Opinion ID: 2633435
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statute of Limitations and the Continuing Violation Doctrine

Text: The statute of limitations for FEHA actions states, in pertinent part: No complaint may be filed after the expiration of one year from the date upon which the alleged unlawful practice or refusal to cooperate occurred, except that this period may be extended as follows: (a) for not to exceed 90 days following the expiration of that year, if a person allegedly aggrieved by an unlawful practice first obtained knowledge of the facts of the alleged unlawful practice after the expiration of one year from the date of their occurrence, or (b) for not to exceed one year following a rebutted presumption of the identity of the person's employer under Section 12928, in order to allow a person allegedly aggrieved by an unlawful practice to make a substitute identification of the actual employer. (§ 12960.) The Court of Appeal correctly concluded that some of CH2M Hill's misconduct was within the relevant limitations period for FEHA actionse.g., the persistent blocking of hallway access and access to the supply room, the failure to prepare a fire escape plan, the failure to adjust the timing of the elevator door to provide access to the lunchroom. Other misconduct occurred outside the limitations period. Richards argues that these actions were nonetheless properly presented to the jury, both for evidentiary purposes and for purposes of proving damages, because they were brought in by the continuing violation doctrine. The Court of Appeal held, and CH2M Hill argues, that only those incidents of failure to reasonably accommodate that occurred within the limitations period were properly placed before the jury. To decide which party is correct, we must determine the proper scope of the continuing violation doctrine. Essentially, the continuing violation doctrine comes into play when an employee raises a claim based on conduct that occurred in part outside the limitations period. In such cases, two questions are potentially raised. The first question is evidentiary: are the alleged acts outside the limitation period admissible as relevant background evidence? (See United Air Lines v. Evans (1977) 431 U.S. 553, 558, 97 S.Ct. 1885, 52 L.Ed.2d 571.) The second and more difficult question is remedial: is an employer liable for actions that take place outside the limitations period if these actions are sufficiently linked to unlawful conduct within the limitations period? It is this second question that is at issue in this case.
`Because the antidiscrimination objectives and relevant wording of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) [(42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.)] [and other federal antidiscrimination statutes] are similar to those of the FEHA, California courts often look to federal decisions interpreting these statutes for assistance in interpreting the FEHA.' ( Reno v. Baird (1998) 18 Cal.4th 640, 647, 76 Cal.Rptr.2d 499, 957 P.2d 1333.) A review of federal case law regarding the continuing violation doctrine reveals the doctrine to be, as one leading treatise has noted, arguably the most muddled area in all of employment discrimination law. (2 Lindemann & Grossman, Employment Discrimination Law (3d ed.1996) p. 1351.) This is so because the doctrine refers not to a single theory, but to a number of different approaches, in different contexts and using a variety of formulations, to extending the statute of limitations in employment discrimination cases. Our review of federal case law reveals essentially four approaches to the continuing violation doctrine. In the first approach, a continuing violation is found when a corporate policy is initiated before the limitations period but continues in effect within that period to the detriment of the employee. As the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stated in Williams v. Owens-Illinois, Inc. (9th Cir. 1982) 665 F.2d 918, 924: [A] systematic policy of discrimination is actionable even if some or all of the events evidencing its inception occurred prior to the limitations period. [Citation.] The reason is that the continuing system of discrimination operates against the employee and violates his or her rights up to a point in time that falls within the applicable limitations period. For example, a discriminatory promotions policy implemented long before a lawsuit is brought is actionable if it continues into the limitations period to wrongfully deny an employee a promotion. ( Ibid.; see also