This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

Between 1970 and 1984 student enrollment within the D public school system dropped by one-third. The Teacher's Union proposed that the school system adopt an early retirement incentive plan. An early retirement incentive plan (ERIP) was included in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the union and the school system adopted in 1983 for the 1984 calendar year. To participate you have to be a minimum age of 58 and a maximum age of 61. Teachers could receive early retirement incentive pay for up to forty-eight months, ending at age 62. Early retirees with a Master's Degree would receive fifty percent of that starting salary, while those with a Bachelor's Degree alone would receive forty percent. Early retirees were also eligible under the ERIP to continue participating in the school system's group health and life insurance programs. A second ERIP for administrators was proposed and adopted by the school system in 1984. In 1988, the minimum eligible age for participation in the administrators' ERIP was lowered from 58 to 55, giving administrators a broader window of eligibility than teachers enjoy. Also that year, retired administrators between the ages of 62 and 65 were given the option of purchasing health and life insurance through the school system. The thirty-four Ps are all employees of D. Each was below the age of 58 when the plans were adopted and subsequently remained employed through at least June 1995, shortly before this suit was filed. Each of the plaintiffs became eligible to participate in the ERIPs upon turning 58 years old and thus had the option to retire at that age and receive the maximum benefits available. Each chose to continue working beyond age 58, foregoing some or all of the incentives provided for in the ERIPs. Ps filed suit under the ADEA. The district court denied summary judgment as to damages but granted the motion as to liability. The court found the ERIPs to be facially discriminatory because it granted unequal benefits based solely on age. A jury trial ensued, limited solely to the subject of damages. The court awarded the retired Ps damages equal to the amount of benefits they would have received under the ERIPs had they elected to retire at age 58. As for those individuals who were still working, the court entered an injunction specifying that each had the right to voluntarily retire and receive the full amount of early retirement incentive benefits that would have been paid to an eligible teacher or administrator who elected to retire at age 58. D appealed.

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