory referral claim”). As discussed below, the discriminatory

referral claim itself is premised on two distinct theories: first, that Allstate was

contractually obligated to refer a certain fraction of insureds to SPI, and Allstate’s failure

to fulfill its post-formation contractual obligations based on discriminatory motives

violated § 1981(b); and second, that even absent contractual obligation, Allstate

nonetheless was legally obligated under § 1981(a) to administer its referral program free

of racial bias, and that Allstate’s discriminatory refusal to give referrals to SPI precluded

SPI from forming contracts with Allstate’s insureds.

DISCUSSION

I. Standard of Review

We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. “We review a district court’s grant

of summary judgment de novo, applying the same standard as the district court.” Simms

v. Okla. ex rel. Dep’t of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Servs., 165 F.3d 1321, 1326

(10th Cir. 1999). A party is entitled to summary judgment if “the pleadings, depositions,

answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any,

show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). For

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purposes of summary judgment, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the

non-moving party. Simms, 165 F.3d at 1326. If the movant has shown the absence of a

genuine issue of material fact, the nonmovant cannot rest upon his or her pleadings, but

must bring forward specific facts sufficient to permit a reasonable jury to find in favor of

the nonmovant on that issue. Id.

II. Statute of Limitations

Before reaching the merits of SPI’s claims, we must determine whether any of the

claims are time-barred. There are two issues to be resolved in the statute of limitations

inquiry: first, whether the statute of limitations applicable to each of SPI’s claims under

§ 1981 is Oklahoma’s two-year period or a federal four-year period; and second, if the

applicable limitations period is two years, whether some or all of SPI’s § 1981 claims

were untimely filed. The district court concluded that the applicable limitations period

was two years. It further concluded that, while SPI’s failure-to-contract claim arising

from Allstate’s alleged delay in adding SPI to the QVP was untimely (which SPI does not

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challenge on appeal), SPI’s discriminatory referral claims arising from Allstate’s alleged

failure to refer business to SPI once SPI had been added to the QVP were timely.

Section 1981 originally was enacted in 1870, providing in relevant part that “[a]ll

persons . . . shall have the same right . . . to make and enforce contracts.” The Supreme

Court in Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164 (1989), held that § 1981 did not

apply to an employer’s post-formation conduct. Id. at 177 (“[T]he right to make

contracts does not extend . . . to conduct by the employer after the contract relation has

been established, including breach of the terms of the contract or imposition of

discriminatory working conditions.” (emphasis added)); id. at 177-78 (“The right to

enforce contracts does not . . . extend beyond conduct by an employer which impairs an

employee’s ability to enforce through legal process his or her established contract rights.”

(emphasis added)).

However, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 amended § 1981, redesignating the original

text as § 1981(a) and adding subsections (b) and (c). Subsection (b), effectively reversing

Patterson, provides, “the term ‘make and enforce contracts’ includes the making,

performance, modification, and termination of contracts, and the enjoyment of all

benefits, privileges, terms, and conditions of the contractual relationship.” Subsection (c)

provides that § 1981 applies to discrimination by nongovernmental as well as

governmental actors.

In short, then, Patterson held that present § 1981(a) provides no cause of action as

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to an employer’s post-formation conduct. The Civil Rights Act of 1991, codified at

§ 1981(b) and (c), essentially created a new cause of action to challenge an employer’s

discriminatory post-formation conduct.

One of two statutes of limitations applies to SPI’s § 1981 claims. The district

court concluded, and Allstate argues on appeal, that Oklahoma’s analogous statute of

limitations (two years) applies to all of SPI’s claims. See Goodman v. Lukens Steel Co.,

482 U.S. 656, 660 (1987) (holding that federal courts applying § 1981 “should select the

most appropriate or analogous state statute of limitations” because § 1981 does not

contain its own statute of limitations). SPI argues that 28 U.S.C. § 1658, enacted in 1990

(after Goodman), compels a different result as to the appropriate statute of limitations for

its discriminatory referral claim. Section 1658 provides that “[e]xcept as otherwise

provided by law, a civil action arising under an Act of Congress enacted after the date of

the enactment of this section [December 1, 1990] may not be commenced later than 4

years after the cause of action accrues.”

The question, then, is whether any of SPI’s § 1981 claims amount to “a civil action

arising under an Act of Congress enacted after” December 1, 1990. We have explained

that § 1658 “was intended to be ‘applicable to legislation enacted after the effective date

of this Act, which creates a cause of action but is silent as to the applicable limitations

period.’” Laurino v. Tate, 220 F.3d 1213, 1217-18 (10th Cir. 2000) (quoting H.R. Rep.

