Toombs v. Greer-Smyrna, Inc.

• Decision Date: 08 January 1982
• Docket Number: No. 80-3441.,80-3441.
• Citation: 529 F. Supp. 497
• Parties: Lillian E. TOOMBS, Plaintiff, v. GREER-SMYRNA, INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee

529 F. Supp. 497

Lillian E. TOOMBS, Plaintiff, v. GREER-SMYRNA, INC., Defendant.

No. 80-3441.

United States District Court, M. D. Tennessee, Nashville Division.

January 8, 1982.

R. Jan Jennings and James G. Stranch, III, Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff.

Charles Hampton White, Nashville, Tenn., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

WISEMAN, District Judge.

This cause is before this Court on the objections of defendant Greer-Smyrna, Inc., to the report of the Special Master in the cause finding defendant liable for sex discrimination in violation of Section 703(a)(1) of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). Defendant objects to the Special Master's report on essentially three grounds: (1) that the Special Master and this Court lack jurisdiction to hear plaintiff's claim; (2) that the Special Master's findings of fact are clearly erroneous; and (3) that the Special Master conclusions of law are inaccurate. For the reasons stated below this Court denies all of defendant's objections and affirms the report of the Special Master.

Jurisdiction

Defendant Greer-Smyrna, Inc., argues that the Special Master was without jurisdiction to hear this cause because plaintiff Lillian E. Toombs failed to satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisites for filing suit set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5. Plaintiff Toombs filed a charge of sex discrimination against defendant Greer-Smyrna, Inc., but did not file a charge with the Tennessee Commission for Human Development TCHD, as is seemingly required under Title VII. Moreover, after receiving plaintiff's charge, the EEOC did not refer it to the TCHD. Defendant argues that because no charge of sex discrimination was ever filed with the TCHD, plaintiff's charge filed with the EEOC was not timely. This Court disagrees.

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(c) provides:

In the case of an alleged unlawful employment practice occurring in a State, or political subdivision of a State, which has a State or local law prohibiting the unlawful employment practice alleged and establishing or authorizing a State or local authority to grant or seek relief from such practice or to institute criminal proceedings with respect thereto upon receiving notice thereof, no charge may be filed under subsection (b) of this section by the person aggrieved before the expiration of sixty days after proceedings have been commenced under the State or local law, unless such proceedings have been earlier terminated, provided that such sixty-day period shall be extended to one hundred and twenty days during the first year after the effective date of such State or local law ....

The essence of this provision is that an individual who has allegedly suffered discrimination in employment should first seek relief from the appropriate state discrimination agency, if one exists, before the EEOC becomes involved. The provision demonstrates a clear preference for initial state involvement in any investigation of an alleged discriminatory employment practice. The EEOC must defer any action on its part for sixty days (or 120 days in the case of a new agency) after a charge has been filed with the appropriate state agency or until completion of the state investigation, whichever comes first.¹

While section 2000e-5(c)'s focus thus seems simple, its application is sometimes complicated. Not infrequently, as in the instant case, a complainant will file his charge only with the EEOC and fail to file anything with the state agency. Fortunately for the unwary layman, the Supreme Court held in Love v. Pullman Co., 404 U.S. 522, 92 S.Ct. 616, 30 L.Ed.2d 679 (1972), that the EEOC can refer a charge to the appropriate state agency and hold the charge in "suspended animation" until the deferral period expires. Upon expiration of the deferral period the charge is treated as automatically filed with the EEOC. Federal regulations now in fact require the EEOC to follow this referral/deferral process whenever an individual files his initial charge with the EEOC. 29 C.F.R. § 1601.13 (1981). These regulations were in effect when plaintiff filed her charge with the EEOC.

A problem develops, however, when the EEOC ignores the regulatory requirements and fails to refer a charge to the state. That is what happened here. Plaintiff Toombs filed her charge of sex discrimination against defendant Greer-Smyrna, Inc., only with the EEOC. Plaintiff never filed a charge of any sort with the Tennessee Commission for Human Development, and the EEOC did not refer her charge to the TCHD.² Instead, the EEOC investigated plaintiff's claim, failed to resolve the matter itself, and issued a right-to-sue letter to plaintiff. Plaintiff filed her complaint in this case within the ninety-day statutory period after receiving the right-to-sue letter. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1).

