Full opinion text
ORDER GRANTING IN PART DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS AND GRANTING DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO SEVER WILSON, District Judge. I. INTRODUCTION This action is brought under the Age Discrimination Employment Act (“ADEA”), California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”), and New York State’s Human Rights Law (“NYHRL”), as well as the Labor Management Relations Act (“LMRA”) and common law claims. Plaintiffs, 51 individual television writers, allege that they have been the victims of an industry-wide “pattern or practice” of age discrimination, perpetrated by Defendants, 50 separate entities in the television industry, ranging from broadcasting companies to talent agencies. Pursuant to this Court’s request that the parties attempt to consolidate their briefings, the 40 network and studio defendants (“Employer Defendants”) and the 11 talent agency defendants (“Agency Defendants”) have each filed consolidated motions to dismiss, and, in the alternative, to sever both Plaintiffs and Defendants as improperly joined, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6), 20, and 21. Defendant Studios USA has joined Employer Defendants and Agency Defendants in their motions to dismiss and sever, but has brought a separate motion to dismiss on grounds unique to Studios USA. For the reasons set forth below, the Court grants in part Employer Defendants’ and Agency Defendants’ motions to dismiss, grants Employer Defendants’ and Agency Defendants’ motions to sever, and grants Studio USA’s motion to dismiss. II. STATEMENT OF FACTS Plaintiffs consist of 50 former or current writers for television programming, who all claim to be members of the Writers Guild of America (the “Guild”). Plaintiffs reside in various states and Canada, although a majority of Plaintiffs reside in California. They range in age from early forties to late seventies. Each Plaintiff alleges a different background in terms of qualifications and experience. They each claim to have written for different television programs, which run the gamut from comedies to dramas to westerns to children’s shows. Some Plaintiffs have written for one or two programs, while others have written for a multitude of programs. Some Plaintiffs claimed to have had work as recently as 1999, while others have allegedly not obtained work since the early 1980s. There are Plaintiffs that allegedly have won awards for their work, while many others make no such allegations. Plaintiffs each allege that they have been a victim of a pattern or practice of age discrimination in the television industry. However, not one Plaintiff has alleged that he or she applied for a specific writing position available with a specific Defendant. Instead, most claim to have “made efforts” to obtain employment with certain Employer Defendants, and claim to have “sought, without success, to obtain representation” from certain Agency Defendants. See, e.g., Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint (“FAC”), at ¶¶ 110— 11, 137-38, 237-38. Many of these alleged efforts had manifested in different ways. Some Plaintiffs only sought to contact Employer Defendants via Agency Defendants, while others used direct contacts. Some Plaintiffs claim to have obtained agents, while some others claim to have lost their agents. Some Plaintiffs have apparently not contacted any Employer Defendants at all, either directly or indirectly. According to Plaintiffs’ complaint, the 51 Defendants consist of 40 Employer Defendants and 11 Agency Defendants. The Employer Defendants consists of entities in the television industry that employ writers of television programming in any of three capacities: “staff writer,” “freelance writer” and “show runner.” The Employer Defendants are subdivided into two subgroups, Studio Defendants and Network Defendants. The Studio Defendants, according to the complaint, have been in the business of developing, producing, and/or distributing television programming for broadcast on the various networks. The Network Defendants, Plaintiffs allege, have been principally in the business of broadcasting television programming via a network of affiliated television stations, and, in certain instances, have also been involved in the business of producing such programming. Plaintiffs further assert that most Employer Defendants are part of larger corporate families (termed by Plaintiffs as “Employer Defendant Families”), which have parent corporations known in this case as Parent Defendants. Plaintiffs claim that all Employer Defendants are bound by the terms of the Theatrical and Television Basic Agreement with the Guild (the “Collective Bargaining Agreement” or “CBA”). Plaintiffs identify the Agency Defendants as entities in the television industry that operate or have operated a talent agency. In the regular course of business, Agency Defendants represent television writers and refer or recommend such writers to employers, such as Employer Defendants, for employment and/or employment opportunities. According to Plaintiffs, since at least the early 1980s, virtually every major studio, network and talent agency in Hollywood has engaged in a systematic pattern or practice of age discrimination against television writers. Plaintiffs seek to certify two umbrella classes consisting of (1) all television writers who have been denied employment by, and/or been deterred from seeking employment with, one or more of the Employer Defendants because of their ageist hiring practices, and (2) all television writers who have been denied representation and employment referral by, and/or been deterred from seeking representation from, one or more of the Agency Defendants because of their ageist representation and referral practices. Plaintiffs also seek to join all Defendants into a single action. Plaintiffs claim that “[b]y virtue of their having contributed to the industry-wide practice of age discrimination, the conduct of each of the Defendants has been a substantial factor in causing indivisible injury to each class member who was discouraged from seeking employment as a result of that practice.” FAC, at ¶ 14. Furthermore, “numerous linkages among all of the Defendants bind them together and make them responsible, both as a factual and legal matter, for the discriminatory practices of other Defendants. In view of these linkages, all such Defendants should be joined in a single action to ensure the efficient adjudication of common issues and a final and comprehensive resolution of the controversy.” FAC, at ¶ 16. Plaintiffs’ First Cause of Action alleges that Employer and Agency Defendants have violated § 623 of the ADEA (29 U.S.C. § 623), §§ 12940 and 12941 of the FEHA (Cal. Gov’t Code §§ 12940 and 12941), and § 296 of the NYHRL (N.Y. Exec. Law § 296). Plaintiffs’ Second Cause of Action alleges that Agency Defendants have aided and abetted Employer Defendants in willful violation of § 623 of the ADEA, § 12940 of the FEHA, and § 296 of the NYHRL. It also alleges that Employer Defendants aided and abetted Agency Defendants, Network Defendants aided and abetted Studio Defendants, and Parent Defendants aided and abbetted their subsidiaries, in willful violation of § 12940 of the FEHA, and § 296 of the NYHRL. Plaintiffs’ Third Cause of Action alleges that each member of each of the Employer Defendant Families conspired with one another to violate § 12940 of the FEHA and § 296 of the NYHRL. Plaintiffs’ Fourth Cause of Action alleges that each