No. 101-734, at 24 (1990)). In the past, this circuit has applied the state’s analogous

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statute of limitations to § 1981 claims without discussing the potential applicability of

§ 1658. See Thomas v. Denny’s, Inc., 111 F.3d 1506, 1514 (10th Cir. 1997); Reynolds v.

Sch. Dist. No. 1, Denver, Colo., 69 F.3d 1523, 1532 (10th Cir. 1995).

To decide whether § 1658’s four-year statute of limitations applies to any of SPI’s

§ 1981 claims, we must answer two subsidiary questions. The first, and by far the more

difficult, is whether § 1658 applies to any § 1981 claims. The answer to this issue

remains hotly debated among federal courts, but the district court assumed without

deciding that § 1658 applied to § 1981(b) claims. The second subsidiary question is

whether, if § 1658 applies to some § 1981 claims, it applies to any of SPI’s § 1981 claims

(in other words, if § 1658 applies to § 1981(b) claims, whether any of SPI’s § 1981 claims

arise under § 1981(b) rather than § 1981(a)). The district court held that SPI’s claims

“are based upon § 1981 as enacted in 1870, and not on the 1991 amendments,” and thus

that they are subject to Oklahoma’s two-year statute of limitations. We agree with the

district court that § 1658 applies to § 1981(b) claims, but we conclude that the district

court erred in ruling that none of SPI’s claims arise under § 1981(b).

The federal courts have split in determining which statute of limitations applies to

suits brought under the amended version of § 1981. The Third Circuit has summarized

the divergent approaches as follows:

Three distinct approaches are recognized in the existing case law:

[The First Approach] 1. When an Act of Congress passed after December
1, 1990, creates a claim that did not previously exist, that claim “arises under

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an Act of Congress enacted after” December 1, 1990, even though the new
statute creates the new claim by amending a previously existing statute. This
view of § 1658, when applied in the context of § 1981 of the Civil Rights Act
of 1870, as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, results in § 1981 claims
based on the discriminatory termination of contracts being governed by the
four-year federal limitations period, and all other claims based on § 1981 being
governed by the state statute for personal injury claims. [FN1]

FN1. See, e.g., Miller v. Federal Express Corp., 56 F.Supp.2d 955, 965 (W.D.
Tenn.1999).

[The Second Approach] 2. When an Act of Congress passed after December
1, 1990, amends a statute existing before that date in a manner that
substantially alters its meaning, all claims accruing after the passage of the
new statute “arise under an Act of Congress enacted after” December 1, 1990,
without regard to whether an identical claim arising earlier could have been
successfully pursued under the prior statute. This view of § 1658, when
applied in the context of § 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1870, as amended
by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, results in all § 1981 claims arising after the
1991 amendment being governed by the four year federal limitations period.
[FN2]

FN2. See, e.g., Alexander v. Precision Machining, Inc., 990 F.Supp. 1304 (D.
Kan.1997).

[The Third Approach] 3. When an Act of Congress passed after December
1, 1990, amends a statute existing before that date, as opposed to creating new
law without reference to previously existing statutory language, all claims
accruing after the passage of the amendment arise under an Act of Congress
enacted before December 1, 1990, without regard to whether an identical claim
arising earlier could have been successfully pursued under the prior statute.
This view, when applied in the context of § 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of
1870, as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991, results in all § 1981 claims
accruing after the passage of the 1991 amendments being governed by the state
limitations period for personal injury claims. [FN3]

FN3. See, e.g., Lane v. Ogden Entertainment, Inc., 13 F.Supp.2d 1261 (M.D.
Ala.1998).

Each of the foregoing interpretations is textually plausible.

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Zubi v. AT&T Corp., 219 F.3d 220, 222 (3d Cir. 2000) (footnote omitted).

Two circuits have resolved the issue, both holding that § 1658 does not apply to

any claims under § 1981, regardless of whether they fall under § 1981(a) or § 1981(b) –

i.e., adopting what Zubi identifies as the third approach. See Madison v. IBP, Inc., 257

F.3d 780, 798 (8th Cir. 2001); Zubi, 219 F.3d at 223-26. One other circuit has

acknowledged the issue but declined to resolve it. Taylor v. Ala. Intertribal Council Title

IV, 261 F.3d 1032, 1033 (11th Cir. 2001) (per curiam).

