Puckett v. Tennessee Eastman Co.

• Decision Date: 07 November 1989
• Docket Number: 88-5415,Nos. 88-5328,s. 88-5328
• Parties: 51 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 580, 52 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,480, RICO Bus.Disp.Guide 7354 Sharon PUCKETT, Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. TENNESSEE EASTMAN COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1481

889 F.2d 1481

51 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 580,

52 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,480,

RICO Bus.Disp.Guide 7354

Sharon PUCKETT, Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross-Appellee, v. TENNESSEE EASTMAN COMPANY, Defendant-Appellee, Cross-Appellant.

Nos. 88-5328, 88-5415.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued Feb. 14, 1989.

Decided Nov. 7, 1989.

David W. Blankenship, argued, William K. Rogers, Frank B. Dodson, Kingsport, Tenn., for plaintiff-appellant cross-appellee.

Hiram G. Tipton, George O. Burpeau, III, Tennessee Eastman Co. Legal Dept., Kingsport, Tenn., Homer L. Deakins, Jr., argued, Richard R. Parker, Margaret H. Campbell, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellee cross-appellant.

Before GUY and NORRIS, Circuit Judges, and BELL, District Judge. ^*

ALAN E. NORRIS, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff, Sharon Puckett, appeals from the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendant, Tennessee Eastman Company, in this action involving allegations of sexual harassment. Puckett asserted several different claims in her complaint, including claims under the Tennessee Anti-Discrimination Act, Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 4-21-101 et seq., Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970. On appeal, Puckett argues that the district court erred in determining that (1) her claim under the state act is barred as untimely; (2) receipt of a right-to-sue letter is a jurisdictional prerequisite to a Title VII action; and (3) her civil RICO claim should be dismissed since separate and distinct entities serving as the "person" and the "enterprise" had not been identified, and obstruction of a state administrative proceeding will not suffice to establish a "pattern of racketeering activity." We reject Puckett's arguments and affirm the district court's decision.

I.

On February 24, 1982, Sharon Puckett filed a charge of discrimination with the Tennessee Human Rights Commission ("THRC") and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), alleging that she was sexually harassed during 1981 and 1982. Specifically, she alleged that she was subjected to sexual harassment by her supervisor at Tennessee Eastman Company ("Eastman"), and that, because she rejected his advances, she was given poor evaluations, fewer raises, and was denied transfers. Puckett filed another charge of discrimination with the EEOC and the THRC in 1982, alleging retaliation by Eastman in March and April 1982 for her having filed the first discrimination charge. The THRC investigated the charges and, on May 28, 1985, issued a determination finding reasonable cause to believe sexual harassment had occurred. However, it was also determined that there was no reasonable cause to believe that her poor evaluations, slow advancement, or denial of transfers were related to the sexual harassment, or that she was retaliated against. The THRC called upon the parties to make an effort to conciliate the matter.

After conciliation attempts proved unsuccessful, Puckett requested the withdrawal of her charges on February 13, 1986. On May 1, 1986, the THRC closed its file on Puckett's complaint. The EEOC also accepted Puckett's request and closed its file. Puckett initiated this action on May 12, 1986, by filing a complaint in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial District of the State of Tennessee. The complaint alleged discrimination in violation of Title VII and the Tennessee Anti-Discrimination Act, Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 4-21-101 et seq. Eastman removed the action to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on June 11, 1986. On May 18, 1987, Puckett filed an amended complaint, adding claims alleging violation of civil RICO, conspiracy under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985, and the torts of outrageous conduct and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

On January 26, 1988, Eastman filed a motion to dismiss and for summary judgment. The court granted Eastman's motion on March 11, 1988. In dismissing all of Puckett's claims, the district court held: (1) Puckett's claim under the Tennessee Anti-Discrimination Act is barred by the applicable one-year limitations period; (2) she did not meet the Title VII prerequisite of receiving a right-to-sue letter; (3) she failed to state a claim under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1985 because a corporation cannot conspire with itself or its employees to deprive a person of civil rights; (4) Puckett's tort claims are precluded by the exclusive remedies provision of the state's workers' compensation law and is time-barred by the applicable one-year statute of limitations; and (5) the claim of a violation of RICO must be dismissed since Puckett failed to identify separate entities serving as the "enterprise" and the "person," and obstruction of a state administrative proceeding is an insufficient predicate act. This appeal followed.