E.E.O.C. v. Local 350, Plumbers and Pipefitters (9th Cir.1992) 982 F.2d 1305, 1308 [policy of discriminating against retirees in hiring hall]; Bartmess v. Drewrys U.S.A., Inc. (7th Cir.1971) 444 F.2d 1186, 1188 [compulsory retirement policy discriminating against women]; Abrams v. Baylor College of Medicine (5th Cir.1986) 805 F.2d 528, 533-534 [policy of discrimination against Jews in staffing Saudi Arabian hospital].) Two cases from our own Courts of Appeal also have concluded that a policy of systematic discrimination in the area of promotions constitutes a continuing violation. ( Valdez v. City of Los Angeles (1991) 231 Cal.App.3d 1043, 1052-1054, 282 Cal.Rptr. 726; City and County of San Francisco v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1987) 191 Cal.App.3d 976, 983, 236 Cal.Rptr. 716.) A second approach to the continuing violation doctrine is derived from the doctrine of equitable tolling. This approach has been cogently expressed by Judge Posner in Moskowitz v. Trustees of Purdue University (7th Cir.1993) 5 F.3d 279: Under the doctrine of equitable tolling, . . . a person injured by an unlawful act need not sue until he knows, or through the exercise of reasonable diligence would have known, not only that he has been injured (for once he discovers that, his cause of action has accrued and the statute of limitations begins to run) but also that he has been injured by a possibly wrongful act of the [employer]. . . . If it is only with the benefit of hindsight, after a series of discriminatory acts, that the [employee] can realize that he is indeed a victim of unlawful discrimination, he can sue in regard to all of the acts provided he sues promptly after learning their character, even if the statute of limitations has run on all of them. If, however, he knows or with the exercise of reasonable diligence would have known after each act that it was discriminatory and had harmed him, he may not sit back and accumulate all the discriminatory acts and sue on all within the statutory period applicable to the last one. So the fact that a series of discriminatory or otherwise unlawful acts is indeed a series, a continuum, rather than a concatenation of unrelated acts, will delay the deadline for suing with respect to the earliest acts in the series only if their character was not apparent when they were committed but became so when viewed in the light of the later acts. ( Id. at pp. 281-282, italics added.) The Moskowitz court viewed equitable tolling as the sole basis of the continuing violation doctrine. ( Id. at p. 282.) The Court of Appeal in the present case appears to have adopted a similar view. A third approach is the multifactored test first articulated in Berry v. Board of Sup's of L.S.U. (5th Cir.1983) 715 F.2d 971 ( Berry ). Under this approach, equitable tolling is one of a number of considerations for determining when a violation is deemed to be continuing. The court formulated the three nonexclusive factors of its test as follows: The first is subject matter. Do the alleged acts involve the same type of discrimination, tending to connect them in a continuing violation? The second is frequency. Are the alleged acts recurring (e.g., a biweekly paycheck) or more in the nature of an isolated work assignment or employment decision? The third factor, perhaps of most importance, is degree of permanence. Does the act have the degree of permanence which should trigger an employee's awareness of and duty to assert his or her rights, or which should indicate to the employee that the continued existence of the adverse consequences of the act is to be expected without being dependent on a continuing intent to discriminate?. . . . ( Id. at p. 981.) This third factor is akin to equitable tolling, focusing on when the employee was put on notice that his or her rights had been violated. The Berry test has been widely adopted by the federal courts. (See Filipovic v. K & R Exp. Systems, Inc. (7th Cir.1999) 176 F.3d 390, 396; Sabree v. United Broth, of Carpenters & Joiners (1st Cir.1990) 921 F.2d 396, 402; Hendrix v. City of Yazoo City, Miss. (5th Cir.1990) 911 F.2d 1102, 1104; Bullington v. United Air Lines, Inc. (10th Cir.1999) 186 F.3d 1301, 1311; Roberts v. Gadsden Memorial Hosp. (11th Cir. 1988) 835 F.2d 793.) Although a number of courts using the Berry test have emphasized the paramount importance of the third factor, i.e., the permanence of the action (see, e.g., Selan v. Kiley (7th Cir. 1992) 969 F.2d 560, 565-566, and cases cited therein; Bullington v. United Air Lines, Inc., supra, 186 F.3d at