A June 2001 district court decision counted approximately 25 district court

decisions on the issue and concluded that the majority of district courts also have adopted

the Zubi approach. Adams v. R.R. Donnelley & Sons, 149 F. Supp.2d 459, 463 (N.D. Ill.

2001). Compare, e.g., Campbell v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp. (Amtrak), 163 F. Supp.2d

19, 25 (D.D.C. 2001) (following Zubi), and Coleman v. Shoney’s, Inc., 145 F. Supp.2d

934, 937-38 (W.D. Tenn. 2001) (same), with Turner v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp.

(Amtrak), 181 F. Supp.2d 122, 130-31 (N.D.N.Y. 2002) (declining to follow Zubi), and

Adams, 149 F. Supp.2d at 462-64 (same).

Here, the district court assumed without deciding that the first approach applied.

On appeal, SPI argues that the first approach should apply, while Allstate argues that the

third approach should apply. After reviewing the arguments offered by counsel and other

courts in support of their positions on this issue, we agree with SPI that § 1658’s four-

year limitations period applies to § 1981 claims that were created by the Civil Rights Act

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of 1991 (e.g., claims under § 1981(b)). The case for this position – i.e., Zubi’s “first

approach” – is most convincingly made by the district court’s opinion in Adams, which

we quote at length:

[Section 1981] as [originally] written, protected just two rights: the right
to make contracts, which “extend[ed] only to the formation of a contract, but
not to problems that may arise later from the conditions of continuing
employment,” and the right to enforce contracts, which “embrace[d] protection
of a legal process, and of a right of access to legal process, that will address
and resolve contract-law claims without regard to race.” Patterson v. McLean
Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164, 176-77 (1989). The Civil Rights Act of 1991,
which became law (i.e., was enacted) on November 21, 1991, revised § 1981
. . . . In other words, the version of § 1981 in the 1991 Act created new causes
of action that were not cognizable under the pre-1991 version of the statute.

. . . . The question for the Court is whether this well-settled proposition
[historically applying state statutes of limitations to § 1981 actions] was altered
by Congress’ enactment on December 1, 1990 of 28 U.S.C. § 1658 . . . .
Looking at the plain language of § 1658, this seems to this Court to be
an easy question to answer, though judging by the panoply of ways in which
the question has been framed and answered this is apparently a minority view.
The Seventh Circuit has yet to address the question of whether § 1658 governs
claims brought under the 1991 Act; in fact only one circuit court, the Third,
has actually considered, analyzed and answered the question. In Zubi v.
AT&T Corp., 219 F.3d 220, 225 (3rd Cir.2000) the court held that § 1658
applies “only when Congress establishes a new cause of action without
reference to preexisting law. . . .” Thus, because Congress “chose to build
upon a statutory text that has existed since 1870,” the court held, “Zubi’s civil
action arises under an Act of Congress enacted before December 1, 1990, and
is governed by New Jersey's two-year statute of limitations.” Id. at 226. The
Court cannot imagine how this is possible; in Patterson, the United States
Supreme Court clearly held that claims such as those asserted by Zubi
(discriminatory firing) did not arise under the pre-1991 version of § 1981. See
Patterson, 491 U.S. at 177 (“the right to make contracts does not extend, as a
matter of either logic or semantics, to conduct by the employer after the
contract relation has been established . . . .”). Rather, such claims can be made
only by virtue of Congress’ 1991 enactment of § 1981(b).
....

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 . . . . We think the [first approach] is the only one true to the language of
the statute.

“[J]udicial inquiry into the applicability of [§ 1658] begins and ends
with what [§ 1658] does say and with what [§ 1658] does not.” Connecticut
National Bank v. Germain, 503 U.S. 249, 254 (1992). Section 1658 applies to
any “civil action arising under an Act of Congress enacted” after December 1,
1990. We see nothing ambiguous in this language, at least as it relates to the
claims at issue in this lawsuit. First, although some courts have found
otherwise, we do not think the statute’s reference to “an Act of Congress
enacted” is susceptible to more than one reasonable interpretation. “Enact”
means “to make into law by authoritative act,” Black’s Law Dictionary 546
(7th ed.1999); thus every Act of Congress, whether it reflects a never-before
considered subject or amends a previously existing statute, is “enacted.” To
the extent there could ever be any doubt about whether the Civil Rights Act of
1991 was “an Act of Congress” or whether it was “enacted,” the language of
the law itself should set the record straight. Congress specifically used both
words in the law’s preamble:

An Act to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to strengthen and
improve Federal civil rights laws, to provide for damages in
cases of intentional employment discrimination, to clarify
provisions regarding disparate impact actions, and for other
purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, . . .

Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub.L. No. 102-166, 105 Stat. 1071 (1991)
(emphasis added).

Second, there is no question that “civil action” as used in § 1658 means
“claim” or “cause of action.” See David D. Siegal, The Statute of Limitations
in Federal Practice, Including the New ‘General’ One in Federal Question
Cases, 134 F.R.D. 481, 487 (1991). Finally, there is no question that “arising
under” means “stemming from” or “originating in”. See Black’s Law
Dictionary 102 (7th ed.1999).

In short, the meaning of § 1658 is quite simple: whenever Congress,
after December 1990, passes legislation that creates a new cause of action, the

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catch-all statute of limitations applies to that cause of action. As applied to §
1981, claims that under Patterson could be brought under the pre-1991 version
of § 1981 clearly arise under an Act of Congress that was enacted prior to §
1658’s enactment date, and the catch-all statute does not apply to such claims.
Claims that Patterson said could not be brought under the pre-1991 version of
§ 1981, but which can be made only by virtue of § 1981(b), just as clearly arise
under the Civil Rights Act of 1991, an Act of Congress enacted after § 1658.
Section 1658 applies to those claims. Having concluded that the language of
the statute is unambiguous, we need not consider the statute’s legislative
history.

The only other district judge in this Circuit who has addressed this issue
concluded that § 1658 does not apply to any claims under § 1981, including
claims given life by § 1981(b); it relied in part on legislative history that it read
as indicating that Congress did not view the Civil Rights Act of 1991 as
creating any new causes of action, but rather as “restoring” § 1981 to its proper
scope following the Supreme Court’s decision in Patterson. This Court does
not agree. First, as indicated above, resort to legislative history is
inappropriate where, as here, the language of the statute is unambiguous. But
more importantly, whatever label Congress chose to give to its enactment, it
was not “restoring” § 1981, it was changing it. “It is emphatically the province
and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is,” Marbury v.
Madison, 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137, 177, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803), and in Patterson the
Supreme Court determined not that § 1981 should be narrowed despite its
original intent, but rather that the statute, as enacted in 1866, was never meant
to reach certain forms of conduct. Patterson, 491 U.S. at 176-77. When
Congress enacted § 1981(b), it thus undeniably created new causes of action,
whether or not that is how it chose to label what it had done.

A number of courts have noted that our interpretation would result in
courts applying two different statutes of limitations for every federal statute
enacted prior to December 1, 1990 and amended thereafter to create new types
of claims. The answer to that is three-fold. First, the Court has not been asked
to decide whether § 1658 governs every post-1990 legislative amendment; the
Court must decide only whether the statute governs the claims raised by these
plaintiffs in this lawsuit. Second, courts routinely apply different statutes of
limitations to different claims, including different claims made within a single
lawsuit. And third, even if applying multiple statutes of limitations is
inconvenient, that is what Congress has required, and the courts are not at
liberty to second guess an unambiguous statute.

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 To summarize, the Court finds that 28 U.S.C. § 1658 is unambiguous
and, by its terms, applies to all claims arising out of the Civil Rights Act of
1991, which was enacted after December 1, 1990, the date on which § 1658
was enacted. Section 1658, by its terms, does not apply to claims arising under
the pre-1991 version of § 1981; these claims continue to be governed by the
most analogous state law statute of limitations, here, Illinois’ two-year
personal injury statute of limitations.

Adams, 149 F. Supp.2d at 461-65 (citations omitted).

The question of whether § 1981(b) was “enacted” for purposes of § 1658, despite

its being labeled an “amendment,” was also answered convincingly in the affirmative by

Judge Alito in his dissent in Zubi:

The term “Act of Congress” [used in § 1658] means a law enacted in
one of the ways prescribed by Article I, § 7 of the Constitution. Acts of
Congress are published in the United States Statutes at Large, which constitute
“legal evidence” of what the law provides. 1 U.S.C. § 112.
....
[Section 1981] is not itself an Act of Congress; rather, it is a codification
of two prior Acts. [FN9] Subsection (a) of § 1981 is a codification of Section
1977 of the Revised Statutes of 1874. [FN10] Until 1989, it was unsettled
whether the phrase “make and enforce contracts” in this provision reached the
discriminatory termination of a contractual relationship, but in Patterson v.
McLean Credit Union, 491 U.S. 164 (1989), the Supreme Court held that this
language did not apply to conduct occurring after the formation of a contract.
“[T]he Patterson opinion finally decided what § 1981 had always meant.”
Rivers v. Roadway Express, 511 U.S. 298, 313 n. 12 (1994).