II.

The district court determined that Puckett's claim under the Tennessee Anti-Discrimination Act ("the Act"), Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 4-21-101 et seq., is precluded by a judicially imposed one-year limitations period on claims brought pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 4-21-311. See Hoge v. Roy H. Park Broadcasting of Tennessee, Inc., 673 S.W.2d 157 (Tenn.App.1984). It was noted that Puckett's complaint alleges discriminatory acts that occurred in 1981-82, but that her suit was not commenced until 1986. Puckett contends that, although a one-year limitations period has been applied to civil actions under the Act, Tennessee law is unsettled concerning whether this limitations period is subject to equitable tolling.

As the district court correctly noted, the Act provides two avenues of redress for employment discrimination. First, under Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 4-21-302 ¹, an individual claiming to be aggrieved by a discriminatory practice may file an administrative complaint with the THRC within 180 days after the commission of the alleged discriminatory practice. The THRC is then given sixty days in which to determine whether there is reasonable cause to believe that the employer was engaged in a discriminatory practice. If the administrative determination is unfavorable to the aggrieved individual, he or she may file a petition in chancery court to obtain judicial review pursuant to Sec. 4-21-307, but the petition must be filed within thirty days after the THRC issues its order.

Second, an aggrieved individual, without exhausting the administrative remedies, may file a direct action in chancery court pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 4-21-311, which reads:

Additional remedies preserved.--Any person deeming himself or herself injured by any act in violation of the provisions of this chapter shall have a civil cause of action in chancery court to enjoin further violations, and to recover the actual damages sustained by him or her, together with the costs of the lawsuit, including a reasonable fee for his or her attorney of record, all of which shall be in addition to any other remedies contained in this chapter.

Although the limitations period for the filing of an administrative complaint, as well as the timing for other steps of the administrative process, is set forth in the statute, it is apparent that there is no statute of limitations set forth for direct actions in chancery court in Sec. 4-21-311. The question of an appropriate statute of limitations for actions under Sec. 4-21-311 was thus a matter left for judicial determination.

A federal court first addressed the issue of the appropriate limitations period for actions under Sec. 4-21-311. In Roland v. Kroger Co., No. CIV-1-82-394 (E.D.Tenn. May 13, 1983), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, basing jurisdiction over a claim under Sec. 4-21-311 on diversity of citizenship, held that the 180-day limitations period in Sec. 4-21-302 for filing an administrative action with the THRC applied to direct actions in chancery court as well. In addition, the district court decided that this 180-day limitations period would be tolled by the filing of an administrative charge with the EEOC or THRC, and extended by at least ninety days after exhaustion of the administrative remedies. The district court reasoned that an employer would be prejudiced by the loss of evidence if a limitations period greater than 180 days was chosen, but that, if an administrative charge was filed, notice to preserve evidence would be given to the employer and the limitations period could therefore be tolled.

In Hoge v. Roy H. Park Broadcasting of Tennessee, Inc., a panel of the Court of Appeals of Tennessee developed a different limitations scheme. The state court held that the appropriate limitations period is a one-year statute of limitations drawn by reference to Tennessee's general statute of limitations for actions alleging a violation of the federal civil rights statutes, Tenn.Code Ann. Sec. 28-3-104. ² The Hoge court reasoned that, because a direct chancery court action is clearly foreign to the conventional administrative scheme for addressing discriminatory conduct, administrative time limits should not be adopted by analogy. Rather, the applicable statute of limitations should be determined by the substance of the complaint, which is a violation of the federal civil rights statutes. In a footnote, the court took note of the split of authority in the federal courts as to whether the limitations periods for federal civil rights actions are subject to equitable tolling. 673 S.W.2d at 160 n. 2. This issue, however, was not before the court in Hoge.

Following Hoge, another panel of the Court of Appeals of Tennessee, in an unpublished decision, interpreted the Act to force the aggrieved individual to make an election between the administrative remedy, with judicial review, and a direct action in chancery court. In McClure v. Bush Bros. & Co., No. 53, 1987 WL 18906 (Tenn.App. Oct. 27, 1987), the court stated: "It seems to us, that once having pursued his claim to an...