Recently, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision concerning a procedural requirement for plaintiffs filing discrimination claims in federal court. This case relates to discrimination claims based on sex, race, religion and national origin filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as well as disability discrimination cases under the Americans with Disabilities Act and age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Normally, a plaintiff must file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before filing a lawsuit in federal court. In the case of Fort Bend County v. Davis, 2019 U.S. LEXIS 3891 the Court unanimously held that this procedural requirement is not jurisdictional, meaning an employer must raise an individual’s failure to file an EEOC charge early in the lawsuit or risk waiving this argument.
This decision does not change the precondition to commence a Title VII lawsuit. Individuals must still initially file their complaints with the EEOC before a court action ensues. However, the decision does limit when an employer may raise an objection relating to Title VII’s charge-filing requirements. Therefore, employers should raise any objections to the filing of a Title VII charge at the onset of litigation to avoid forfeiting them.
In this case, the plaintiff initially filed an EEOC charge claiming sexual harassment, but later hand wrote a religious discrimination claim without changing the formal charge document. Several months later she received a right to sue letter. After years of litigation, Fort Bend County initially raised the defense that the religious discrimination claim was not properly processed through the EEOC before plaintiff filed the lawsuit. The Supreme Court rejected the County’s argument, concluding the prerequisite of filing an EEOC charge before commencing a federal lawsuit is a mandatory processing rule but not a jurisdictional prerequisite. Since the charge-filing requirement was not a jurisdictional requirement, the Court determined the County waited too long to file the motion to dismiss. In other words, it waived the right to assert this defense.
This case illustrates the importance of planning a comprehensive defense strategy when responding to a discrimination lawsuit. If you need assistance with these types of cases at the EEOC or in court, contact Fishel Downey at 614.221.1216.