Employer Defendant breached the CBA and, hence, is in violation of § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA) (29 U.S.C. § 185). Finally, Plaintiffs’ Fifth Cause of Action alleges that Agency Defendants tortiously interfered with Employer Defendants’ obligations under the CBA, Network Defendants tortiously interfered with Studio Defendants’ obligations under the CBA, and Parent Defendants tortiously interfered with their subsidiaries’ obligations under the CBA. III. FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION: AGE DISCRIMINATION (ADEA, FEHA, NYHRL) A. TIMELINESS OF COMPLAINT It is undisputed ■ that Plaintiffs in this ADEA action must file a charge with the EEOC within at least 300 days of the alleged unlawful discrimination. See 29 U.S.C. § 626(d). The Ninth Circuit “treats this notice requirement as a statute of limitations.” Pejie v. Hughes Helicopters, Inc., 840 F.2d 667, 674-75 (9th Cir. 1988). Furthermore, as numerous courts have suggested, a purported class action will be dismissed unless at least one class member has filed a timely administrative charge of discrimination. See, e.g., Mooney v. Aramco Servs. Co., 54 F.3d 1207, 1223 (5th Cir.1995) (noting that the “piggybacking” rule allows a plaintiff who has not filed a timely EEOC charge in an ADEA class action to join a plaintiff who has filed the required administrative charge). Here, Agency Defendants claim that Plaintiffs’ action is time-barred, because, according to Defendants, no Plaintiff has alleged facts, either in the present complaint or in their respective EEOC charges, to support a claim that he or she sought representation from any specific Agency Defendant within the requisite time period, which is 300 days prior to the filing of the EEOC charge. Instead, Plaintiffs’ EEOC charges allege only that they were deterred from seeking representation during that limitation period. The Ninth Circuit has held that when a class of plaintiffs are alleging a continuing violation of a discriminatory practice, as is the case here, “each class member must demonstrate, by fact of employment or otherwise, that he or she had been discriminated against during the limitation period or was a member of a group exposed to discrimination during that time.” Domingo v. New England Fish Co., 727 F.2d 1429, 1443 (9th Cir.1984) (emphasis added). By alleging that they were deterred from applying because of Defendants’ allegedly ageist hiring or referral policies occurring during the limitations period, that is a legitimate allegation of discrimination, and thus satisfies the requirements for timeliness. “[Plaintiffs’ charges are timely if they were subject to and affected by a continuing discriminatory policy during the charge-filing period. If a plaintiff is subject to a continuing policy of discrimination, it does not matter when the plaintiff first learned of that policy as long as she was subject to the policy and affected by it within the charge-filing period.” Sandoval v. Saticoy Lemon Ass’n, No. 88-2257, 1989 WL 407330 at *3, 56 F.E.P. Cas. (BNA) 1745 (C.D.Cal. May 23, 1989). Furthermore, as stated in their complaint, “Plaintiffs have, during the liability period, sought, and/or been deterred from seeking, representation from Agency Defendants, as a result of their discriminatory representation and employment referral policies or practices.” FAC, at ¶ 400. Agency Defendants argue primarily that such a deterrence theory is available only in the most dire of employment situations, which does not appear to be the case here, based on the facts as Plaintiffs have alleged them. While it is true, as discussed in detail below, that a deterred applicant theory is not available in every case that alleges a “pattern or practice” of discrimination, the Court at this time declines to make a dispositive ruling on its availability to Plaintiffs. Thus, for the purposes of the timeliness contention, the Court will assume that the deterred applicant theory is properly pled, and only determine whether it was brought within the requisite time period. Since Plaintiffs have alleged that they have either sought or were deterred from seeking representation or employment from Defendants during the limitations period, their claims under the ADEA are not time-barred under the appropriate Rule 12(b)(6) standards. Additionally, because state and federal anti-discrimination laws are often quite similar, courts regularly look to applicable federal precedent when applying state anti-discrimination statutes. See, e.g., Guz v. Bechtel Nat’l, Inc., 24 Cal.4th 317, 354, 100 Cal.Rptr.2d 352, 8 P.3d 1089 (2000). Here, since there appears to be no state precedent differing on the subject, Plaintiffs claims under the FEHA and the NYHRL are also deemed timely. B. JOINDER Under Fed.R.Civ.P. 20(a), Plaintiffs seek to join 50 individual television writers in a single action against 40 Employer Defendants, subdivided into Studio Defendants, Network Defendants, and Parent Defendants, although not exclusively, as well as 11 Agency Defendants, including one employer that Plaintiffs are apparently suing as an Employer Defendant but which also operates as a talent agency. 1. Joinder of Defendants Fed.R.Civ.P. 20(a) allows for joinder of defendants in a single action “if there is asserted against them jointly, severally, or in the alternative, any right to relief in respect of or arising out of the same transaction, occurrence, or series of transactions or occurrences, and if any question of law or fact common to all defendants will arise in the action.” Thus, a party seeking joinder must assert (1) a right to relief based on the same transaction or occurrence, and (2) a common question of law or fact with respect to all parties. See Desert Empire Bank v. Insurance Co. of No. America, 623 F.2d 1371, 1375 (9th Cir.1980); Nassau Co. Ass’n of Ins. Agents v. Aetna Life & Cas. Co., 497 F.2d 1151, 1154 (2d Cir.1974); see also 7 Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller, & Mary Kay Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure, § 1653 (3d ed.2001). These requirements must be satisfied in order to allow for joinder under Rule 20(a), however, even if these requirements are satisfied, there is no requirement that the parties must be joined. “Rule 20(a) is permissive in character; joinder in situations falling within the rule’s standard is not required ...” 7 Wright, Miller, & Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure, § 1652, at 395-96. Moreover, Rule 20(b) and Rule 21 require the trial court to “examine the other relevant factors in a case in order to determine whether the permissive joinder of a party will comport with the principle of fundamental fairness.” Desert Bank, 623 F.2d at 1375. “A determination on the question of joinder of parties lies within the discretion of the district court.” Puricelli v. CNA Insurance Co., 185 F.R.D. 139, 142 (N.D.N.Y. 1999) (citing Mosley v. General Motors Corp., 497 F.2d 1330, 1332 (8th Cir.1974)). a. Same Transaction or Occurrence Plaintiffs assert that the requirements for permissive joinder are satisfied because they are alleging an industry-wide “pattern or practice” of -discrimination. Therefore, according to Plaintiffs, all Defendants are jointly responsible for this practice and thus should be joined together for the purposes of relief. Notwithstanding their contention, Plaintiffs have not properly satisfied the first prong of Rule 20(a), requiring the right to relief to arise out of the same transaction or occurrence. As