Hart v. J. T. Baker Chemical Co.

• Citation: 598 F.2d 829
• Decision Date: 14 May 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-1989,78-1989
• Parties: d 829 19 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1347, 19 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 9217 Kathleen T. HART, Appellant, v. J. T. BAKER CHEMICAL COMPANY.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

Page 829

598 F. 2d 829

19 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1347, 19 Empl. Prac.

Dec. P 9217

Kathleen T. HART, Appellant, v. J. T. BAKER CHEMICAL COMPANY.

No. 78-1989.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued Feb. 12, 1979.

Decided May 14, 1979.

Yvette Weiss (argued), Copeland & Weiss, Trenton, N. J., for appellant.

Harry Reagan, Allen J. Gross (argued), Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, Philadelphia, Pa., for appellee.

Before ALDISERT, ADAMS and HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Jr., Circuit Judge.

At issue in this appeal is whether the time limits for the filing of a charge under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ¹ are jurisdictional or whether they are subject to equitable tolling. We hold that the time limits are not jurisdictional but are subject to tolling. We affirm, however, the lower court's refusal to toll the time period under the facts of this case.

I.

The plaintiff, Kathleen T. Hart, a biochemist, was hired by the defendant, J. T. Baker Chemical Company, in January, 1973 and discharged on July 29, 1973. ² In December, 1973, while seeking employment elsewhere, the plaintiff alleged she first discovered that her discharge by the defendant may have been based upon the fact that she was a woman. ³

Her first contact with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was by letter dated September 22, 1974, 421 days after her discharge. On November 17, 1974, she filed a formal charge with the EEOC. This was referred by the EEOC to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights on May 27, 1975. On June 5, 1975, the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights waived jurisdiction over the charge to the EEOC which issued a "right to sue" letter on March 6, 1976.

On May 10, 1976, Hart filed a Pro se complaint with the district court charging the defendant with violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ⁴ Specifically, she alleged that the defendant discharged her and gave her adverse employment references because of her gender. In addition, her amended complaint filed on September 27, 1976 set forth a second count alleging interference with her "prospective (e)conomic advantage and contractual relations with prospective employers." Amended Complaint P 1.

On July 22, 1976, the defendant moved to dismiss the complaint contending that the court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction under Title VII because Hart failed to file a timely charge with the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights or with the EEOC. The district court denied the motion without prejudice noting that the motion could be renewed following discovery.

Following the completion of discovery, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment which was granted in its favor with regard to Hart's claims alleging discriminatory adverse references and refusal to rehire. The district court, applying principles of equitable tolling to the time limitation in Title VII and further finding that a 300-day, rather than 180-day time period applied to the filing of Hart's charge with the EEOC, denied the motion for summary judgment as to the alleged discriminatory discharge.

The defendant then filed a motion for reconsideration of the partial denial of summary judgment. The district court vacated its earlier ruling and entered summary judgment in favor of the defendant. The district court held that Title VII's filing requirements may under certain circumstances be subject to equitable tolling, but, on the facts of this case, declined to invoke its equitable discretion and toll the filing requirements. The court held further that the date of her discharge triggered the running of the limitations period. Because she failed to file her charge with the EEOC within 180 days of her discharge, her untimely filing left the district court without subject-matter jurisdiction over all claims in the complaint.

Hart contends that the time limitation should be tolled from the date of her discharge, July 29, 1973, until December, 1973, the time when she was advised by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Employment Security that J. T. Baker had given an allegedly discriminating reference. We are thus asked to hold that the time limits for the filing of a charge are subject to tolling and that the facts of this case provide a basis for tolling. Assuming we so hold, the plaintiff next asks us to hold the extended 300-day filing period applicable, thus making her filing of September 22, 1974 timely.

II.

