Speiser v. US Dept. of Health and Human Services

• Decision Date: 19 June 1986
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 85-2426.
• Citation: 670 F. Supp. 380
• Parties: Judith N. SPEISER, Plaintiff, v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

670 F. Supp. 380

Judith N. SPEISER, Plaintiff, v. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, et al., Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 85-2426.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

June 19, 1986.

Joseph D. Gebhardt, Dobrovir & Gebhardt, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff.

Michael L. Martinez, Asst. U.S. Atty., Washington, D.C., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM

HAROLD H. GREENE, District Judge.

Plaintiff Judith Speiser, an attorney formerly employed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (the Department), brings this action against the Department under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. Plaintiff claims that the defendant discriminated against her because of her mental illness in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by harassing and intimidating her and eventually causing her constructive discharge. Pending before the Court is defendant's motion to dismiss or for summary judgment on the grounds that plaintiff failed to exhaust her administrative remedies in a timely manner. More specifically, defendant's motion raises the issue of whether the plaintiff's claim of mental illness and the circumstances surrounding her five and one-half month delay in filing her discrimination complaint mandate equitable tolling of the 30 day period for lodging a discrimination complaint required by 29 C.F.R. § 1613.214(a)(1)(i). For the reasons stated herein, the Court finds that the circumstances do not require equitable tolling, and therefore grants defendant's motion for summary judgment on the grounds that plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies within the requisite period of time.

I

The following facts are undisputed. Plaintiff was employed as an attorney in the General Counsel's office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from November 1981 until February 24, 1984. On February 10, 1984, plaintiff received a letter from her supervisor stating that she would be terminated effective February 24, 1984. On the same day, February 10, 1984, plaintiff, advised by her attorney, Joseph D. Gebhardt, reached an agreement with plaintiff's supervisor that the Department would withdraw her termination and expunge her unsatisfactory 1983 annual performance appraisal in exchange for plaintiff's resignation from the Department.¹ Plaintiff submitted her letter of resignation on February 15, 1984, to be effective February 24, 1984.

Plaintiff and her attorney met with the General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel of the Department on February 24, 1984. On the same day, plaintiff delivered a letter to the General Counsel's office which requested additional benefits and an investigation into the conduct of plaintiff's supervisor.² The letter referred to the resignation agreement between plaintiff and her supervisor, and stated that plaintiff had decided that it would be in the best interests of her future career to resign with a clean record rather than pursue her claim of discrimination. The letter was accompanied by a memorandum which described in detail the basis for plaintiff's discrimination claim, although the letter also stated that Ms. Speiser did not plan "to contest her departure."³ The General Counsel responded to the February 24, 1984 letter on March 22, 1984, when he informed plaintiff that the General Counsel's office would take no further action.

Meanwhile, plaintiff's mental disorder became aggravated, leading to a series of intermittent hospitalizations for treatment. Plaintiff was hospitalized five times for a total of 65 days in the months following her resignation.⁴

On August 10, 1984, five and one-half months after plaintiff's resignation, her attorney submitted an informal discrimination complaint to an Equal Employment Opportunity officer, along with a letter requesting an extension of time to file the complaint. Following the EEO counselor's issuance of a final report, plaintiff filed a formal administrative complaint. The Department, however, rejected the complaint as untimely. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission affirmed the Department's decision on June 26, 1985. Plaintiff then filed this action.

II

Plaintiff brings her claim pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (the Act), as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., which prohibits employment discrimination against handicapped individuals. A federal employee seeking relief under the Act must exhaust administrative remedies before bringing a civil suit alleging discrimination on the basis of a handicap.⁵ Kizas v. Webster, 707 F.2d 524 (D.C.Cir.1983); Prewitt v. United States Postal Service, 662 F.2d 292 (5th Cir.1981).

The regulations setting forth the procedures for seeking administrative relief in Rehabilitation Act cases provide that an aggrieved person may not file a formal administrative complaint until he has "brought to the attention of the Equal Employment Opportunity Counselor the matter causing him to believe he had been discriminated against within 30 calendar days of its effective date." 29 C.F.R. § 1613.214(a)(1)(i). The regulations also provide that:

The agency shall extend the time limits in this section: (1) when the complainant shows that he was not notified of the time limits and was not otherwise aware of them, or that he was prevented by circumstances beyond his control from submitting the matter within the time limits; ...