understood from Plaintiffs’ complaint, Defendants are 51 separate entities, each with distinct hiring and firing practices, and with a multitude of separate individuals in charge of determining these practices for each of the separate entities. Plaintiffs are 50 individuals, some of whom have worked for a few of the employers, some of whom have barely worked for any of the employers, some of whom have applied to work for many of the employers, and some of whom have not applied to work for any of the employers. The mere assertion that because these employers and talent agencies are members of a common industry is not sufficient to satisfy the requirement that the right to relief against all Defendants arises out of the same transaction or occurrence. Plaintiffs do not contend that every Defendant is involved in every other Defendant’s hiring and firing decisions, yet they still contend that the employers should be joined because of an industry-wide pattern and practice of age discrimination in the hiring of television writers. Such a “pattern-or-practice” claim is modeled on the Supreme Court’s decision in International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977). As discussed further below, at the initial stage of a “pattern-or-praetice” claim, the burden is on the plaintiff to establish a prima facie case that a discriminatory policy existed. Id. at 360, 97 S.Ct. at 1867. However, nowhere in that case does it suggest that a plaintiff or group of plaintiffs may proceed without being able to identify a collective or controlling entity (either formal or informal) from which this industry-wide discriminatory policy could originate. Even when construing all factual allegations in favor of Plaintiffs and assuming Plaintiffs can successfully allege a discriminatory “pattern- or-practice” against each Defendant individually, there is still no rationale behind requiring all Defendants to defend each other collectively. In one attempt to demonstrate the validity of this collective “pattern-or-practice” claim, Plaintiffs submitted a diagram of boxes, circles, squares, and triangles connected by an inordinate and indecipherable configuration of “squiggly” lines, attached to the heading, “The Defendants are Inextricably Intertwined in the Hiring Process (simplified illustration).” See Plaintiffs’ Consolidated Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Opposition to All Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss and to Sever (“Plaintiffs’ Opp’n”), Appendix B. This offers absolutely no guidance in demonstrating why 51 separate hiring entities should be joined to defend against what the Plaintiffs claim is a uniform hiring practice. In fact, Plaintiffs have failed to cite— and this Court has not found — a single authority in which a plaintiff was permitted to join separate employers in an industry, for any reason, much less based solely on their classification as an employer in the industry. Nevertheless, Plaintiffs argue that “[t]he extent and complexity of these linkages [between the talent agencies, studios, networks, and corporate parents] make it impracticable to confront and remedy the challenged hiring and referral practices without the presence of all Defendants. The Supreme Court itself has recognized as much in a context not at all dissimilar to that in which this case arises.” Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 55-56. The Supreme Court decision to which Plaintiffs refer is United States v. Mississippi, 380 U.S. 128, 85 S.Ct. 808, 13 L.Ed.2d 717 (1965), where the Supreme Court was faced with a complaint charging that the State of Mississippi and its election officials had, for 75 years, “been writing and adopting constitutional provisions, statutes, rules, and regulations, and have been engaging in discriminatory practices, all designed to keep the number of white voters at the highest possible figure and the number of colored voters at the lowest.” Id. at 143, 85 S.Ct. at 816. The defendants joined were state election commissioners and county voting registrars who, acting in concert, drafted and administered “the various tests applied to [voting] applicants for registration [to vote].” Id. at 141, 85 S.Ct. at 815. The Court held that joinder of all defendants in one action was authorized by Rule 20(a), insofar as the complaint alleged facts showing that election officials acted and continued to act as part of a state-wide system designed to “deprive colored people the right to vote solely because of their color.” Id. at 142, 85 S.Ct. at 815-16. In that case, and in the other voting rights case cited by Plaintiffs, the various counties, agents and officials who carried out the state’s agenda to depress or deprive individuals of their constitutional right to vote were joined. Plaintiffs’ attempt to analogize U.S. v. Mississippi with the present case is unpersuasive. Mississippi involved a clear nexus between all of the discriminating individuals that justified joining all of the parties into a single case, namely, a statewide discriminatory voting registration law that each county enforced as an instrumentality of the state. It is precisely this sort of uniform policy-maker — the State of Mississippi — that Plaintiffs are lacking in the present case. In another non-employment case, Nassau County Ass’n of Ins. Agents v. Aetna Life & Casualty Co., 497 F.2d 1151 (2d Cir.1974), the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal on the basis of misjoinder of an áetion joining 164 defendant insurers who allegedly terminated their relationships with plaintiff insurance agents for unlawful reasons. Despite the plaintiffs’ allegations of identical wrongdoing by each defendant, the court found no right to relief arising from the same transaction or series of transactions, because the defendants’ actions “were separate and unrelated, with terminations occurring at different times for different reasons with regard to different agents.” Id. at 1154. Here, Plaintiffs’ attempt to join all of the Employer and Agency Defendants is similar to the above case in that each Employer and Agency Defendant made hiring/representation decisions at different times, for different reasons, with regard to different individuals with different qualifications. Plaintiffs attempt to side-step this clear obstacle to joinder by sub-dividing the Defendants. They claim that Agency Defendants control who is employed by Employer Defendants, Network Defendants control Studio Defendants, and Parent Defendants control their subsidiaries (or Subsidiary Defendants). Thus, ipso facto, every individual Defendant must defend itself against alleged discriminatory hiring decisions made by 50 other Defendants, over many of whom that individual Defendant exercises absolutely no control. Plaintiffs’ allegation that all Employer Defendants will consider only those individuals referred by Agency Defendants is undermined by Plaintiffs’ own admission that some Plaintiffs have managed to secure employment and interviews through their own independent efforts. See, e.g., FAC, at ¶¶ 153, 175, 263. Furthermore, even if, as Plaintiffs contend, networks participate in hiring decisions by virtue of licensing agreements with studios, nowhere do Plaintiffs contend that every studio has such an agreement with every network. Therefore, one network’s agreement with one studio does not, by implication, satisfy the same transaction or occurrence requirement with respect to a completely separate network’s agreement with a different studio. Simply