Source: https://casetext.com/case/us-v-tierra-apartments-ltd-partnership
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 08:09:04+00:00

Document:
Joseph D. Rich, Susan Barbosa Fisch, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Civ. Rights Div., Housing and Civil Enforcement Section, Washington, DC, Sally R. Johnson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Lincoln, NE, for plaintiff.
Patrick W. Healey, Healey Wieland Law Firm, Lincoln, NE, for defendants.
Pending before the court is the defendants' motion for summary judgment (Filing 15), which is based on defendants' argument that the United States' failure to file its complaint within 30 days of the defendants' election to proceed in federal district court pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 3612(a) and (o) is a jurisdictional defect, making the defendants entitled to judgment as a matter of law. (Defs.' Br. at 1 5.) After careful consideration of the materials submitted in support of, and in opposition to, the motion for summary judgment, I conclude that such motion should be denied.
As authorized by 42 U.S.C. § 3612(a), the defendants elected on January 18, 1994, to have the HUD charge heard in a United States district court, rather than before an administrative law judge. (Filing 1 ¶ 10; Filing 11 ¶ 10; Filing 19, Notice of Election of Judicial Determination.) Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 3612(o)(1), when such an election is made, the Attorney General "shall commence and maintain[ ] a civil action on behalf of the aggrieved person in a United States district court" and shall do so "not later than 30 days after the election is made."
Summary judgment should be granted only "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact, and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Summary judgment is an extreme and treacherous device, which should not be granted unless the moving party has established a right to a judgment with such clarity as to leave no room for controversy, and unless the other party is not entitled to recover under any discernible circumstance. Vette Co. v. Aetna Casualty Surety Co., 612 F.2d 1076, 1077 (8th Cir. 1980). In passing upon a motion for summary judgment, the district court must view the facts in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion. Id. Even if the district court is convinced that the moving party is entitled to judgment, the exercise of sound judicial discretion may dictate that the motion should be denied, in order that the case can be fully developed at trial. McLain v. Meier, 612 F.2d 349, 356 (8th Cir. 1979).
Essentially the test is "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2512, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). And, although under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 due deference must be given to the rights of litigants to have their claims adjudicated by the appropriate finder of fact, equal deference must be given under Rule 56 to the rights of those defending against such claims to have a just, speedy, and inexpensive determination of the action where the claims have no factual basis. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 327, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554-55, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986).
If the time limit in section 3612(o)(1) is a jurisdictional prerequisite as the defendants claim, the time limit cannot be equitably tolled, as can a statute of limitations, and noncompliance with the time requirement divests the court of jurisdiction to hear the case. Salgado v. Atlantic Richfield Co., 823 F.2d 1322, 1324 (9th Cir. 1987).
While I was unable to locate any published case law, legislative history, or federal regulations construing the time limit in section 3612(o)(1), this court has dealt with this same issue in United States of America v. Roseanne Weber, et al., No. 8:CV93-00031, slip op. (D.Neb. Oct. 19, 1993) (Magistrate Judge Thalken's Report and Recommendation adopted by the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska). In Weber this court declined to dismiss a Fair Housing Act case in which the United States filed its complaint 36 days after election was made. The court found that untimely filing should result in dismissal only if the statutory time limit is mandatory. Since, under the principles of statutory construction, mandatory statutory time periods require agencies or public officials to act within a particular time period and specify a consequence for failure to act in a timely manner, and since section 3612(o)(1) of the Fair Housing Act does not specify a consequence for untimely filing, the statute was construed as a directory statute, violations of which may be remedied with "discretionary benevolence." Id. at 5-7. In the exercise of its discretionary benevolence, the court found that dismissal was not appropriate when filing occurred within one week of the statutory time limit and when the United States understandably miscalculated the election date. Id. at, 4-7.
In the employment discrimination context, "there is a trend toward finding time limits placed on filing court actions or other similar filing periods to be statutes of limitations rather than jurisdictional prerequisites." Salgado at 1324. See, e.g., Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 455 U.S. 385, 393, 102 S.Ct. 1127, 1132, 71 L.Ed.2d 234 (1982) (timely filing of charge with the EEOC is not jurisdictional prerequisite to suit in federal court; timely filing requirement is subject to waiver, estoppel, and equitable tolling like a statute of limitation); Walker v. St. Anthony's Medical Ctr., 881 F.2d 554, 556-57 (8th Cir. 1989) (same); Hill v. John Chezik Imports, 869 F.2d 1122, 1123-24 (8th Cir. 1989) (same).
The parties do not argue that the time limit contained in 42 U.S.C. § 3612(o)(1) is a statute of limitation. However, even if such time limit were construed as a statute of limitation barring the rights of the government, I would be required to strictly construe the statute in favor of the government. Badaracco v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 464 U.S. 386, 391, 104 S.Ct. 756, 760-61, 78 L.Ed.2d 549 (1984); United States v. Ward, 985 F.2d 500, 502 (10th Cir. 1993); Mullikin v. United States, 952 F.2d 920, 926 (6th Cir. 1991), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, ___ — ___, 113 S.Ct. 85, 85-86, 121 L.Ed.2d 49 (1992).
Based on these authorities, and in light of the absence of any language in section 3612(o)(1) or in its legislative history or regulations indicating that failure to meet the 30-day time limit contained therein divests a court of jurisdiction to hear the case, I find that such time limit is not jurisdictional and mandatory.
In this case, the parties dispute whether Jan Dutton actually orally agreed to an extension of time to file suit under section 3612(o)(1) during Dutton's telephone conversation with Susan Fisch on February 10, 1994. However, the evidence establishes that each party was interested in pursuing settlement of the matter and, rightly or wrongly, Fisch understood Dutton to agree to an extension on behalf of all defendants, as stated in Fisch's February 14, 1994, letter to Dutton which sought to confirm their earlier telephone conversation. (Filing 19, Decl. of Susan Barbosa Fisch, Attach. A.) Amidst a weather delay and federal holiday, when it became clear to Fisch that this supposed agreement to extend the filing time was not agreeable to Dutton, Fisch promptly prepared a complaint and forwarded it for filing in this court.
As stated above, I find that the United States' failure to meet the 30-day time limit in 42 U.S.C. § 3612(o)(1) does not divest this court of jurisdiction of the matter or require dismissal of the case. Further, construing the facts in favor of the United States, as I must, I find that in light of the fact that this action was filed within five days of the statutory time limit, and in light of Fisch's understanding that an agreement to extend such time limit had been reached, dismissal of this action for untimely filing under 42 U.S.C. § 3612(o)(1) would, in these circumstances, be inappropriate. Because the defendants have not established a right to judgment with such clarity as to leave no room for controversy, and because the defendants are not entitled to judgment as a matter of law, their motion for summary judgment must be denied.
IT IS ORDERED that the defendants' motion for summary judgment (Filing 15) is denied.

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