The question thus presented to this Court is whether the EEOC's failure to refer plaintiff's charge to the TCHD renders her EEOC charge untimely and deprives this Court of jurisdiction to review plaintiff's claim. Defendant argues that plaintiff's failure to file a charge with the TCHD and the EEOC's failure to refer the charge that it received violated the explicit statutory requirements of Title VII and that therefore a valid, timely charge was never filed with the EEOC itself. In other words, defendant argues that because section 2000e-5(c) declares that no charge may be filed with the EEOC until after a charge has been filed with the state agency, no charge was ever filed with the EEOC because no charge was ever filed with the TCHD.³ The filing of a charge with the EEOC is, of course, a jurisdictional prerequisite to a suit in this Court.

A strict technical reading of section 2000e-5(c) would seem to support defendant's contention. This Court does not believe, however, that such a reading is warranted or that the spirit and focus of Title VII would permit the result that defendant seeks — dismissal of plaintiff's claim. The Supreme Court indicated clearly in Love v. Pullman Co., supra, that a complainant is not to be penalized for failing to follow the technical filing requirements of Title VII. As the Court stated, the imposition of strict procedural technicalities, such as the dual filings rejected in Love, "are particularly inappropriate in a statutory scheme in which laymen, unassisted by trained lawyers, initiate the process."⁴ 404 U.S. at 527, 92 S.Ct. at 618-19, 30 L.Ed.2d at 685. If a complainant is not prejudiced by his own failure to file a charge with a state antidiscrimination agency, surely he should not suffer for the EEOC's misfeasance in disregarding its regulatory duty.

The issue presented to this Court was recently squarely addressed by the Ninth Circuit in Roberts v. Arizona Board of Regents, 661 F.2d 796 (9th Cir. 1981). The plaintiff in Roberts, like plaintiff Toombs here, had filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC but had not filed a charge with the Arizona Civil Rights Division, the appropriate state agency. As here, the EEOC in Roberts failed to refer the complainant's charge to the state agency.⁵ Relying on the Supreme Court's opinion in Love v. Pullman Co., the Ninth Circuit rejected the defendant's claim that plaintiff's charge was untimely filed because of the EEOC's inaction. As the court stated,

We are ... unwilling to allow the EEOC's violation of its own procedural regulations to redound to plaintiff's detriment.... To require a plaintiff ... to protect herself against the EEOC's possible violation of its own regulations by simultaneously filing a charge with the appropriate state agency would be wholly inconsistent with the rationale of Love.

661 F.2d at 799-800.⁶

Although the Roberts decision is not controlling in this Circuit, this Court finds the Ninth Circuit's reasoning highly persuasive. Moreover, this Court believes that the result reached by the Ninth Circuit in Roberts is compatible with the view taken generally by the Sixth Circuit with regard to the technical filing requirements of Title VII. Although it has never addressed the specific issue presented in this case, the Sixth Circuit has consistently refused to deny claimants access to the courts because of non-compliance with Title VII's provisions regarding state antidiscrimination proceedings. For example, in Mitchell v. Mid-Continent Spring Co., 466 F.2d 24 (6th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 928, 93 S.Ct. 1363, 35 L.Ed.2d 589 (1973), plaintiff filed a sex discrimination charge with the EEOC but failed to file a charge with the Kentucky Human Rights Commission KHRC. The EEOC failed to refer plaintiff's charge to the KHRC, as it was authorized to do by the decision in Love v. Pullman Co., and consequently no charge was ever filed with the KHRC before plaintiff was issued a right-to-sue letter and initiated federal court action. The district court dismissed plaintiff's suit for failure to satisfy the jurisdictional prerequisites of Title VII. The Sixth Circuit reversed the district court's ruling and remanded the case with instructions that the district court retain jurisdiction for a period sufficient to allow plaintiff or the EEOC to seek redress via the KHRC. The Sixth Circuit clearly felt that dismissal of plaintiff's suit was unwarranted. As the court stated, "It is clear that plaintiff should not lose her cause of action because of the failure of the EEOC to refer her complaint to a State agency."⁷ 466 F.2d at 27. More recently, in Ferguson v. Kroger Co., 545 F.2d 1034 (6th Cir. 1976), the Sixth Circuit refused to deny plaintiff's claim because of the EEOC's tardiness in referring plaintiff's religious discrimination charge to the state agency. Plaintiff filed her charge solely with the EEOC. The EEOC subsequently referred the charge to the KCHR but did so only after the state limitations period had expired. The district court dismissed plaintiff's complaint because plaintiff's charge had been untimely filed with the KCHR, but the Sixth Circuit reversed,...