lumping all networks into one group and all studios into another group does not make all of their actions interdependent. Similarly, while Plaintiffs may successfully argue that a parent company influences its own subsidiary, this does not imply that one parent company would influence a subsidiary of another parent company. Nevertheless, that is exactly what Plaintiffs are attempting to demonstrate as a justification for this joinder. Despite Plaintiffs’ attempt to obscure the underlying issue through charts and sub-divisions, there are no allegations of ah actual concert of action among all of the Defendants to unite in a discriminatory hiring scheme. Plaintiffs’ allegations that joinder is warranted merely because each Defendant’s (or some sub-group of Defendants’) autonomous hiring decisions, when taken together, comprise an industry-wide discriminatory practice, has no basis in law. b. Common Question of Law or Fact Plaintiffs also fail to demonstrate that a common question of law or fact exists among all of the many Defendants. While it is true that Plaintiffs have alleged claims against Defendants based on the same general theory of law, this is not a sufficient ground to find that their claims raise common legal or factual questions. See Martinez v. Safeway Stores, Inc., 66 F.R.D. 446, 449 (N.D.Cal.1975); Smith v. North Am. Rockwell Corp., 50 F.R.D. 515, 524 (N.D.Okla.1970); accord Bailey v. Northern Trust Co., 196 F.R.D. 513, 517 (N.D.Ill.2000). In the same vein as their failed showing of a same transaction or occurrence, Plaintiffs attempt to show that a common question exists as to all parties by virtue of an industry-wide hiring practice. Just as before, Plaintiffs have not identified a single authority where joinder was permitted on these grounds, and have not identified in the complaint a general oversight body— formal or informal — from where this industry-wide policy-making could have originated. Thus, Plaintiffs have failed to satisfy the requirements for permissive joinder of Defendants under Rule 20(a). 2. Joinder of Plaintiffs a. Class Action In addition to permissive joinder (discussed further below), Plaintiffs attempt to combine their efforts through the process of a class action. The class action format under the ADEA is not guided by Fed.R.Civ.P. 23, however. Instead, the ADEA, in 29 U.S.C. § 626(b), incorporates the standards of § 16(b) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S.C. § 216(b)) and expressly authorizes employees to bring collective age discrimination actions “in behalf of themselves and other employees similarly situated.” Hoffman-La Roche v. Sperling, 493 U.S. 165, 170, 110 S.Ct. 482, 486, 107 L.Ed.2d 480 (1989) (quoting § 216(b)); see also Kimel v. Florida Bd. of Regents, 528 U.S. 62, 74, 120 S.Ct. 631, 641, 145 L.Ed.2d 522 (2000). In contrast to Fed.R.Civ.P. 23, which contains an “opt-out” provision, the FLSA contains an “opt-in’’ provision that prohibits any employee from being “a party plaintiff to any such action unless he gives his consent in writing to become such a party and such consent is filed in the court in which such action is brought.” 29 U.S.C. § 216(b). Therefore, in order for such an “opt-in” procedure — and the class action as a whole — to be permissible, the Court must determine whether Plaintiffs are similarly-situated to each other and to other individuals. “The relevant statutes and caselaw do not prescribe clear rules for determining whether putative class members are similarly situated. In general, however, courts appear to require nothing more than substantial allegations that the putative class members were together the victims of a single decision, policy, or plan infected by discrimination.” Sperling v. Hoffman-LaRoche, Inc., 118 F.R.D. 392, 407 (D.N.J.1988), affd in part on other grounds and appeal dismissed in part on other grounds, 862 F.2d 439 (3d Cir.1988), aff'd and remanded on other grounds, 493 U.S. 165, 110 S.Ct. 482, 107 L.Ed.2d 480 (1989). “A determination of whether proposed class members are ‘similarly situated’ is a fact-specific one.” Pines v. State Farm Gen. Ins. Co., No. CV SA 89-631, 1992 WL 92398 at *7 (C.D.Cal. Feb.25, 1992). Recent circuit court decisions have held that the “similarly situated” requirement is more elastic and less stringent than that for joinder under Rule 20(a). Hipp v. Liberty National Life Ins. Co., 252 F.3d 1208, 1219 (11th Cir.2001) (quoting Grayson v. K-Mart Corp., 79 F.3d 1086, 1095 (11th Cir.1996)). “[Plaintiffs bear the burden of demonstrating a reasonable basis for their claim of class-wide discrimination. The plaintiffs may meet this burden, which is not heavy, by making substantial allegations of class-wide discrimination, that is, detailed allegations supported by affidavits which successfully engage defendants’ affidavits to the contrary.” Hipp, 252 F.3d at 1219. In making the determination of whether plaintiffs are “similarly situated,” various approaches have been suggested. See Thiessen v. General Electric Capital Corp; 267 F.3d 1095, 1102-03 (10th Cir.2001) (discussing three possible approaches to the “similarly situated” analysis). However, it appears that the majority of courts prefer the ad hoc, two-tiered approach, as described in Mooney v. Aramco Servs. Co., supra, and Lusardi v. Xerox Corp., 118 F.R.D. 351 (D.N.J. 1987). See, e.g., Hipp, 252 F.3d at 1218-19 (“The two-tiered approach to certification of § 216(b) opt-in classes ... appears to be an effective tool for district courts to use in managing these often complex cases, and we suggest that district courts in this circuit adopt it in future cases.”); Bayles v. American Med. Response of Colo., Inc., 950 F.Supp. 1053, 1067 (D.Colo.1996) (“To the extent that [different approaches yield different results], I would apply the Lusardi approach, which affords flexibility in weighing concerns for judicial economy against unfair prejudice to a defendant tempered by the remedial purposes of the FLSA.”). Under this approach, the district court makes two determinations, on an ad hoc, case-by-case basis. At the first determination, called the “notice stage,” the court makes a decision based on the pleadings and any affidavits that have been submitted, as to whether the class should be certified. Due to the minimal evidence at the court’s disposal, this determination is made based on a fairly lenient standard, and typically results in a “conditional certification” of a representative class. Mooney, 54 F.3d at 1213-14. The second determination is made after discovery is largely complete, usually on a motion for decertification by the defendant. There, the court weighs various factors in making a factual determination as to whether the plaintiffs are similarly situated. Id. In Lusardi, an ADEA class action was brought against the defendant in connection with various work force reductions. While noting the lack of authority on the subject of similarly-situated plaintiffs, the court recognized that the only similarities between the plaintiffs were that they were all present or former employees of Xerox, and were all alleging violations of the ADEA. Lusardi, 118 F.R.D. at 359. Thus, the court concluded that the class should be decertified because of, among other reasons, (1) the disparate factual and employment settings of the individual plaintiffs, (2) the various defenses available to the defendant which appeared to be individual to each plaintiff, and (3) fairness and procedural considerations. Id. In Stone v. First Union Corp., 203 F.R.D. 532, 542-43 (S.D.Fla.2001), the court reviewed the factors used in various cases utilizing the two-tiered system. In Grayson and Hipp, the following factors were used: (1) whether the plaintiffs all held the same job titles; (2) whether the plaintiffs worked in different geographical locations; (3) the extent to which the claimed discrimination occurs during different time periods and by different decision-makers; (4) whether plaintiffs have provided “statistically significant” evidence of age discrimination; (5) whether the plaintiffs all alleged similar, though not identical, discriminatory treatment; (6) whether the plaintiffs have sufficiently pled and supported by affidavits, depositions, and the like that defendant’s decision-makers have articulated and manifested a clear intent to purge the defendant of older employees; and (7) whether the defendant took steps to implement its plan, such as by targeting older employees for criticism and building a “paper trail” that would be grounds for their demotion. In examining the facts of Stone, the court made these observations: The proposed opt-in class mixes employees with different job titles and from all levels of the organization; includes individuals employed within different divisions of the bank; includes individuals who assert a variety of claims, many of which have not been asserted by the representative Plaintiff; and fails to provide evidence of the application of an overriding discriminatory policy, practice, or procedure. Taken as a whole, the factors set forth above ... weigh heavily in favor of decertifying the subject class. Stone, 203 F.R.D. at 543. In Hyman v. First Union Corp., 982 F.Supp. 1 (D.D.C.1997), the court looked at the following factors in its decision to certify the class: (1) the alleged activities of the defendant; (2) the similarities among the members of the proposed collective action; and (3) the extent to which members of the proposed action will rely on common evidence to prove the alleged discrimination. Id. at 3-5. Before analyzing the present case under the standards set forth in the cases cited above (while keeping in mind the early stage of this proceeding), two significant differences must be recognized. First, all of the above cases involve a common employer. As mentioned several times previously, Plaintiffs in this case are instead attempting an unprecedented move of combining the decisions of several loosely-related entities, under an umbrella of a common industry-wide practice. Second, Plaintiffs in this case are attempting to proceed under a “pattern-or-practiee” claim, not an individualized discrimination claim. The recent decision in Thiessen v. General Electric Capital Corp., supra, recognized this important distinction. “[T]he order and allocation of proof, as well as the overall nature of the trial proceedings, in a pattern-or-practice case differ dramatically from a case involving only individual claims of discrimination.” Id., 267 F.3d at 1106. In its decision to decertify the class, the district court looked at the following factors ■ in the second stage of the two-tiered approach: (1) whether a sufficient link existed between the alleged discriminatory policy and the challenged employment decisions; (2) whether individual issues would predominate at trial; and (3) whether a trial of the action could be coherently managed and evidence presented in a manner that would not confuse the jury or unduly prejudice any party. Id. at 1103. The Tenth Circuit found that the district court’s failure to account for the pattern- or-practice nature of the plaintiffs’ claim, when analyzing the claim under the above factors, amounted to an abuse of discretion. Although plaintiffs in that case may not have been “similarly situated” under a typical discrimination claim, they were “similarly situated” under a “pattern-or-practice” claim. Id. at 1107-08. Nevertheless, the court concluded, “We do not hold that whenever there is evidence of a pattern-or-practice, a class must be certified. Whether certification or decertification is appropriate depends upon application of the factors we have identified in the ad hoc approach.” Id- at 1108. In light of this Court’s decision not to allow joinder of the various Defendants, it becomes difficult to analyze properly the efficacy of Plaintiffs’ class certification. Given the lenient burden at the current “notice” stage, it would appear that Plaintiffs have done all that is required of them up to this point. Were they to proceed in a class action against any one employer, under a “pattern-or-practice” claim against that particular employer,- the class would most likely be conditionally certified at this point, or at some point later in the proceedings. However, Plaintiffs have not chosen to state a claim challenging the employment practices of any one particular employer (or talent agency), but instead have chosen to pursue an industry-wide discrimination claim against each employer. Under that mechanism, this Court can see no basis for the Plaintiffs’ class being certified. Even looking at the above factors in light of the minimal evidence presented at this stage, such a claim cannot, in the interests of fairness and justice, be allowed to proceed. In the present case, the only similarities among the Plaintiffs are that they are all (1) writers, and (2) over the age of forty. Their individual skills, work experience, and relationships to the proposed Defendants are completely varied among them. Moreover, Plaintiffs have not sufficiently alleged any common decision-maker among the many hiring bodies, much less have they alleged sufficient factual support for their claim of an industry-wide policy of discrimination. Thus, examining this case in light of the factors suggested in Thiessen — the most recent case to deal with this issue — Plaintiffs cannot satisfy the requirements for class certification. - First, regarding the link between the policy and the employment decisions, even if Plaintiffs can alleged facts sufficient to allow the inference that the industry as a whole has been engaging in ageist practices, that would still not create a link nor have an impact on any one individual Defendant. Plaintiffs must allege facts sufficient to allow the inference that the individual Defendant being accused of a pattern-or-practice of age discrimination has itself engaged in ageist practices. There is no legal basis under which the discriminatory practice of one employer will be imputed on another, simply because they are involved in a common industry. Second, were this case to proceed as Plaintiffs suggest, with a class of Plaintiffs and joinder of Defendants, individualized issues would certainly predominate at trial. Pattern-or-practice cases are generally held in two stages: the first stage deals with whether a discriminatory policy exists, and the second stage deals with how that policy affected individual plaintiffs. See Teamsters, 431 U.S. at 360-61, 97 S.Ct. at 1867-68. At the first stage, individualized issues would be present in the form of numerous defenses that may be asserted by the multitude of defendants— employers and talent agencies alike — that have minimal, if any, connection with one another. At the second stage, individualized issues would abound, considering the Court would be faced with the potential of over 2500 different hiring decisions. Finally, given the circumstances of this case, it would be nearly impossible for such an action to be “coherently managed and evidence presented