p. 1311), a review of the cases reveals that the weight and significance given to this factor is highly variable, often depending on the context in which the continuing violation doctrine is being applied. For example, some courts employing the Berry test in the context of sexual or racial harassment have concluded that such harassment often lacks the permanence to start the running of the statute of limitations. As one court stated: Acts of harassment that create an offensive or hostile environment generally do not have the same degree of permanence as, for example, the loss of promotion. If the person harassing [an employee] leaves his job, the harassment ends; the harassment is dependent on a continuing intent to harass. In contrast, when a person who denies [an employee] a promotion leaves, the [employee] is still without a promotion even though there is no longer any intent to discriminate. In this latter example, there is an element of permanence to the discriminatory action, which should, in most cases, alert [an employee] that her rights have been violated. ( Waltman v. International Paper Co. (5th Cir.1989) 875 F.2d 468, 476.) Some courts applying the Berry test have found, moreover, a continuing violation based on a pattern of harassment even when the harassment is of such a serious nature as plainly to place the employee on notice that her rights were being violated. For example, in Martin v. Nannie and the Newborns, Inc. (10th Cir.1993) 3 F.3d 1410, the court was confronted with a pattern of hostile environment sexual harassment that met the first two factors of the Berry test: the acts of harassment were sufficiently related and occurred with great frequency. But the facts relevant to the third factor were not in the employee's behalfshe had been allegedly raped outside of the limitations period, an event that clearly would have put her on notice that her rights had been violated. Nonetheless, the court found the first two factors weighed sufficiently on her behalf to overcome this deficiency and avoid summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds. ( Martin, supra, 3 F.3d at pp. 1415-1416; see Bullington v. United Air Lines, Inc., supra, 186 F.3d at p. 1311, fn. 4 [Berry test not a bright-line test and weight given to the factors varies according to the facts].) Similarly, in the area of reasonable accommodation for disability, some courts applying the Berry test have found a continuing violation based primarily on the factors of similarity of subject matter and frequency of misconduct, deemphasizing the permanence factor. In Lewis v. Board of Trustees of Alabama State University (M.D.Ala.1995) 874 F.Supp. 1299, 1304, an employee had made repeated requests, repeatedly refused, for a transfer to accommodate her disability. The question presented was whether the statute of limitations began to run from the first refusal, as the employer contended, or from the last. Using the Berry test adopted by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Roberts v. Gadsden Memorial Hosp., supra, 835 F.2d 793, the court concluded that the complaint contained sufficient allegations of an ongoing practice of discrimination for failure to reasonably accommodate the employee's disability to survive the motion to dismiss. The court did not consider the permanence factor, but only that the various acts were nearly identical and were frequent enough to be properly viewed as a continuing violation. ( Ibid.; see also Bodiford v. State of Alabama (M.D.Ala.1994) 854 F.Supp. 886, 890-891 [repeated denials of request for a transfer on the basis of disability a continuing violation], disapproved on other grounds in Holbrook v. City of Alpharetta (11th Cir.1997) 112 F.3d 1522, 1530-1531.) A fourth approach to the continuing violation doctrine has dispensed with the permanence factor altogether. This approach is exemplified by the Ninth Circuit, which has adopted what may be termed a course of conduct test rather than the Berry test, as was recognized in Counts v. Reno (D.Hawai'i 1996) 949 F.Supp. 1478, 1484-1486. The test employed is essentially whether the separate acts of discrimination are `closely enough related' to form a continuing violation. ( Id. at p. 1485; see also Fielder v. UAL Corp. (9th Cir.2000) 218 F.3d 973, 987-988 [rejecting Berry test with regard to hostile environment claims]; Anderson v. Reno (9th Cir.1999) 190 F.3d 930, 936-937 [pattern of sexual harassment found to be sufficiently related]; Draper v. Coeur Rochester, Inc. (9th Cir.1998) 147 F.3d 1104, 1108 [same]; Sosa v. Hiraoka (1990) 920 F.2d 1451, 1457 [various discriminatory actions against an instructor were reasonably related and therefore a continuing violation]; Green v. Los Angeles Cty. Superintendent of Sch. (9th Cir. 1989) 883 F.2d 1472, 1480-1481 [series of discriminatory acts may constitute continuing violation].) A continuing violation will not be found, on the other hand, when the alleged misconduct involves different types of unlawful discrimination. (See Green, supra, 883 F.2d at p. 1481 [no continuing violation where pre-limitations-period misconduct involved coworker harassment and post-limitations-period conduct involved employer's official discriminatory acts]; see also Huckabay v. Moore (5th Cir.1998) 142 F.3d 233, 239-240 [continuing racial harassment was an ongoing violation but demotion and failure to promote were not].) Our own Court of Appeal adopted a broad view of the continuing violation doctrine akin to that embraced by the Ninth Circuit in Accardi v. Superior Court (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 341, 21 Cal.Rptr.2d 292. In that case a female police officer sued her employer under the FEHA, alleging that in her 11 years with the department she was subjected to various forms of sexual harassment, including having untrue rumors spread about her abilities, being singled out for unfavorable work assignments, and being subjected to various sexist remarks and sexual advances. The only incidents that occurred during the limitations period were an allegedly mishandled workers' compensation and disability claim and a failure to reassign her to work details assigned to other partially disabled officers. Her employer argued that these alleged later forms of discrimination differed from the earlier forms of sexual harassment and that therefore the earlier forms were time-barred. The court rejected this contention, concluding that all the acts against Accardi should properly be viewed as part of a decade-long campaign against her . . . founded upon the department's unwritten policy that law enforcement has traditionally been `a man's job' and, hence, `no women need apply.' ( Id. at p. 350, 21 Cal.Rptr.2d 292; see also Watson v. Department of Rehabilitation (1989) 212 Cal.App.3d 1271, 1290-1291, 261 Cal.Rptr. 204 [series of acts of discrimination and retaliatory harassment for complaining about discrimination constitutes a continuing violation].) Some courts have applied a similar course of conduct theory to cases in which an employer fails to reasonably accommodate a disability. In Goodman v. Boeing Co. (1994) 75 Wash.App. 60, 877 P.2d 703 (affd.(1995) 127 Wash.2d 401, 899 P.2d 1265), an employee claimed not only that she was not reasonably accommodated for her repetitive motion injury, but that she was subjected to verbal harassment and more difficult work assignments as a result of it, all in violation of the state antidiscrimination statute. The jury found in her favor and awarded her $1.1 million in damages for pain and suffering, lost wages and future medical expenses. The court had instructed the jury that it could award damages for actions outside the limitations period if it found a continuing violation. Boeing contended that the term continuing violation should have been defined, and that in any event the evidence was insufficient to support the finding of such a violation. The court rejected those contentions, viewing Boeing's actions as a systematic policy of discrimination and hence a continuing violation. ( Id. at p. 713.) The systematic policy at issue in that case, however, was not an official policy, but an unofficial practice or course of conduct carried out against a particular employee. (See also Martini v. Boeing Co. (1997) 88 Wash.App. 442, 945 P.2d 248, 254, affd. (1999) 137 Wash.2d 357, 971 P.2d 45 [employer's continuing failure to address employee's request for reasonable accommodation was a continuing violation].) In short, courts applying the continuing violation doctrine have tended toward a broader view of that doctrine when the cause of action involves ongoing harassment or ongoing failure to accommodate disability. Even courts that have adopted the three-part Berry test have been inclined to find a continuing violation under these circumstances, either concluding the employer's actions had little permanence or else giving little weight to the permanence factor. With this overview in mind, we turn to the applicability of the continuing violation doctrine to the FEHA when an employer fails to reasonably accommodate a disability or to prevent disability discrimination.
