Opinion ID: 783924
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Adverse Employment Action Claims

Text: 26 Frank, DeBose, Williams, Arterberry and Walker all asserted claims for several adverse employment actions that took place throughout the 1990s. The district court found that most of these claims were time-barred. Appellants assert that the district court erred in determining that the claims were time-barred; they urge that the continuing violations doctrine applies to their claims.
27 A claimant must file a Title VII discrimination claim with the EEOC within 300 days of the challenged discrimination. See 42 U.S.C.2000e-5(e)(1)(2003); Byers v. Dallas Morning News, 209 F.3d 419, 424 (5th Cir.2000). Only two of the employees, Carol Frank and Cynthia Walker, filed discrimination charges with the EEOC. The others can only pursue Title VII claims if they can piggyback onto a timely filed claim by either Frank or Walker. See Allen v. United States Steel Co., 665 F.2d 689, 695 (5th Cir.1982). Frank filed her claim on November 15, 1999, and Walker filed her claim on June 19, 2000. Thus, the district court correctly determined that the date for determining timeliness was 300 days prior to the filing of the first filed charge, or January 19, 1999. See Celestine v. Petroleos de Venezuella, S.A., 266 F.3d 343, 351 (5th Cir.2001). Any bad conduct that occurred prior to that date would be time-barred. See id. Similarly, one must file a discrimination claim under § 1981 within two years of the adverse employment action. See Byers, 209 F.3d at 424. This lawsuit was filed on June 29, 2000. Thus, claims for any adverse employment actions under § 1981 that occurred prior to June 29, 1998 are time-barred.
28 Appellants argue that the district court erred in finding that the continuing violations doctrine does not apply to their claims. They say that the continuing violations doctrine applies because: 1) the various adverse employment actions constituted an organized scheme to discriminate rather than discrete occurrences; and 2) that their claims show a pattern-or-practice of discrimination which allows them to be considered continuing violations. We affirm the district court's ruling that the continuing violations doctrine does not apply here. 29 Under the continuing violations doctrine, a plaintiff may complain of otherwise time-barred discriminatory acts if it can be shown that the discrimination manifested itself over time, rather than in a series of discrete acts. See Huckabay v. Moore, 142 F.3d 233, 238-39 (5th Cir.1998). However, in Huckabay, we also confirmed the rule that discrete actions, such as those asserted by Appellants, are not entitled to the shelter of the continuing violation doctrine. Id. at 239-40. Appellants complain of separate and varied acts and decisions that occurred at different times and discretely applied in different ways to different employees. And, beyond speculation, we cannot say that the record confirms an organized or continuing effort to discriminate. The pattern-or-practice argument also fails. See Celestine, 266 F.3d at 355-56 (pattern-or-practice method of proof not available in private, non-class action lawsuits). In addition, one is expected to act as soon as the facts of discrimination are or should be apparent to a reasonably prudent person similarly situated. See Messer v. Meno, 130 F.3d 130, 134-35 (5th Cir.1997). 30