in a manner that would not confuse the jury or unduly prejudice any party.” Thiessen, 267 F.3d at 1103. By the very nature of their claim, Plaintiffs seek to ascribe liability on one Defendant for the alleged discriminatory practices of every other Defendant. Such an attempt is highly prejudicial to each Defendant, not to mention the confusion that such a presentation would surely create for the jury at trial. Furthermore, as recognized in Pines v. State Farm Gen. Ins. Co., supra, a ease in which the proposed class consisted of employee applicants, as in the present case, the court decided that those who were deterred from applying were not similarly situated to those who had applied and were rejected. Id., 1992 WL 92398 at *11. In the instant case, each Plaintiff had allegedly applied to and was allegedly deterred from applying to a different set of Defendants than every other Plaintiff. Thus, no individual Plaintiff can be deemed “similarly situated” to any other individual Plaintiff, other than by virtue of the fact that they are all alleging a violation of the ADEA. That, by itself, is not enough to satisfy even the meager requirements at this stage for similarly-situated plaintiffs to pursue a class action under § 216(b). In light of the above authority, and the facts of this case, this Court finds that the set of Plaintiffs in this action should not be certified as a class. b. Rule 20(a) Joinder Plaintiffs also contend that they can be joined under the rules of permissive joinder. Plaintiffs argue that their claims are “logically related” because they are all victims of the same industry-wide “pattern or practice” of discrimination. However, it is undisputed that the individual Plaintiffs are all alleging a different factual basis for how that alleged discrimination affected each of them. It is also undisputed that many Plaintiffs have never even applied for employment or representation with most of the Employer Defendants or Agency Defendants. Plaintiffs cite Alexander v. Fulton County, 207 F.3d 1303 (11th Cir.2000) for the proposition that an allegation of a pattern of age-based discrimination satisfies the transactional relatedness requirement despite the differences in the factual underpinnings of the Plaintiffs’ respective claims. In Alexander, the plaintiffs alleged that “they were subject to a systemic pattern or practice of race-based discrimination ...” Id,, at 1324. The court, applying an abuse of discretion standard, affirmed .joinder of 18 sheriffs deputies where it was uncontroverted that “[plaintiffs all seek relief based on the same series of discriminatory transactions by the same decision maker in the same department during the same short time frame.” Id. Therefore, Plaintiffs’ reliance on Alexander for the conclusion that pattern-or-practice allegations render joinder of Plaintiffs proper “regardless of factual differences among the plaintiffs and their injuries” is an incorrect reading of that case. Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 51. In the present case, rather than alleging that the same decision-maker discriminated against Plaintiffs over a short time frame, Plaintiffs have alleged that over the last twenty years, multiple decision-makers employed by multiple Defendants have discriminated against multiple Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs also cite Puricelli v. CNA Ins. Co., supra, for their position that pattern- or-practice allegations are sufficient for joinder. In Puricelli, the court recognized that whether plaintiffs’ claims constitute a “single transaction or occurrence” is determined on a case-by-case basis. Id., 185 F.R.D. at 142. In that case, the court allowed joinder of two plaintiffs against a single defendant where the plaintiffs’ complaint alleged that both were “subjected to a similar method of removal from their pre-takeover positions through performance evaluations, performed by ... Mr. Romer, during the same period, and left the employ of CNA within one month of each other.” Id. In the instant case, regarding Plaintiffs’ allegations against each separate Defendant, it is unrefuted that there were multiple decision-makers employed by each Defendant, and that the decisions spanned a twenty-year time-frame. Plaintiffs cite several other cases to support their position, however each of these cases featured a single, common decision-maker as well. See Gorence v. Eagle Food Ctrs., Inc., No. 93-C4862, 1996 WL 734955 at *4 (N.D.Ill.Dec.19, 1996) (observing that although plaintiffs worked at different facilities of same employer, a common decision-maker [Mr. Barber] was the “logical link” between their claims); Blesedell v. Mobil Oil Co., 708 F.Supp. 1408, 1421-22 (S.D.N.Y.1989) (concluding that joinder was proper because all plaintiffs complained of sexual discrimination by the same supervisor during the same time period); King v. Pepsi Cola Metro. Bottling Co., 86 F.R.D. 4, 6 (E.D.Pa.1979) (holding joinder proper where all plaintiffs worked in the same unit and were under the supervision of the same supervisor who allegedly “played an integral role in carrying out the alleged discriminatory company policy”). In contrast, in Grayson v. K-Mart Corp., 849 F.Supp. 785 (N.D.Ga.1994), 11 former store managers alleged that they each were demoted pursuant to a company-wide pattern and practice of age discrimination, and argued that their statistical and anecdotal evidence demonstrated a “hostile corporate culture” for all older store managers, which should permit join-der. Id. at 788. The court rejected the plaintiffs’ argument and severed their claims, explaining that each hiring decision is a separate action: “Plaintiffs’ reliance on defendant’s alleged general bias toward store managers over forty to support joinder of their case is misplaced, as litigation of even any purported general policy of defendant, as it might affect each plaintiff here, would inevitably focus in detail on the separate work histories of each plaintiff.... While all of these [demotion] decisions may not be completely unrelated, in that they were made during the same time period and in response to the immense competitive pressures being felt by K Mart at the time, they hardly constitute a single action on the part of the defendant.” Id. at 788. See also Smith v. North Am. Rockwell Corp., 50 F.R.D. at 522 (finding severance proper in a discrimination case because the claims of the plaintiffs, who worked for the defendant in different capacities and departments, did not arise out of the same transaction or occurrence); Buie v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc., No. 98-C1521, 1998 WL 729614 at *5 (N.D.Ill. Oct.16, 1998) (finding that an alleged pattern and practice of race discrimination in promotions, and systemic failure to comply with EEO policy, did not establish that the plaintiffs’ claims arose from the same or series of transactions, as each promotion decision involved separate decision-makers, departments and time periods). In Byers v. Illinois State Police, No. 99-C8105, 2000 WL 1808558 (N.D.Ill.Dec.6, 2000), the court provided a summary of the joinder analysis in discrimination cases, including pattern-or-practice cases. After surveying a number of cases (including many cited by parties in this case), the court stated: A summary of these cases indicates that in causes of action involving discrimination, Title VII or otherwise, courts look to whether the discrimination took place at roughly the same time, if it involved the same people, whether