Opinion ID: 560522
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dismissal of Race Discrimination Claim

Text: 34 In his charge filed with the EEOC, which was subsequently referred to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission (OCRC), Ang complained that I was terminated from my position as a Senior Systems Analyst on Sept. 15, 1987 due to my national origin, Indonesian.... I believe that I was fired because of my national origin (Indonesian) since retained employees have done the same things as me without being fired. In the boxes for marking the type of discrimination charged, Ang marked only national origin, although race and retaliation were also listed on the form. Based on Ang's charge and the OCRC's determination letter which indicated that they had only investigated national origin discrimination, the district court found that Ang's failure to pursue an administrative solution before the OCRC precluded him from litigating a race discrimination claim in federal court. We review a district court's factual findings in a dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction only for clear error. Lowe v. City of Monrovia, 775 F.2d 998, 1003 (9th Cir.1985), amended, 784 F.2d 1407 (9th Cir.1986). 35 In order for federal courts to have subject matter jurisdiction of Title VII claims, the claimant must first unsuccessfully pursue administrative relief. Love v. Pullman Co., 404 U.S. 522, 92 S.Ct. 616, 30 L.Ed.2d 679 (1972). Courts have thus held that if the claimant did not first present a claim to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), that claim may not be brought before the court. Lowe, 775 F.2d at 998; Jackson v. Ohio Bell Telephone Co., 555 F.Supp. 80 (S.D.Ohio 1982). The judicial complaint must be limited to the scope of the EEOC investigation reasonably expected to grow out of the charge of discrimination. EEOC v. Bailey Co., Inc., 563 F.2d 439, 446 (6th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 915, 98 S.Ct. 1468, 55 L.Ed.2d 506 (1978). Thus, in Lowe, a failure to bring a sex discrimination charge in an EEOC complaint of race discrimination precluded bringing that charge before the court. Lowe, 775 F.2d at 1003-04. Because Lowe, like Ang, was a member of two minority groups, it may not have been possible for her, a black woman seeking a position on an all white, all male police force, to determine whether the discrimination she suffered was on account of race or sex. The clear language of her EEOC complaint, I feel the sole reason for my denial of the job is because I am Black, convinced the court, however, that she had not stated a claim for sex discrimination before the EEOC. Id. at 1004. Although not as definitively and exclusively, Ang also clearly alleged only national origin discrimination. 36 The scope of Ang's complaint does not automatically expand due to his membership in more than one minority group. In Castro v. United States, 775 F.2d 399, 403 n. 2 (1st Cir.1985), the court commented that the argument that the EEO Office should have known that Diaz Diaz was alleging discrimination on the basis of national origin by the fact that he is Puerto Rican and by the fact that he alleged discrimination on the basis of age is contrary to both logic and law. This refusal to broaden the Title VII claim has been applied to allegations virtually identical to those brought here. In Shah v. Mt. Zion Hosp. & Medical Center, 642 F.2d 268, 271-72 (9th Cir.1981), the court held that an East Indian male who, like Ang, alleged national origin discrimination in his EEOC claim could not include charges of race, color, and religious discrimination in his Title VII complaint. This refusal to treat race and national origin claims identically is supported by the Supreme Court's definition of national origin as the country where a person was born, or, more broadly, the country from which his or her ancestors came. Espinoza v. Farah Mfg. Co., 414 U.S. 86, 88, 94 S.Ct. 334, 336, 38 L.Ed.2d 287 (1973). Noting this definition, the court in Roach v. Dresser Indus. Valve & Instrument Div., 494 F.Supp. 215, 216 (W.D.La.1980), stated that [t]he legislative history enunciates precisely that a person's national origin has nothing to do with color, religion, or race. Ang's charge of national origin discrimination does not necessarily include charges of race discrimination, and the OCRC's determination letter indicates that they did not construe the national origin charge to include race discrimination. 37 Because Title VII is a remedial statute, many courts refuse to narrowly construe the charge where such a construction would preclude a plaintiff from bringing a claim. See Obradovich v. Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 569 F.Supp. 785 (S.D.N.Y.1983); Sanchez v. Standard Brands, Inc., 431 F.2d 455, 462 (5th Cir.1970); Scott v. Overland Park, 595 F.Supp. 520 (D.Kan 1984). Courts require this broad reading of the charge because most Title VII claimants are unschooled in the technicalities of the law and proceed without counsel. See Sanchez, 431 F.2d at 463; Scott, 595 F.Supp. at 526; Obradovich, 569 F.Supp. at 789. Ang, however, was assisted by counsel throughout the administrative investigation. Liberal construction is not necessary where the claimant is aided by counsel in preparing his charge. Hawley v. Dresser Indus., Inc., 737 F.Supp. 445, 452 n. 3 (S.D.Ohio 1990). 38 Because Ang's Asian race and Indonesian ancestry are closely related and may have both contributed to any discrimination he suffered, the district court could have concluded that an investigation could reasonably include discrimination based on race and national origin. The court, however, did not clearly err in concluding that Ang's failure to raise race discrimination in his EEOC charge was a fatal flaw as Ang was assisted by counsel in writing his charge, his charge did not specifically allege race discrimination, and the EEOC did not investigate race discrimination.