Chacko v. Patuxent Institution

• Decision Date: 29 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-1577.,04-1577.
• Citation: 429 F.3d 505
• Parties: Mathen CHACKO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PATUXENT INSTITUTION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

429 F.3d 505

Mathen CHACKO, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. PATUXENT INSTITUTION, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 04-1577.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued September 21, 2005.

Decided November 29, 2005.

ARGUED: Alan Douglas Eason, Assistant Attorney General, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Bryan Anthony Chapman, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant.

Before WILKINSON and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and ROBERT J. CONRAD, JR., United States District Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.

Reversed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge WILLIAMS and Judge CONRAD joined.

OPINION

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge.

We must decide in this case whether the plaintiff exhausted his administrative remedies, and thus properly brought suit in federal district court, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (2000). Before a Title VII plaintiff can bring a formal suit, he must file an administrative charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). This charge frames the scope of future litigation. "Only those discrimination claims stated in the initial charge, those reasonably related to the original complaint, and those developed by reasonable investigation of the original complaint may be maintained in a subsequent Title VII lawsuit." Evans v. Techs. Applications & Serv. Co., 80 F.3d 954, 963 (4th Cir.1996). We hold that a plaintiff fails to exhaust his administrative remedies where, as here, his administrative charges reference different time frames, actors, and discriminatory conduct than the central factual allegations in his formal suit. We therefore reverse the district court's denial of the defendant's motion for judgment as a matter of law.

I.

Plaintiff, Mathen Chacko, brought suit under Title VII against his former employer, Patuxent Institution ("Patuxent"). Patuxent is a correctional facility operated by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Most of its correctional officers are African American. Chacko is an Indian American. He was originally born in India, immigrated to this country in 1975, and is now an American citizen. Chacko began employment with Patuxent in 1982. During his tenure, Patuxent promoted him four times, eventually to the position of lieutenant. Chacko was demoted to sergeant in 2000, and retired from Patuxent in 2002.

Over his twenty-year career at Patuxent, Chacko filed various internal complaints against his supervisors pursuant to Patuxent's anti-discrimination policy, which provides in-house procedures for addressing discrimination claims. He also filed several external administrative charges against Patuxent with the Maryland Commission on Human Relations (MCHR) and the EEOC. Three of those charges are relevant to this dispute.

The first of these was filed on November 9, 1999. In this charge, Chacko alleged that he was passed over for the position of captain because of his national origin and sex. He did not mark the box on the EEOC form that would suggest the discrimination involved "continuing action" by Patuxent. Chacko also noted in this administrative charge that he had filed two in-house discrimination complaints against certain supervisors for unspecified "harassment." Chacko filed the first in-house complaint on September 24, 1999, the same day as the alleged incident. He stated in this complaint that Captain Gerald Howard, an African American, ordered him out of the captain's office while African American lieutenants were allowed to remain. He also noted that he had previously filed other in-house discrimination complaints during his tenure at Patuxent.

Chacko filed the second in-house complaint referenced in his first administrative charge on October 18, 1999, again the same day as the alleged incident. He claimed that he was released from a training class early with a group of coworkers who all began to go home for the day. Chief of Security Robert Eggleston, also an African American, told Chacko to return to work because he had excused the other employees and not Chacko. When Chacko complained, Eggleston told him to see Major Ronald Bridges. Bridges subsequently allowed him to leave, but Sergeant Eddie Owens laughed at him about the incident. Chacko expressed concern in this first administrative charge that both of these incidents would appear on his record and affect his chances for promotion.

