Hill v. St. Louis University

• Decision Date: 04 September 1997
• Docket Number: No. 96-2401,96-2401
• Citation: 123 F.3d 1114
• Parties: 78 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1797, 72 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,017, 122 Ed. Law Rep. 33 Janet Marie HILL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1114

123 F.3d 1114

78 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1797,

72 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,017, 122 Ed. Law Rep. 33

Janet Marie HILL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ST. LOUIS UNIVERSITY, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 96-2401.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 15, 1997.

Decided Sept. 4, 1997.

Kevin A. Nelson, St. Louis, MO, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Peter G. Ruger, St. Louis, MO (Robert J. Tomaso and Peter G. Yelkovac, St. Louis, MO, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellee.

Before BEAM, ROSS, and HANSEN, Circuit Judges.

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

Janet Marie Hill appeals the district court's ¹ grant of summary judgment to St Louis University on her employment discrimination claims arising under the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA), Mo. Ann. Stat. § 213.010--.130 (West 1993 and Supp.1996), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e--2000e-17 (1994), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. § 621--634 (1994). She also appeals the imposition of sanctions for her attorney's ex parte communication with a department chair at St. Louis University. We affirm.

I.

Viewed in the light most favorable to Hill, the record reveals the following facts.

Hill is a former employee of the Parks College of St. Louis University (SLU), where she served as the director of the Career Services department for many years. When the department underwent some reorganization in 1991, Hill's position as "director" was reclassified as "coordinator" of the department. Although the change did not affect her pay or her duties, Hill was assigned to new supervisors and her budget was cut.

Hill's performance evaluations declined significantly after the reorganization. According to Hill, the new supervisors "overdocumented" her job performance and reprimanded her for deficiencies that had no basis in fact. The documentation in the record indicates her performance was deemed deficient in five ways: "1) failure to co[m]plete tasks and assignments; 2) complaints from prospective employers, administrators, students, faculty, and staff; 3) repeated cancellation of career development workshops; 4) failure to develop internship and cooperative education opportunities; and 5) failure to timely post job vacancies from employers." (Appellant's App. at 644.) On December 1, 1993, Hill was informed she could either resign or be terminated. She submitted her letter of resignation two days later, on December 3, 1993.

On May 16, 1994, Hill went to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) office intending to file a complaint. There, she completed an Intake Questionnaire, stating she had been forced to resign. An EEOC employee gave Hill a complaint form and told her to complete and return with it within about three weeks. Hill returned and formally filed her verified complaint with the EEOC on June 9, 1994. This complaint included, inter alia, claims of illegal discrimination under the ADEA, Title VII, and the MHRA. Litigation ensued.

During discovery, SLU learned that Hill's counsel had contacted Dr. Richard Andres, Chair of the Aerospace Technology Department at the Parks College, about a letter Dr. Andres and five other department chairs had signed concerning dissatisfaction with Hill's performance. SLU's counsel sent Hill's counsel a letter warning that this contact, absent permission from SLU or its counsel, would likely violate Disciplinary Rule 7-104 of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Rule 4.2 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, which both prohibit direct, ex parte contact with an adverse party that is represented by counsel. Despite this warning, Hill's counsel contacted and interviewed Dr. Andres, and obtained an affidavit from him.

SLU filed a motion for sanctions, seeking either a dismissal of the case or disqualification of Hill's counsel from further participation in the case. On March 14, 1996, the district court granted the motion, but instead of dismissal or disqualification of counsel, the court struck Dr. Andres' affidavit from the record as to SLU's summary judgment motion, declared the affidavit inadmissible at trial, forbade Hill's counsel from calling Dr. Andres as a witness at trial unless he had been deposed prior to trial, and ordered Hill's counsel to pay all of SLU's attorney fees and costs in litigating the motion for sanctions. The court did not quantify the attorney fees and costs in the order.

In the meantime, SLU had filed a motion for summary judgment on the merits of Hill's claims. The district court granted SLU's motion on April 19, 1996. The court found it lacked jurisdiction to consider the MHRA claims, because Hill had failed to file a formal complaint with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory acts. In addition, the district court found Hill's disparate treatment claims under the ADEA and Title VII fail to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether SLU's proffered reason for terminating Hill (inadequate performance) was actually pretext for discrimination. On May 17, 1996, Hill filed a notice of appeal to this court.

