Opinion ID: 2718298
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preservation of the Retaliation Claims

Text: The Secretary opens with a threshold challenge that Solomon never properly pleaded any distinct retaliation claim under the Rehabilitation Act, and that Solomon never alleged a retaliatory withdrawal (under any statute) of informal accommodations that the agency previously afforded her. Secretary Br. 52, 54. Those arguments come too late. Solomon argued her Rehabilitation Act retaliation claim in her opposition to the Secretary’s first motion for summary judgment. See Pl.’s Opp’n to Def.’s Mot. For Summ. J. at 2, ECF No. 29, No. 07-01590-JDB (D.D.C. May 8, 2009). The Secretary made no mention of a failure to plead then. See generally Reply in Supp. of Def.’s Mot. For Summ. J., ECF No. 34, No. 07-01590-JDB (D.D.C. June 8, 2009). 5 Solomon does not mention her retaliation claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, so it is forfeited. See Schneider v. Kissinger, 412 F.3d 190, 200 n.1 (D.C. Cir. 2005). 20 Furthermore, in her previous appeal, Solomon expressly argued that her requests for accommodation constituted protected activity under the Rehabilitation Act, and that the Department of Agriculture denied those requests for retaliatory reasons. Solomon Br. 57–60, No. 09-5319 (D.C. Cir. June 9, 2010). Solomon also argued that the Department withdrew her informal accommodations in retaliation for her protected activity. Id. at 56–57. The Secretary again failed to argue that Solomon had in any way failed to procedurally preserve those claims, see Secretary Br. 56–60, No. 09-5319 (D.C. Cir. Aug. 9, 2010), resulting in our repeated references to Solomon’s “distinct” retaliation claims under Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act. Solomon, 628 F.3d at 559–561, 567. To the extent the Secretary raised any forfeiture argument below, he did so for the first time in his reply brief during the second round of summary-judgment briefing—and even then, only with respect to “Solomon’s April 2004 Accommodations Claim[.]” Reply in Supp. of Def.’s Renewed Mot. For Summ. J. at 2–3, ECF No. 77, No. 07-01590-JDB (D.D.C. July 21, 2011). By failing to argue forfeiture or a failure to properly plead the claims before the district court, the Secretary has— in a word—forfeited his forfeiture argument here. See Lennon v. United States Theatre Corp., 920 F.2d 996, 1000 (D.C. Cir. 1990) (party’s failure to challenge the absence of a necessary pleading under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure “in all likelihood waived any waiver defense”); see also Empagran S.A. v. F. Hoffman-LaRoche, Ltd., 388 F.3d 337, 342–343 (D.C. Cir. 2004) (per curiam) (where defendant “fail[ed] to challenge the complaint under Rule 8, even after” claims were repeatedly asserted, the defendant had sufficient “notice regarding the [claims],” and the complaint accordingly “complied with the Federal Rules”). 21