FN9. Thus, it is not itself the law but only “prima facie” evidence of the law,
1 U.S.C. § 204(a). See United States National Bank of Oregon v. Independent
Insurance Agents of America, Inc., 508 U.S. 439, 449 & n. 4 (1993).

FN10. Subsection (a) may be traced to Section 16 of the Civil Rights Act of
1870 . . . . In 1874, however, Congress enacted into law the Revised Statutes
of 1874, “a massive revision, reorganization, and reenactment of all statutes

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 in effect at the time, accompanied by a simultaneous repeal of all prior ones.”
United States National Bank of Oregon, 508 U.S. at 449. The relevant
sections of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1870 were thus repealed and then
re-enacted as section 1977 of the Revised Statutes of 1874. See Runyon v.
McCrary, 427 U.S. 160, 168 n. 8 (1976).
When the U.S. Code was compiled, the provisions of Rev. Stat. § 1977 were
codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1981. In 1991, when Rev. Stat. § 1977 was amended,
the amendments were also, of course, reflected in 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Section
1981 of the United States Code has never itself been enacted as positive law,
though, and it is thus only “prima facie” evidence of the provisions of Rev.
Stat. § 1977 as amended by the Civil Rights Act of 1991. See 1 U.S.C. §
204(a). Cf. United States Nat’l Bank of Oregon v. Independent Insurance
Agents of America, Inc., 508 U.S. 439, 448-49 & n. 4 (1993).
In 1991, shortly after enacting 28 U.S.C. § 1658, Congress broadened
the scope of this provision. Section 101 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub.L.
No. 102-166, 105 Stat. 1071, amended Section 1977 of the Revised Statutes
and defined the phrase “make and enforce contracts” to include the
“termination of contracts and the enjoyment of all benefits, privileges, terms
and conditions of the contractual relationship.” This new provision is codified
as 42 U.S.C. § 1981(b). Thus, as a result of the 1991 Act, a plaintiff may now
sue under § 1981 for discriminatory termination of employment – and that is
precisely what Zubi did here.
....
It is beyond dispute that the Civil Rights Act of 1991 qualifies as an
“Act of Congress” in the sense in which that term is invariably used. We
would have to use the term “Act of Congress” in § 1658 in an entirely
idiosyncratic way in order to reach a contrary conclusion.

219 F.3d at 228, 228-30 (Alito, J., dissenting) (parallel citations omitted).

For the reasons set forth by the district court in Adams and by Judge Alito in his

Zubi dissent, we hold that § 1658 applies to claims brought under § 1981(b), but not to

claims brought under § 1981(a). Cf. Laurino, 220 F.3d at 1217-18 (holding that § 1658

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did not apply to § 1983 claims because post-1990 amendment to § 1983 “did not create a

cause of action”).

The next matter to resolve is identifying which, if any, of SPI’s claims arise under

§ 1981(a), and which, if any, arise under § 1981(b). The amended complaint does not set

forth distinct causes of action, but includes the general allegation that SPI has “been

denied contracts directly with Allstate and has been denied referrals by Allstate in any

fashion equal or comparable to non-minority vendors.” On appeal, SPI disclaims any

intent to bring claims based on Allstate’s conduct prior to entering into the QVP

agreements with SPI, explaining that “[w]hile [it] claimed (as part of its background

facts) that it had been denied entry into the QVP program until 1996 or 1997, SPI

expressly claimed that discrimination continued after SPI was placed on the QVP

program.” Characterizing its suit as one for post-formation conduct, SPI argues on appeal

that § 1658’s four-year limitations period governs the suit.

While there is no indication that any part of SPI’s suit is based on conduct

occurring prior to the formation of SPI’s contract with Allstate, SPI does challenge

Allstate’s conduct vis-a-vis SPI’s prospective contracts with Allstate’s insureds. SPI

couches this claim in the alternative. First, assuming that Allstate has a contractual

obligation to provide a pro rata share of referrals to SPI, SPI claims that Allstate’s

discriminatory refusal to comply with such contractual obligations violates § 1981(b).

Second, assuming that Allstate’s QVP program did not rise to the level of a contractual

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obligation to give referrals to SPI, SPI claims that the discriminatory referral of business

would be actionable under § 1981(a) because Allstate’s allegedly discriminatory referral

practice impeded SPI’s ability to make contracts with Allstate’s insureds.