II.

A. MHRA Claim

When a complaint is not filed within 180 days, the Missouri Commission on Human Rights lacks jurisdiction to conduct any proceedings and the claim is barred. See Mo. Ann. Stat. § 213.075; Southwestern Bell Tel. Co. v. Comm'n on Human Rights, 863 S.W.2d 682, 684 (Mo.Ct.App.1993). To meet this jurisdictional requirement, a complaint must be "verified" and must set forth the particulars of the claim. Mo. Ann. Stat. § 213.075(1). The Missouri Commission and the EEOC have a work-share agreement, and a complaint filed with the EEOC is considered to be filed with the Missouri Commission on the same date. Id. § 213.075(2).

The district court correctly found it lacked jurisdiction to consider Hill's MHRA claims. She resigned from her position at SLU on December 3, 1993, but did not file her verified complaint with the EEOC (and thus, constructively, with the Missouri Commission) until June 9, 1994. Because her complaint was filed after the 180-day statutory period had expired, the district court had no jurisdiction to consider her MHRA claims.

Hill strenuously argues that equitable estoppel should apply because someone working for the EEOC misinformed her, leading her to file her complaint too late for purposes of the MHRA. Because the Missouri courts have held that the 180-day filing deadline is jurisdictional, however, the doctrine of equitable estoppel is inapplicable. Hill's citation to numerous cases applying equitable estoppel and waiver in the ADEA and Title VII contexts is unhelpful, because unlike the MHRA, the filing deadlines for those federal statutes are not jurisdictional. Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 455 U.S. 385, 392-93, 102 S.Ct. 1127, 1131-32, 71 L.Ed.2d 234 (1982) (holding that the filing deadline under Title VII "is not a jurisdictional prerequisite to suit in federal court, but a requirement that, like a statute of limitations, is subject to waiver, estoppel, and equitable tolling"); Anderson v. Unisys Corp., 47 F.3d 302, 305-06 (8th Cir.) (stating that the filing deadline for an ADEA claim was not jurisdictional and therefore subject to equitable tolling and estoppel), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 116 S.Ct. 299, 133 L.Ed.2d 205 (1995). Moreover, the Intake Questionnaire that Hill completed, though filed within the 180-day period, does not suffice as a complaint, because this preliminary document was not verified and did not set out the particulars of Hill's complaint. See Mo. Ann. Stat. § 213.075(1); Hodges v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 990 F.2d 1030 (8th Cir.1993). In short, whether or not someone in the EEOC misinformed Hill, her estoppel argument fails under the MHRA because an equitable doctrine simply cannot overcome a jurisdictional bar. We therefore hold that Hill's claim under the MHRA is barred for failure to file a complaint with the Missouri Commission or the EEOC within 180 days of the alleged discriminatory act.

B. ADEA and Title VII Claims

In her ADEA and Title VII claims, Hill alleges that her supervisors treated her disparately from her younger and male counterparts in that she was subjected to "overdocumentation" (Appellant's Br. at 10); she received reprimands for deficiencies that had no basis in fact; her budget was cut; and she was reclassified with a less prestigious title, rendering her less effective in her job. She contends this disparate treatment led to her constructive discharge. The district court granted SLU's motion for summary judgment on these claims.

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo, using the same standards of Federal Rule of Evidence 56(c) as applied by the district court. Rothmeier v. Investment Advisers, Inc., 85 F.3d 1328, 1331 (8th Cir.1996). Summary judgment is appropriate when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, demonstrates that there is no genuine issue of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Hutson v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 63 F.3d 771, 775 (8th Cir.1995). A disputed fact is not material unless it may affect the outcome of the suit under governing law. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

This is a pretext case, to which we apply the burden-shifting framework set forth by the Supreme Court in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), and its progeny. See St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 506-07, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 2746-47, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993); Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 252-53, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093-94, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981); Ryther v. KARE 11, 108 F.3d 832, 836-38 (8th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2510, 138 L.Ed.2d 1013 (1997). We apply this analysis in both the ADEA and the ...