29 C.F.R. § 1613.214(a)(4).

The primary issue before the Court in defendant's motion⁶ is whether plaintiff was "prevented by circumstances beyond her control from submitting the matter" to an EEO counselor within 30 days, thus entitling her to an extension of the 30 day time period.⁷ Plaintiff argues that she is entitled to an extension, or equitable tolling, of the 30 days because she was mentally incapacitated from the date of her resignation until shortly before she contacted an EEO counselor. She claims that her incapacitation constitutes "circumstances beyond her control" which prevented her from filing her EEO complaint in a timely fashion.

Viewing the circumstances of plaintiff's case as a whole, the Court concludes that an extension of the 30 day requirement is not warranted. In reaching this conclusion, the Court is mindful that the various time limits imposed for instituting discrimination complaints at the agency level represent "a balance between fairness to the claimant and the importance of beginning the administrative process of investigation and conciliation in a timely manner." Wolfolk v. Rivera, 729 F.2d 1114, 1117 (7th Cir.1984).

According to the affidavit of plaintiff's psychiatrist, Ms. Speiser suffers from Atypical Depression, a recognized diagnostic entity. The condition manifests itself as lethargy, tendency toward excess sleep, disorganization, disorientation, appetite changes, distorted perceptions, impaired judgment, and paranoid thinking.⁸ Her psychiatrist stated that in the months following her resignation, plaintiff was depressed, preoccupied, and unable to think rationally about her employment situation. He does not state that she was ever noncompos mentis, or that her condition made her unaware of the circumstances surrounding her resignation and their consequences. Indeed, the gist of plaintiff's claim is not that her condition rendered her incapable of perceiving or understanding events, but that it impaired her ability to make a decision about how to proceed on the basis of that knowledge.

The issue before the Court then is whether a mental illness that results in impaired judgment warrants an extension of the 30 day filing requirement. While there is very little law to speak of which addresses whether this kind of mental illness constitutes "circumstances beyond control" pursuant to 29 C.F.R. § 1613.214(a)(4),⁹ an examination of the law that does exist and of analogous bodies of law compels the Court to conclude that impaired judgment is not enough.

As a starting point, the courts have held that, under Title VII sex and race discrimination cases, a plaintiff is deemed to have been prevented from filing a complaint by circumstances beyond his/her control until such time as the discrimination suffered was "apparent or should have been apparent to a person with a reasonably prudent regard for his rights." See, e.g., Reeb v. Economic Opportunity Atlanta, Inc., 516 F.2d 924, 931 (5th Cir. 1975). Plaintiff acknowledges that she was aware of the facts giving rise to her claim of discrimination and knew about the 30 day filing requirement.¹⁰ This acknowledgement is reinforced by the fact that plaintiff herself is an attorney and was represented by an attorney for the entire period of time at issue here. See Acklin v. National Gallery of Art, C.A. 84-4041, slip op. at 10-11 (D.D.C. May 2, 1986) Available on WESTLAW, DCT database. She was aware enough of her rights to negotiate with the Department over the terms of her departure from her job, even stating in the letter to the General Counsel that she was "giving up" her discrimination claim.¹¹ On these facts, plaintiff cannot argue that the facts giving rise to her claim were not "apparent" to her. While this test may or may not be appropriate in this case,¹² it is clear that plaintiff fails to satisfy it.

In the alternative, the Court could look for guidance to the standard for tolling the statute of limitations on grounds of mental incompetency in civil actions. In the only other case to address the question of tolling administrative time periods on mental incompetency grounds, the federal district court in Ohio held that mental incompetency could toll the period for filing an age discrimination complaint for any period of time where a court adjudicates the claimant to be incompetent or where the claimant is confined to a hospital or institution under a diagnosed condition which renders him incompetent. Bassett v. Sterling Drug, Inc., 578 F.Supp. 1244, 1247 (S.D.Ohio 1984). The Court applied the state statutory standard for tolling the statute of...