The district court ruled that all of SPI’s “claims are based upon § 1981 as enacted

in 1870, and not on the 1991 amendments,” and thus “remain subject to Oklahoma’s two-

year statute of limitations.” For the reasons just discussed, this ruling is correct as applied

to SPI’s claims that do not rely on the existence of a contract between SPI and Allstate,

but not as applied to the claims grounded in such a contract. The former claims are

properly viewed as raising pre-formation conduct, while the latter raise post-formation

conduct.1 Oklahoma’s two-year limitations period applies to the pre-formation conduct

claims, which arise under § 1981(a), but § 1658’s four-year limitations period applies to

the post-formation conduct claims, which arise under § 1981(b).

The parties do not dispute that the discriminatory referral claims arose less than

four years prior to the filing of suit. Therefore, the discriminatory referral claim based

upon the alleged discriminatory performance by Allstate of its contract with SPI is timely

under § 1658. The discriminatory referral claim not based on a contract between SPI and

1
These “pre-formation” and “post-formation” labels do not refer to the chronology
of the conduct underlying the claims, as both claims arise from precisely the same
conduct – i.e., Allstate’s failure to provide SPI with referrals. Rather, the labels denote
the legal basis of the claims. The “post-formation” claim is grounded in Allstate’s failure
to carry out its existing contractual obligations with SPI, and the “pre-formation” claim is
grounded in Allstate’s failure to allow SPI to form contracts with the insureds without
regard to any alleged contract between SPI and Allstate.

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Allstate is untimely to the extent the referrals occurred more than two years before the

suit’s July 9, 1999 filing date.2

III. Discriminatory Referrals as a Violation of SPI’s Contract Rights

The district court concluded that Allstate was entitled to summary judgment on

SPI’s claim that the insurer violated SPI’s contract rights in a discriminatory manner by

giving it fewer referrals than it gave to non-minority participants in the QVP program.

The court found that SPI “has failed to produce sufficient evidence of a contractual

obligation between SPI and Allstate for Allstate to refer SPI a specific number or

proportionate share of Allstate’s mitigation claims each year.” We agree.

SPI co-owner Orlando Harris gave the following deposition testimony:

Q This vendor agreement that you – that you say that you signed
with Allstate, did it promise you a certain number of referrals
per year?

A No, sir.

Q Did it promise you to do any specific type of work?

A No, sir.

2
SPI is not entitled to pursue claims based on referrals occurring outside the
limitations period, as the continuing violation theory is not applicable to § 1981 claims.
Thomas, 111 F.3d at 1514. Determining the extent of the referrals occurring within the
limitations period is unnecessary in light of our disposition of the claims on their merits,
discussed below.

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Q Did it promise you any specific dollar volume of business?

A No, sir.

Q Okay. In fact, did it promise you any business at all?

A I would say it did.

Q All right. What business did it promise you?

A It promised me that when they have a – way I’m taking it and
reading it, when I have a fire, flood, or water, or smoke in one
our insureds, you will be one of the vendors that we would
recommend – that we would not recommend, but we would
dispatch to the customer’s home. So me, thinking that – hey,
if I’m – I don’t care if I was the tenth one. I’m thinking every
tenth claim, I’m getting a claim from Allstate.

Q Did they promise you that you would get every other –
promise you that it would be an equal rotation?

A The word “promise” – they told me that it was on a rotating
basis.

Q Did anyone ever promise you – they said – you know there
was three vendors at that time; right?

A (Witness nods head up and down).

Q Did anyone ever say you will get every third call?

A No.

Q Okay.

A That’s my stupidity of what I expected, when you say a
rotating basis.

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SPI argues that this testimony was sufficient to foreclose summary judgment. It argues

that, viewed in the light in the most favorable to SPI, “[a] jury may fairly infer, as did Mr.

Harris, that a promise of referrals on a rotating basis, is a promise of even referrals.”

The parol evidence rule renders Harris’s testimony ineffective to contradict the

QVP form’s written language. Because this is a federal question case, “federal law

governs the applicability of the parol evidence rule.” United States v. Jacobs, 304 F.

Supp. 613, 619 (S.D.N.Y. 1969). Under the federal common law’s version of the parol

evidence rule, “[e]vidence of a collateral agreement may be admitted if (1) it does not

contradict a clear and unambiguous provision of a written agreement, and (2) the parties

did not intend the written agreement to be the complete and exclusive statement of their

agreement.” United States v. Triple A Mach. Shop, Inc., 857 F.2d 579, 585 (9th Cir.