there is a relationship between the discriminatory action, whether the discriminatory action involved the same supervisor or occurred within the same department, and whether there is a geographic proximity between the discriminatory actions.... On the other hand, ... allegations of a common discriminatory policy or practice, or a company-wide policy of discrimination, could tilt the balance in favor of joinder despite those other factors which might favor severance. Id at *4. Plaintiffs’ pattern-or-practice claims are being directed at the entire television industry over a twenty-year period, rather than at individual Defendants. With respect to the individual Defendants, Plaintiffs’ allege a general discriminatory practice, but offer few factual allegations in support of these claims, and present no allegations of a decision-maker common to each Defendant. The Ninth Circuit’s decision in Bautista v. Los Angeles County, 216 F.3d 837 (9th Cir.2000), although it discusses the scope of the transaction and occurrence standard in the context of Fed.R.Civ.P. 8 rather than Fed.R.Civ.P. 20, is instructive. In Bautista, an employment discrimination case brought under the FEHA (Cal. Gov’t Code § 12940), R.A. Music took over the operations of Family Restaurants in the Los Angeles Music Center. The complaint alleged that the fifty-one named plaintiffs had been employees of Family Restaurants, but were denied employment by R.A. Music based upon their race, age and disability. Despite the fact that all plaintiffs were simultaneously fired as a result of the acquisition and subsequent change of control, the Ninth Circuit found that the claims did not arise out of the same transactions and occurrence. The court reasoned that [w]hile the complaint contains stray allegations of discriminatory policies or practices imposed by R.A. Music, what it seeks is individual relief for each of the plaintiffs. Each plaintiffs right to relief therefore depends upon proof of the operative facts giving rise to an enforceable right in favor of that plaintiff. The [race, age, and disability discrimination] claims alleged in the complaint do not meet that test; they are hybrids that qualify neither as class action allegations nor as statements of individual claims.... [E]ach plaintiffs claim being founded upon a separate transaction or occurrence, it is properly stated in a separate count. Id. at 840. “Experience teaches that, unless cases are pled clearly and precisely, issues are not joined, discovery is not controlled, the trial court’s docket becomes unmanageable, the litigants suffer, and society loses confidence in the court’s ability to administer justice.” Id. at 841 (citation omitted). Therefore, under the standards and guidelines of permissive joinder, Plaintiffs have not properly alleged claims particular to each individual Defendant to satisfy the same transaction or occurrence requirement. Plaintiffs should not be joined for the purpose of pursuing a claim against any individual Defendant, based on their complaint as it is presently constituted. 3. Discretionary Severance However, even if Plaintiffs could somehow meet the minimum legal requirements for joinder, this Court would then exercise its discretion under Rule 20(b), Rule 21, and Rule 42(b) to sever for at least two reasons: (1) to prevent jury confusion and judicial inefficiency, and (2) to prevent unfair prejudice to the Employer and Agency Defendants. See Coleman v. Quaker Oats Co., 232 F.3d 1271, 1296 (9th Cir.2000). Instead of making the resolution of this case more efficient, because of the multitude of isolated agreements and decision-makers and corporate families that Plaintiffs are alleging in this case, joinder would instead confuse and complicate the issues for all parties involved. In Coleman, the Ninth Circuit affirmed severance in an ADEA case brought by ten plaintiffs against Quaker Oats because it would have resulted in jury confusion: “For each plaintiff, the jury would have had to examine individually his or her employment history as well as the explanations given by Quaker for not retaining him or her, explanations that would require the testimony of each employee’s supervisors and raters.” Id. See also Henderson v. AT & T Corp., 918 F.Supp. 1059, 1063 (S.D.Tex.1996) (“[E]ven assuming there is a pattern and practice of discrimination within the [upper management group], it is clear that the Plaintiffs claims in fact are highly individualized, involving particularized questions about each Plaintiffs work history and job performance. Clearly, trying the claims in one action would be extraordinarily confusing for the jury, requiring the jury to keep separate more than twen1 ty claims of five Plaintiffs. A single trial would present the jury with the hopeless task of trying to discern who did and said what to whom and for what reason.” (internal quotation omitted)). But cf. Coughlin v. Rogers, 130 F.3d 1348, 1350-51 (9th Cir.1997) (finding, under an abuse of discretion standard, that multiple plaintiffs’ allegations against the INS did not support joinder, because there may be numerous reasons for the defendant’s conduct with respect to each plaintiff. However, if plaintiffs’ had been alleging a pattern or policy of wrongful behavior within the same organization, joinder may have been justified). Severance is also appropriate here for the more compelling reason of preventing unfair prejudice to Defendants that would inevitably result if all of Plaintiffs’ claims were litigated in one lawsuit. As the case is currently configured, there is a substantial risk that one Employer or Agency Defendant will be tainted by the alleged misdeeds of another, unfairly resulting in guilt by association. See Sidari v. Orleans County, 174 F.R.D. 275, 282 (W.D.N.Y.1996) (prohibiting the consolidation of cases involving separate defendants where plaintiffs were “asserting that the defendants’ combined conduct has created a ‘hostile work atmosphere.’ ... A lumping together of such claims, which amounts to guilt by association, would unfairly prejudice the defendants.”). In Coleman, the Ninth Circuit held that “[t]he district court properly considered the potential prejudice to [the defendant] created by the parade of terminated employees and the possibility of factual and legal confusion on the part of the jury.” Id., 232 F.3d at 1297. The Ninth Circuit also agreed that “even the strongest jury instructions could not have dulled the impact of a parade of witnesses, each recounting his contention that defendant laid him off because of his age.” Id. at 1296 (quoting Moorhouse v. Boeing Co., 501 F.Supp. 390, 393 n. 4 (E.D.Pa.1980), aff'd, 639 F.2d 774 (3d Cir.1980)). Here, the danger of unfair prejudice is even greater. In this case, it is not simply the risk of prejudice that may result when evidence of one hiring decision taints how another hiring decision within the same company is viewed by the jury, but the risk that a decision by one company might taint the jury’s view of another, decision made by a different company. If this case is allowed to proceed as structured by Plaintiffs, it would result in a panoply of accusations against individual employers and talent agencies that would be imputed on each of their unaffiliated competitors in the industry. In fact, if Plaintiffs’ complaint is any indication, their intention is precisely to use alleged ageist remarks from one employer to inculpate employers who made no such remarks, which is exactly the type of conduct that warrants severance. See, e.g., FAC, at ¶¶ 7-8. However, in Plaintiffs’ surreply brief, they contend that they do not intend to hold individual Defendants responsible for the discriminatory acts of another. Instead, they intend to show that each Employer Defendant adopted and maintained its own company-wide policy of age discrimination. Plaintiffs’ Surreply Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Opposition to Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss and to Sever (“Plaintiffs’ Surreply”), at 11. If that is the case, then, once again, there is no reason why this case should not proceed against each Defendant separately, instead of risking the inherent prejudice that would arise from forcing all Defendants to participate jointly. Furthermore, there is also no reason, as Plaintiffs’ suggest, to wait until trial to sever these claims. Seeing as Plaintiffs must prove all Defendants maintained separate company-wide discriminatory policies, there is no compelling justification why all Defendants must continue to collectively defend against Plaintiffs allegations from this point forward. Nevertheless, Plaintiffs argue that this Court should not consider any alleged prejudice to Defendants from being held accountable for the others’ alleged wrongs because “concurrent wrongdoers may be held jointly and severally hable when they contribute to a single, indivisible injury [and this ‘principle’] is deeply embedded in the common law.” Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 53. Plaintiffs further assert that the fact that “all Defendants have, by virtue of their participation in an industry-wide practice of discrimination, contributed to a single, indivisible injury seals the relationship between the claims ...” Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 54. However, as discussed in detail below, because Plaintiffs cannot hold Defendants jointly and severally liable in this manner under the ADEA, the FEHA, and the NYHRL, Plaintiffs have lumped together claims in a fashion that would unfairly prejudice Defendants and amount to guilt by association. Even if Plaintiffs could hold Defendants jointly and severally liable, the appropriateness of joinder is within the court’s discretion. See Boyd v. Diebold, Inc., 97 F.R.D. 720, 722 (E.D.Mich.1983) (parties who are jointly and severally liable are not indispensable parties or necessary parties to an action against one of them merely because of the joint and several liability); Jones Knitting Corp. v. AM. Pullen & Co., 50 F.R.D. 311, 315 (S.D.N.Y.1970). The Court acknowledges that Plaintiffs are asserting pattern-or-practice claims against Defendants, rather than the more traditional individualized discrimination claims. Nevertheless, merely asserting such a claim does not give Plaintiffs carte blanche to pool every employer and talent agency in an industry together under an umbrella of “industry-wide discrimination,” particularly when Plaintiffs have made no substantive allegations of any commonahty among all of the decision/poliey-makers in this diverse group of defendants. Furthermore, as discussed below, Plaintiffs’ statistical contentions would not likely satisfy even basic prima facie requirements with respect to any individual Defendant, much less the industry as a whole, were the Court to definitively rule on that issue at this time. Thus, the Court is well within its discretion to sever the Defendants in this action, and direct Plaintiffs to make a claim — if they so desire — of a pattern-or-practice of discrimination with respect to a particular employer or related group of employers. 4. Conclusion Therefore, because Plaintiffs failed to show that the requirements of Fed.R.Civ.P. 20(a) have been satisfied, and based upon the Court’s discretion, the Court finds that joinder of all Plaintiffs against all Defendants is improper. As indicated above, this decision does not preclude Plaintiffs from filing a claim against individual employers alleging proper grounds for discrimination by that employer. However, the complaint, as it is presently constituted, is not sufficient to allow for any Plaintiff, or all Plaintiffs, to proceed against any one Defendant. The Court, therefore, dismisses the ADEA, FEHA, and NYHRL discrimination claims by all Plaintiffs against all individual Defendants without prejudice and with leave to amend. C. JOINT AND SEVERAL LIABILITY Plaintiffs’ final attempt at satisfying the requirements of permissive joinder is the allegation that Plaintiffs suffered an “indivisible” emotional injury by being discouraged from applying for a job because of the alleged “industry-wide” discrimination. Again, Plaintiffs fail to bring relevant authority to this Court’s attention in support of this theory and on how it compels joinder. Plaintiffs contend that a substantial percentage of the television/entertainment industry is liable for each other’s alleged discrimination against older writers. Specifically, they allege: [E]ach of the Defendants has engaged in a company-wide practice of discrimination that is an inextricable component of an industry-wide pattern. As a consequence of this cumulative pattern, Plaintiffs have been injured in a manner that is not divisible. Inasmuch as Defendants have contributed to the injury by participating in the industry-wide practice, they are all jointly and severally liable. Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 53; see also FAC, at ¶¶ 14-16. Plaintiffs allege that the indivisible injury is really both an indivisible emotional injury (discouragement) and an indivisible economic injury. The emotional injury is described as “a singular and indivisible emotional injury that disables them from énduring additional rebuffs from any or all of the Defendants.” Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 54. The economic injury is described as “lost employment opportunities as a result of Defendants’ uniform adherence to ageist practices through a common hiring process.” Plaintiffs’ Opp’n, at 55. The Employer Defendants liken Plaintiffs’ joint and several liability theory to the following situation: If Studio A refuses to hire Writer X on the basis of his age, Studios B and C should be held financially responsible to Writer X for a decision over which they could not possibly have had any control. Plaintiffs’ theory extends to the Agency Defendants as well. If Talent Agency D failed to represent Writer X for an impermissible reason, Talent Agency E (and Studios A, B, and C) should be held jointly and severally liable for this failure. Aside from having no precedential authority, this joint and several liability theory fails for primarily two reasons. First, there is no cognizable theory under the ADEA, the FEHA, or the NYHRL upon which one employer can be held jointly and severally liable for the discriminatory practices of another, without an alleged relationship between the two employers. Second, because such an “industry-wide” practice of discrimination is not actionable as set forth in this case, Plaintiffs’ alleged injuries do not subject Defendants to joint and several Lability. 1. Joint and Several Liability in the ADEA, the FEHA, and the NYHRL Plaintiffs’ attempt to impose joint and several liability on Defendants defies the express language of the ADEA. The ADEA provides: “It shall be unlawful for an employer (1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual ... because of such individual’s age.” 29 U.S.C. § 623(a). Therefore, only the employer that failed to hire the individual' — not