Opinion ID: 75924
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Actionable Period

Text: 9 At the outset, we must establish the appropriate temporal reach of the EEOC's disparate treatment claims. Section 706 of Title VII, the statute under which the EEOC brought this action, requires that a plaintiff, including the EEOC itself, exhaust certain administrative remedies before filing a suit for employment discrimination. See generally 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5; Wilkerson v. Grinnell Corp., 270 F.3d 1314, 1317 (11th Cir.2001). The administrative process is initiated by timely filing a charge of discrimination. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(b); Wilkerson, 270 F.3d at 1317. For a charge to be timely in a deferral state such as Florida, it must be filed within 300 days of the last discriminatory act. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1). Accordingly, only those claims arising within 300 days prior to the filing of the EEOC's discrimination charge are actionable. See Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, ___ U.S. ___, 122 S.Ct. 2061, 153 L.Ed.2d 106 (2002); Taylor v. Hudson Pulp & Paper Co., 788 F.2d 1455, 1458 (11th Cir.1986). Because the EEOC filed its charge on June 25, 1991, discriminatory acts occurring prior to August 29, 1990 are outside the scope of this action. 10 The EEOC, however, argues that the discrimination in this case constituted a continuing violation, which extended the limitations period beyond August 29, 1990. In determining whether a discriminatory employment practice constitutes a continuing violation, we must distinguish between the present consequence of a one-time violation, which does not extend the limitations period, and the continuation of the violation into the present, which does. See Beavers v. American Cast Iron Pipe Co., 975 F.2d 792, 796 (11th Cir.1992) (internal quotations omitted). The disparate treatment claims asserted by the EEOC fall into the former category. The alleged acts at issue — the failure to hire the claimants because they were women — were discrete, one-time employment events that should have put the claimants on notice that a cause of action had accrued. See Morgan, 122 S.Ct. at ___; see also Clark v. Olinkraft, Inc., 556 F.2d 1219, 1222 (5th Cir.1977) (suggesting that failure to hire does not constitute continuing violation); 4 East v. Romine, Inc., 518 F.2d 332, 336-37 (5th Cir.), overruled on other grounds, Burdine v. Texas Dep't of Community Affairs, 647 F.2d 513 (5th Cir.1981), (holding that district court should not have considered plaintiff's failure to hire claims arising prior to limitations period). Accordingly, the continuing violation doctrine does not extend the actionable time period beyond August 29, 1990, and the EEOC had to show acts of intentional discrimination injuring each of the four claimants that occurred between that date and the filing of the charge on June 25, 1991. 5