1988); see also United States v. Waterman S.S. Corp., 397 F.2d 577, 579 (5th Cir. 1968)

(“Where the terms of the contract are unambiguous[,] the determination of its meaning is

a question of law and should be decided without resort to extrinsic evidence.”).

As noted above, the QVP form signed by SPI stated, “We [Allstate] have no

obligation to refer customers to this particular vendor.” SPI may not negate this

unambiguous provision with Harris’s testimony that someone at Allstate promised him

that referrals would be rotated among the vendors. Because the terms of the QVP form

govern, SPI’s claim based on a contractual right to referrals fails.

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IV. Discriminatory Referrals Apart from Contract

SPI argues that, even if its contract-based claim fails, its suit should have survived

summary judgment based on a pure discriminatory referral theory. That is, SPI argues

that § 1981 bars a party (Allstate) from discriminating on the basis of race when it makes

referrals which lead to contracts between the referred party (SPI) and third parties

(Allstate’s insureds).3 In light of the standards set forth by courts addressing this theory

of liability, the district court found that the evidence in this case did not support such a

§ 1981 claim, and we agree.

In Phelps v. Wichita Eagle-Beacon, 886 F.2d 1262 (10th Cir. 1989), the defendant

newspaper ran a story about Phelps. Phelps sued the newspaper, alleging, inter alia, that

the story (which Phelps viewed as hostile) “interfered with his ‘prospective business

opportunities’” in violation of § 1981. Id. at 1267. We rejected this claim with the

following explanation:

[W]e find that vague and conclusory allegation insufficient to state a
deprivation of the right to make and enforce contracts that is protected by
Section 1981. Plaintiff has the same right as others to enter into contracts with
those who wish to contract with him. Even if the state [sic] has defamed him
and thus arguably made him less attractive to some who otherwise might want
to contract with him, the defamation does not deny him the basic right to
contract.

3
As discussed above, claims based on discriminatory referrals occurring more than
two years before suit was filed are time-barred.

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Id. (citation to Patterson omitted). Although Phelps pre-dates the Civil Rights Act of

1991, we recently have cited Phelps for the proposition that “a § 1981 claim for

interference with the right to make and enforce a contract must involve the actual loss of

a contract interest, not merely the possible loss of future contract opportunities.”

Hampton v. Dillard Dep’t Stores, Inc., 247 F.3d 1091, 1104 (10th Cir. 2001) (internal

quotation marks omitted).

Two years after Phelps, the Seventh Circuit decided Daniels v. Pipefitters’ Ass’n

Local Union No. 597, 945 F.2d 906 (7th Cir. 1991). The defendant union operated a job

referral service pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement. Employers who needed

welders or pipefitters would call the union to inform the union of its labor needs, and the

union would refer the members. The “job referral system was an important source of

jobs. Some contractors, including . . . the largest contractor in the area, made a practice

of hiring only those workers referred from the” union. Id. at 911. Because “Local 597’s

job referral service was the primary mechanism through which contractors hired union

employees,” the court concluded that “[i]n essence, no referral meant no job and no

opportunity for union members to enter into employment contracts with employers.” Id.

at 914. Daniels was an African-American member of Local 597 who alleged that the

union racially discriminated against its African-American members in making referrals in

violation of § 1981.

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 The union appealed from a jury verdict in Daniels’s favor, arguing that it did not

interfere with Daniels’s right to make contracts because its “referral service was nothing

more than a mechanism to encourage union members to find employment.” Id.

Alternatively, the defendant argued that “[o]bstructing someone’s right to contract with

others is . . . unactionable under § 1981.” Id. (emphasis added). The court rejected both

of these arguments:

This kind of race-based impediment to contract formation constitutes exactly
the sort of racially discriminatory interference with the right to contract that
remains actionable under § 1981. To hold otherwise would impose a sort of
§ 1981 privity of contract requirement that would effectively protect third
parties such as labor unions from § 1981 liability.

. . . . Local 597 is not an unrelated third party whose interference with the
contract bears an attenuated or haphazard connection to contracting between
its members and the employer. On the contrary, Local 597 is the necessary
intermediary and conduit connecting job opportunities to job referrals.

Id. at 914-15.

Three district court opinions also offer insight on this issue. In Vakharia v.

