Blessing v. County of Lancaster

Decision Date10 January 1985
Docket NumberCiv. A. No. 84-764.
Citation609 F. Supp. 485
PartiesBetty BLESSING v. COUNTY OF LANCASTER; County Commissioners James E. Huber, Robert C. Boyer and Brad S. Fischer, in their capacity as County Commissioners and as members of the Salary Board; County Controller Donald Weaver, in his capacity as a member of the Salary Board; and R. Ronald Reedy, individually, and in his official capacity as Court Administrator of the County of Lancaster.
CourtU.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Nancy E. Rourke, Harrisburg, Pa., for plaintiff.

J. Michael Flanagan, Lancaster, Pa., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

TROUTMAN, Senior District Judge.

Defendants have moved to dismiss this sex discrimination in employment suit for lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter and for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.

With respect to the claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) and (2), defendant asserts that the Court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter in that a jurisdictional prerequisite to filing suit is the allegation that a timely charge was filed before the EEOC and that the Agency subsequently issued a right to sue letter, an allegation admittedly lacking in the original complaint. In Gooding v. Warner-Lambert Company, et al., 744 F.2d 354 (3d Cir.1984), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit explicitly held that the issuance of a right to sue letter is not a jurisdictional prerequisite to a Title VII claim, and further that the district Court abused its discretion when it failed to allow plaintiff to amend her complaint to include the allegation of a right to sue letter. That decision was in keeping with the "... sound and established policy that procedural technicalities should not be used to prevent Title VII claims from being decided on their merits". Gooding at 358, 359. Since plaintiff has already filed an amended complaint wherein the issuance of a right to sue letter was pled, we have no difficulty in concluding that defendants' motion must be denied insofar as it is based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

In addition to the Title VII claim, plaintiff also asserts a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and a pendent state claim for the intentional infliction of emotional distress. Defendants have also moved to dismiss these claims, as well as the Title VII claim, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6).

First, defendants contend that plaintiff has not alleged a causal connection between her losses and the actions of defendant R. Ronald Reedy and members of the Salary Board of Lancaster County. Read together, the allegations of the amended complaint establish a claim that plaintiff was recommended for a promotion and salary increase by her immediate supervisor in August, 1982, Amended Complaint ¶ 9; that defendant Reedy, as department head, was responsible for making a recommendation to the Salary Board who had final authority to grant the raise, Amended Complaint ¶ 9; that defendant Reedy implicitly conditioned a favorable recommendation to the Salary Board on plaintiff's doing something personal for him, in the nature of accepting an out-of-the County dinner invitation such as she had already refused on a prior occasion, Amended Complaint ¶¶ 11, 12; that plaintiff did not receive a promotion and salary increase until approximately six months after the favorable evaluation by her immediate supervisor and subsequent to her initiation of legal proceedings against the defendants, Amended Complaint ¶¶ 14, 15; and that plaintiff believes that she would have been granted a promotion and salary increase in September, 1982, had she not refused to cooperate on a personal level with defendant Reedy. In light of the well-known standard that "a complaint should not be dismissed unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief", Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 101-02, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957), it is apparent that these allegations of the complaint withstand defendants' motion to dismiss. Taking them as true as we must on a motion to dismiss, Scheuer v. Rhoades, 416 U.S. 232, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974), plaintiff has alleged a cause-effect relationship between defendants' conduct and her claimed losses. Her stated belief that she would have been promoted earlier but for defendants' illegal conduct is a sufficient allegation that the position to which she aspired was open in September, 1982. Also implicit in the complaint is the allegation that the Salary Board would not act favorably on plaintiff's promotion without a favorable recommendation from Reedy. Moreover, even if any of the perceived pleading deficiencies were found to be so substantial as to warrant dismissal, the Court would be obliged to afford plaintiff the opportunity to amend the complaint. Guyette v. Stauffer Chemical Co., 518 F.Supp. 521 (D.Del.1981).

Defendants next contend that the conduct alleged in the complaint does not amount to sexual harassment under Title VII. In a similar factual context, however, the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal of a Title VII case. Tomkins v. Public Service Electric & Gas Co., et al., 568 F.2d 1044 (3d Cir.1977). The Court concluded that

Title VII is violated when a supervisor, with the actual or constructive knowledge of the
...

To continue reading

Request your trial
3 cases
  • Hudson v. Moore Business Forms, Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Northern District of California
    • May 22, 1985
    ......520 (1983) (quoting Palo Alto-Menlo Park Yellow Cab Co. v. Santa Clara County Transit Dist., 65 Cal.App.3d 121, 131, 135 Cal.Rptr. 192 (1976)). Accord, Mahoney v. Crocker ......
  • Gadbois v. Rock-Tenn Co., Mill Div. Inc.
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Vermont
    • November 5, 1997
    ...to a case. Leave to amend pleadings "shall be freely given when justice so requires." Fed. R.Civ.P. 15(a); see Blessing v. Lancaster County, 609 F.Supp. 485, 486 (E.D.Pa.1985) (plaintiff entitled to amend complaint to allege timely filed EEOC charge and subsequent receipt of right to sue le......
  • Phifer v. Herbert
    • United States
    • Court of Appeals of New Mexico
    • January 28, 1993
    ......BACKGROUND.         Barbara Phifer (Plaintiff) is a resident of Silver City, Grant County, New Mexico. Plaintiff was an employee of Silver City Ford-Lincoln-Mercury (Silver City Ford), a ... Blessing v. County of Lancaster, 609 F.Supp. 485 (E.D.Pa.1985). Here, whether the conduct alleged amounted ......

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT