Source: http://openjurist.org/983/f2d/94
Timestamp: 2014-11-27 16:41:07
Document Index: 277045334

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 626', '§ 626', '§ 626', '§ 255', '§ 255', '§ 626']

983 F2d 94 O'Rourke v. Continental Casualty Company Cna | OpenJurist
983 F. 2d 94 - O'Rourke v. Continental Casualty Company Cna	Home983 f2d 94 o'rourke v. continental casualty company cna
983 F2d 94 O'Rourke v. Continental Casualty Company Cna 983 F.2d 94
60 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 889,60 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 41,976John O'ROURKE, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.CONTINENTAL CASUALTY COMPANY, doing business as CNAInsurance Companies, Defendant-Appellant.
Argued Nov. 12, 1992.Decided Jan. 8, 1993.Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc DeniedFeb. 3, 1993.
Claudia Oney (argued), Mark Hansen, Gail Rabinowitz, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellee.
Jeffrey S. Goldman, Allison Blakley (argued), Steven L. Gillman, Fox & Grove, Chicago, IL, for defendant-appellant.
CNA Insurance Companies fired John O'Rourke in 1975. After he filed a charge of age discrimination, CNA voluntarily reinstated him. Eleven years later, CNA fired O'Rourke a second time. Once again he accused CNA of age discrimination. This time CNA held its ground, and a jury concluded that CNA had not counted O'Rourke's age against him. Nonetheless O'Rourke prevailed, because the jury also found that the 1986 discharge penalized O'Rourke for the claim of discrimination in 1975. It does not seem likely that Continental would seek to "get" a disgruntled ex-employee by reinstating and employing him for 11 years, only to sack him again even though he was doing good work. Still, unlikely things happen now and then. We need not decide whether the jury's verdict (based on statements a supervisor made four years before the discharge) passes acceptable limits, cf. Samuelson v. Durkee/French Airwick, 976 F.2d 1111, 1115 (7th Cir.1992), because O'Rourke neglected to allege retaliation in a timely fashion.
A person who seeks relief under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act must meet two deadlines. First, he must file with the EEOC a charge of discrimination "within 180 days after the alleged unlawful practice occurred". 29 U.S.C. § 626(d)(1). The 180 days becomes 300 in "deferral" states, see 29 U.S.C. §§ 626(d)(2), 633. Second, he must commence suit within two years of the unlawful practice. 29 U.S.C. § 626(e)(1), incorporating 29 U.S.C. § 255. Extensions are possible: from two years to three if the violation is wilful, § 255(a), and by a year of tolling during the EEOC's efforts at conciliation, § 626(e)(2). Outer limits under the most favorable circumstances, then, are 300 days to make a charge before the administrative agency and 4 years to file suit, both measured from the act asserted to be unlawful.
CNA fired O'Rourke on February 18, 1986. He made an administrative charge on March 12, 1986, but did not allege retaliation. The factual narration in the charge (drafted by the EEOC and verified by O'Rourke) concerns age discrimination in the discharge; the document includes a check in the "age discrimination" box but not the "retaliation" box. The EEOC sent this charge to CNA. By O'Rourke's own account, the first time he alerted the EEOC to the possibility of retaliation was March 4, 1987, more than a year after the discharge, when he sent the agency a memorandum concerning his discharge and reinstatement in 1975. The memorandum did not hint at retaliation--O'Rourke offered the prior discharge as evidence that CNA generally takes employees' age into account--but we shall assume that an alert staff at the EEOC would have inferred that retaliation was a possibility. We do not know what the EEOC's staff thought of this document (its files were destroyed in routine housekeeping before trial), but we do know that the EEOC's caseworker did not amend the charge or initiate discussions with CNA about retaliation. When the EEOC closed its investigation, it found no support f