McClinton v. Alabama By-Products Corp.

• Decision Date: 11 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-7536,BY-PRODUCTS,83-7536
• Citation: 743 F.2d 1483
• Parties: 35 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1893, 35 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,702, 53 USLW 2224 Joel T. McCLINTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ALABAMACORPORATION and Ralph Stuckey, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1483

743 F.2d 1483

35 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1893,

35 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 34,702, 53 USLW 2224

Joel T. McCLINTON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. ALABAMA BY-PRODUCTS CORPORATION and Ralph Stuckey Defendants-Appellees.

No. 83-7536.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Oct. 11, 1984.

James C. King, Jasper, Ala., for plaintiff-appellant.

William F. Gardner, Birmingham, Ala., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before HILL and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges, and WISDOM ^*, Senior Circuit Judge.

JAMES C. HILL, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff-Appellant Joel McClinton appeals from an order dismissing his complaint under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) for failure to file his charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 days of the alleged unlawful practice. We affirm the grant of summary judgment, finding that the 180-day limitation was not tolled under the facts of this case.

On January 31, 1981, McClinton, a 55-year old coal miner, was terminated from his job with defendant/appellee Alabama-By-Products Corporation. According to his affidavit, plaintiff believed that he had been unjustly terminated due to his age and health, particularly upon discovering that he had been replaced by a 27-year old male. Plaintiff's friends told him that he might have a "discrimination or labor relations suit." Within thirty days of his termination, plaintiff thus visited the Labor Department office in Birmingham, Alabama, and was allegedly told that he needed to contact the Labor Relations Board (LRB). Upon telephoning the LRB, he was told that they could not help him because he did not belong to a union. Another attempt at contacting the Labor Department was also unsuccessful. Following that, plaintiff made no other efforts to file an age discrimination claim until he contacted an attorney nearly a year later, after an unsuccessful search for a new job.

On January 12, 1982, McClinton filed an age discrimination charge with the EEOC. On March 19, 1982, after the EEOC refused to act on the charge because he had failed to comply with the ADEA requirement that charges be filed within 180 days of the alleged discrimination, plaintiff commenced the present action under the ADEA. The district court held that the equities in the case did not justify a tolling of the 180-day notification requirement, and granted summary judgment to the defendants. McClinton v. Alabama By-Products Corp., 574 F.Supp. 43 (N.D.Ala.1983). Plaintiff appealed.

Section 7(d)(1) of the ADEA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(d)(1), limits the period in which an aggrieved employee may initiate an action under the ADEA. It provides, in part:

No civil action may be commenced by an individual under this section until 60 days after a charge alleging unlawful discrimination has been filed with the [EEOC]. Such a charge shall be filed

(1) within 180 days after the alleged unlawful practice occurred.

This 180-day notification requirement is a prerequisite to an action based on the ADEA, Templeton v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 607 F.2d 89, 91 (5th Cir.1979), and is intended to promote the speedy, informal, non-judicial resolution of discrimination claims, and to preserve evidence and records relating to the alleged discriminatory action. Edwards v. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Sales, Inc., 515 F.2d 1195, 1198-99 (5th Cir.1975).

It is now established that this notification requirement is not a jurisdictional prerequisite that deprives a court of subject matter jurisdiction, but a requirement more in the nature of a statute of limitations that is subject to equitable tolling. Coke v. General Adjustment Bureau, 640 F.2d 584, 595 (5th Cir.1981) (en banc). Whether to toll this statutory period is determined on a case-by-case basis, depending on the equities of the situation.

In this case, appellant asserts that equitable tolling is appropriate in light of Alabama-By-Products' failure to post conspicuous notice of ADEA rights (as required by 29 U.S.C. Sec. 627 ¹), which deprived him of the opportunity to discover his specific rights under the ADEA. The appellee replies that tolling is not necessary, in that appellant was well aware of his right not to be discriminated against but neglected to contact an attorney or otherwise act on those rights.

Templeton v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 607 F.2d 89 (5th Cir.1979), presented a set of facts very similar to our present situation. There, the plaintiff alleging age discrimination admitted

that he had seen the 1968 poster prepared by the Secretary of Labor notifying employees of the existence of the ADEA, that he was aware of his right not to be discriminated against in employment on the basis of his age, and that he believed that he was a victim of age discrimination when he retired.

Id. at 91. Plaintiff argued that he was unaware of the 180-day notification period, and that this period should be tolled because the employer had failed to exhibit the most current government-approved poster, which indicated that the period of time available for filing an ADEA claim was limited, and emphasized the necessity of prompt action. ² The court dismissed the action, stating that:

While an employer's failure to notify its employees of their ADEA rights as required by 29 U.S.C. Sec. 627 and 29 C.F.R. Sec. 850.10 might justify the equitable tolling of the limitations period of section 626(d) until the employee acquires actual knowledge or the means of knowledge of his ADEA rights, an employee who is aware of his ADEA rights yet does not notify the Department of Labor of his intent to sue within the prescribed period of time is barred from asserting a cause of action under the ADEA.

Id. (emphasis added).

The present case differs from Templeton in that Alabama-By-Products never posted any notice of ADEA rights. Thus, although McClinton had general knowledge of his rights not to be discriminated against on the basis of age, he may not have known of the existence of the ADEA and his specific rights under that statute. We are faced with the question of whether this slim factual distinction should lead to a different result. ³

We determine that it should not. Therefore, we hold that an employer's failure to post the requisite notice will equitably toll the 180-day notification period, but only until the employee acquires general knowledge of his right not to be discriminated against on account of age, or the means of obtaining such knowledge. ⁴ We do not think it necessary to toll the notification period up to the time that the employee obtains knowledge of his specific rights under the ADEA and/or the existence of the 180-day filing period. Once an employee suspects that he may have been discriminated against on account of age and is also generally aware of his legal right to obtain redress for that wrong, he possesses sufficient knowledge to enable him to vindicate his rights, if he so desires. When an employee is generally aware of his rights, ignorance of specific legal rights or failure to seek legal advice should not toll the 180-day notification period. Cf. Quina v. Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp., 575 F.2d 1115, 1118 (5th Cir.1978). (Ignorance of rights or failure to seek legal advice does not toll a statute of limitations.) A contrary result would permit an aggrieved employee aware of his general rights to sit on those rights until he leisurely decided to take action. ⁵ This would be inconsistent with and undermine the underlying ADEA policy of encouraging speedy, non-judicial resolutions to age discrimination employment disputes.

However, we also stress the...