Chacko filed his second administrative charge with the MCHR and EEOC on January 13, 2000. This charge concerned a letter to Chacko from Director Richard B. Rosenblatt. Chacko noted in the charge that he had written letters to Rosenblatt on September 27, 1999, and December 10, 1999, about the "hostile treatment" that he had received from his supervisors. In reply, on December 21, 1999, Rosenblatt allegedly stated that Chacko did not have the right to question Patuxent's policies, and told him to surrender his bars, take stress leave, or go to the state medical director. In the second charge, Chacko noted he found Rosenblatt's response intimidating, and that African American employees were not subject to this type of "hostile treatment." He also noted that the date of the discrimination was December 21, 1999, and he again did not mark the box entitled "continuing action." Lastly, Chacko filed a third administrative charge on March 1, 2000. It alleged that Patuxent demoted him from lieutenant to sergeant in retaliation for his filing the other charges.

The EEOC issued Chacko a right-to-sue letter on June 7, 2000. Chacko subsequently filed suit against Patuxent, alleging national-origin discrimination. Specifically, he alleged that he was denied promotion, retaliated against for filing his first two administrative charges, and subjected to a hostile work environment. The district court granted Patuxent's motion for summary judgment on the failure to promote and retaliatory demotion claims. It denied summary judgment on the hostile work environment claim, however, because Chacko had presented the affidavits and depositions of several Patuxent employees who noted that Chacko was repeatedly ridiculed with derogatory epithets based on his national origin. Patuxent objected that Chacko had never presented this evidence before its motion for summary judgment, and that any suit based on these facts was outside Chacko's administrative charges. The district court rejected the argument.

The district court held a jury trial in July, 2003. Chacko's primary theory of the case was that over his twenty-year career, his coworkers on a daily basis hurled a barrage of national-origin insults and epithets at him. These coworkers made his workday miserable with such degrading comments as "camel jockey," "go back home and ride your camel," "crazy Indian," and "go back to India and wash elephant nuts for a living." This evidence was "the centerpiece in a collection of hostile and abusive treatment that Mr. Chacko encountered as an employee of Patuxent Institution." Br. of Appellee at 13. The evidence at trial also indicated that certain supervisors may have observed the heinous conduct, but did not take corrective action. Instead, they laughed when coworkers made offensive comments, and may have joined in the name calling. There was no evidence, however, that any of the supervisors identified in the administrative charges ever called Chacko derogatory names, and Chacko specifically testified that neither Howard nor Eggleston engaged in such conduct.

The district court instructed the jury that it could find a hostile work environment based on coworker and supervisor harassment. In a general verdict, the jury found that Patuxent created a hostile work environment for Chacko and awarded him $1,160,000. Based on Title VII's damages cap, 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3), the district court reduced the damages to $300,000. On August 18, 2003, it ordered judgment in favor of Chacko for that amount.

Patuxent filed several post-trial motions, including one for judgment as a matter of law. It again argued, inter alia, that Chacko's main proof at trial — his coworkers' consistent use of national-origin epithets against him — was outside the scope of his administrative charges. As it had done before trial, the district court rejected this argument. It concluded that the administrative charges referenced supervisor harassment and that this supervisor harassment was reasonably related to the coworker epithets because supervisors laughed when coworkers called him names and did not discipline these coworkers. Patuxent now appeals this ruling.¹

II.

Title VII gives initial enforcement responsibility to the EEOC. An individual alleging discrimination in violation of Title VII must first file an administrative charge with the EEOC within a certain time of the alleged unlawful act. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1). A charge is acceptable only if it is "sufficiently precise to identify the parties, and to describe generally the action or practices complained of." 29 C.F.R. § 1601.12(b) (2004). After the charge has been filed, the EEOC investigates the alleged unlawful acts and provides notice of the charges to the employer within ten days. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b). If the EEOC finds reasonable cause to believe the allegations are true, it "shall endeavor to eliminate any such alleged unlawful employment practice by informal methods of conference, conciliation, and persuasion." Id. An individual cannot bring suit until he has exhausted the administrative process. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b), (f)(1); Bryant v. Bell Atl. Md., Inc., 288 F.3d 124, 132 (4th Cir.2002); 29 C.F.R. § 1601.28.

Even after a plaintiff has exhausted his administrative remedies, the administrative framework plays a substantial role in focusing the formal litigation it precedes. If "the...