The first issue we address is whether the filing of a charge of employment discrimination within the 180-day period provided for in Title VII is "jurisdictional" in that failure to comply is an absolute bar to bringing an action or whether the time limitation is more analogous to a statute of limitations and therefore subject to equitable modifications, such as tolling. Defendant relies on a number of cases which state that timely filing is a "jurisdictional prerequisite" to maintaining an action. The question whether the filing requirement is jurisdictional is still open in this circuit. Stuppiello v. ITT Avionics Division, 575 F.2d 430, 432 n. 4 (3d Cir. 1978). Upon consideration of the cases and the underlying beneficent purposes of the statute, we are convinced that failure to file a timely charge should not serve, under all circumstances, as an absolute bar to maintaining an action for employment discrimination. We conclude, therefore, that the 180-day period is not jurisdictional.

We believe that broad remedial legislation such as Title VII is entitled to the benefit of liberal construction. In Bonham v. Dresser Industries, Inc., 569 F.2d 187, 192-193 (3d Cir. 1977), cert. denied,439 U.S. 821, 99 S.Ct. 87, 58 L.Ed.2d 113 (1978), we stated:

Our conclusion that the 180-day period is not jurisdictional is based on our view of the design and purposes of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. This Court has recognized that the ADEA is remedial and humanitarian legislation which should be liberally interpreted to effectuate the congressional purpose of ending age discrimination in employment. ⁵

The underlying rationale in Bonham of interpreting humanitarian legislation in a humane and commonsensical manner applies with equal force to Title VII, the avowed purpose of which "is to eliminate, through the utilization of formal and informal remedial procedures, discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, or national origin." H.R.Rep. No. 914, 88th Cong., 2d Sess., Reprinted in 1964 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 2401.

The Act contemplates that complaints will be initiated with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by lay persons unfamiliar with the complexities of the administrative procedures. It is therefore reasonable for courts to be flexible in appropriate cases when reviewing failures by aggrieved persons to comply with procedural technicalities. See Love v. Pullman, 404 U.S. 522, 526-527, 92 S.Ct. 616, 30 L.Ed.2d 679 (1972). In order to effectuate the broad remedial purposes of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of Title VII, the time limitations should not be treated as inflexible jurisdictional prerequisites, but should be subject to equitable modifications.

We believe that the approach we now adopt will prevent harsh results in particular cases. Where the filing requirements are considered "jurisdictional," non-compliance bars an action regardless of the equities in a given case. Thus equitable tolling could not be invoked where, for example, the employer prevented the employee from asserting his or her rights by actively concealing or misleading the discharged employee as to the true reasons for the discharge. We conclude therefore that the timing provisions should be subject to a similar type of equitable tolling as is applied to statutes of limitations.

The defendant urges, however, that Supreme Court precedent, most notably Electrical Workers v. Robbins & Myers, Inc., 429 U.S. 229, 97 S.Ct. 441, 50 L.Ed.2d 427 (1976), requires us to hold that the time limit for the filing of a charge is jurisdictional. We disagree.

First, it is not clear from any of the Supreme Court's decisions why these prerequisites are "jurisdictional" as opposed to procedural or why they are not simply conditions precedent. The jurisdictional portion of Title VII is not qualified and does not withdraw jurisdiction with respect to claims not timely filed. It provides:

Each United States district court and each United States court of a place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States shall have jurisdiction of actions brought under this subchapter. Such an action may be brought in any judicial district in the State in which the unlawful employment practice is alleged to have been committed, in the judicial district in which the employment records relevant to such practice are maintained and administered, or in the judicial district in which the aggrieved person would have worked but for the alleged unlawful employment practice, but if the respondent is not found within any such district, such an action may be brought within the judicial district in which the respondent has his principal office. For purposes of section 1404 and 1406 of Title 28, the judicial district in which the respondent has his principal office shall in all cases be considered a district in which the action might have been brought.

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3).

Second, the genesis of the term "jurisdictional prerequisite" demonstrates that the term has crept into Title VII jurisprudence with no explication of its underlying logic and thus no real guidance in determining its applicability. In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), the Supreme Court was called upon to decide whether the absence of an EEOC finding of reasonable caused barred suit under Title VII. In deciding the question, the Court stated:

Respondent satisfied the jurisdictional prerequisites to a federal action (i) by filing timely charges of...