Swedish Covenant Hospital, 765 F. Supp. 461 (N.D. Ill. 1991), Vakharia was a doctor

who alleged that the defendant hospital violated § 1981 when it interfered with her ability

to contract with patients by limiting the number of patients she could see, removing her

from a “first call” schedule, and ultimately suspending her. Id. at 471. The court stated

that § 1981 prohibits “discriminatory interference by a third party with the exercise of the

right to make contracts.” Id. The court concluded that the alleged interferences (e.g.,

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limiting the number of patients) “all seem to fall easily within the rubric of proscribed

conduct” and allowed Vakharia’s § 1981 claim to proceed. Id. at 471-72.

In Morrison v. American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Inc., 908 F. Supp. 582

(N.D. Ill. 1996), the defendant board was responsible for certifying psychiatrists such as

Morrison. Morrison alleged that certification “is a large, if not the primary factor which

patients consider and many hospitals require in choosing or hiring a physician.” Id. at

583 (internal quotation marks omitted). The board argued that this allegation was

insufficient because “Morrison has not alleged that Board has interfered with her efforts

to make a specific contract, as contrasted with assertions of ‘lost economic opportunities’

that are too speculative to be recognized under Section 1981,” and because “Board does

not have the kind of ‘active control’ over Morrison’s ability to contract that is needed to

call Section 1981 into play.” Id. at 587. The court rejected these arguments and upheld

Morrison’s claim. “Morrison has alleged more than abstract or pie-in-the-sky lost

economic opportunities. She says expressly that without Board certification she will

suffer the identifiable harm of being unable to contract with the many medical facilities

that require Board certification.” Id. at 588. The court distinguished Phelps as involving

a “speculative assertion” that “contrasts sharply with the Morrison allegations that . . .

many medical facilities and private patients make Board certification a prerequisite to

employment.” Id.

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 Finally, in Shirkey v. Eastwind Community Development Corp., 941 F. Supp. 567

(D. Md. 1996), Shirkey challenged his non-hiring for a position under § 1981. In addition

to suing the non-profit employer, he also sued the church organization that ran the non-

profit and allegedly promulgated the discriminatory policy. The church argued that it

could not be sued under § 1981 because it was not Shirkey’s employer. Citing Daniels

and Vakharia, the court noted that interference with third-party contracting is actionable

under § 1981. Id. at 573. Because the church formulated the policy that resulted in

Shirkey’s non-hiring, it “cannot credibly claim an attenuated and distant relationship

between” its actions and the hiring decision. Id. at 573-74.

In the case at hand, the district court rejected SPI’s argument on the following

basis:

[T]he Court finds Daniels [discussed above] to be inapplicable.

In Daniels, the union’s job referral service was described as the
“necessary intermediary and conduit connecting job opportunities to job
referrals.” In this case, there has been no evidence presented that being placed
on the QVP list was a necessary requirement for SPI in order to enter into
contracts with Allstate’s customers/insureds. In fact, plaintiff admits that from
1990 to the present, it received approximately two (2) to ten (10) referrals per
year from the Allstate claims office. This statistic includes the years prior to
1996, when it is undisputed that plaintiff was not on the QVP list.

Accordingly, the court finds the cases offered in support of plaintiff’s
assertion that its claim is still actionable even without the existence of a
contract or contractual right, to be factually and materially distinguishable.
See Daniels, 94 F.2d at 914 (finding that “in essence, no referral meant no job
and no opportunity for union members to enter into employment contracts with
employers”); Morrison v. Am. Bd. of Psychiatry & Neurology, Inc., 908 F.
Supp. 582 (N.D. Ill. 1996) (section 1981 claim was supported by allegation

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 that Board discriminated against plaintiff based on her race by denying board
certification which was required in order to practice psychiatry with many
medical facilities); Vakharia, 765 F.Supp. at 472 (finding that plaintiff was
only able to obtain patients through assignment by Hospital and referral by
staff surgeons). Thus, viewing the facts and evidence in the light most
favorable to plaintiff, the Court finds that Allstate was not in a position to
interfere with plaintiff’s ability to enter into new contracts as would support
a claim under § 1981.

We agree with the district court that SPI has failed to present a claim under § 1981.

Relief is available under § 1981 where a party discriminatorily uses its authority to

preclude an individual from securing a contract with a third party. However, this requires

the individual to show that the party both possessed sufficient authority to significantly

interfere with the individual’s ability to obtain contracts with third parties, and that the

party actually exercised that authority to the individual’s detriment. We believe SPI falls

short in both respects. SPI’s complaint is only that it did not always receive the benefit of

referrals by Allstate, but § 1981 does not support such a claim.

CONCLUSION

The district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Allstate is

AFFIRMED.

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