Richards urges us in essence to adopt the broader course of conduct continuing violation theory employed by the Ninth Circuit and other courts as discussed above. CH2M Hill contends that Richards's broad interpretation of the continuing violation doctrine is contrary to the language of section 12960, which, as stated, prohibits a complaint from being filed after the expiration of one year from the date upon which the alleged unlawful practice occurred. Further, the statute makes only two exceptions: a maximum 90-day extension when the claimant first becomes aware of the facts of the alleged practice after the expiration of the limitations period, and a maximum one-year extension when the claimant misidentifies the employer. CH2M Hill argues that to extend the continuing violation doctrine beyond the well-established equitable tolling rule would be contrary to the plain language of the statute. CH2M Hill's statutory argument begs the question whether an unlawful practice within the meaning of section 12960 includes a course of conduct, such as a continuing failure to reasonably accommodate a disabled employee. We considered the meaning of the term unlawful practice under the FEHA in Walnut Creek Manor v. Fair Employment & Housing Com. (1991) 54 Cal.3d 245, 267-273, 284 Cal.Rptr. 718, 814 P.2d 704 ( Walnut Creek Manor) . There, we construed section 12987, which authorized a payment of punitive damages up to a statutory maximum of $1,000 (as adjusted for inflation) for every unlawful practice of housing discrimination under section 12955. The owner of an apartment building passed over a Black applicant for apartments in favor of non-Black applicants 35 times during the relevant period. The Fair Employment and Housing Commission awarded the complainant $1,000 for each of the 35 instances of discrimination, but we held that only a single $1,000 award was warranted. The key to our inquiry was the meaning of the term unlawful practice. As we stated, [t]he term . . . is unambiguous. As both lay and legal dictionaries state, the term `practice' means a course of conduct, i.e., `to do or perform often, customarily, or habitually; to make a practice of (Webster's New Internat. Diet. [(2d ed.1958)] p.1937, col. 3); `[repeated or customary action; habitual performance; a succession of acts of similar kind; custom; usage' (Black's Law Diet. [(6th ed.1990)] p. 1172, col. 1). Given the plain meaning of the term, we conclude that in refusing to rent to [the complainant] on the basis of race, respondents committed a single `unlawful practice' within the meaning of the statute. ( Walnut Creek Manor, supra, 54 Cal.3d at p. 269, 284 Cal.Rptr. 718, 814 P.2d 704, italics added.) We further clarified that [o]ur conclusion that respondents are liable for only one punitive damages award does not mean that a single `act' of discrimination is not a violation of the act or cannot support an accusation and finding of an `unlawful practice.' The case law is to the contrary. [Citations.] In every case the issue simply is whether the act or acts complained of suffice to show a discriminatory practice in violation of the statute. [Citations.] We merely hold that, for the purposes of the authorized remedies, multiple acts of discrimination against the same complainant on the same unlawful basis establish only one unlawful practice. ( Walnut Creek Manor, supra, 54 Cal.3d at pp. 269-270, 284 Cal.Rptr. 718, 814 P.2d 704.) CH2M Hill correctly argues that Walnut Creek Manor decided the term unlawful practice in a different context. But it does not follow, as the company further argues, that the case is inapposite. Our holding in Walnut Creek Manor undercuts CH2M Hill's contention that Richards's more expansive interpretation of the continuing violation doctrine is inconsistent with the language of the FEHA. At the very least, the term unlawful practice, in the context of the statute of limitations, is ambiguous. CH2M Hill stresses the discrete nature of each of its actions, e.g., the failure to fix the wheelchair ramp, the failure to adjust the elevator, the delay in transferring Richards to the Sacramento office, each with its own separate circumstances and different termination date. But Richards's characterization of CH2M Hill's failure to reasonably accommodate her disability over a five-year period as part of a single course of conduct-informed by management's mistaken belief that her MS was a preexisting condition and that she was trying to milk the companyis at least equally plausible and equally consistent with the meaning of the term unlawful practice. Because the plain language of the statute by itself does not definitively determine the proper scope of the continuing violation doctrine, we turn to the overall purpose of the FEHA to determine which interpretation of that doctrine best serves its legislative objectives. We begin with section 12993, subdivision (a), which states that the provisions of the FEHA shall be construed liberally for the accomplishment of the purposes thereof. This liberal construction extends to interpretations of the FEHA's statute of limitations: In order to carry out the purpose of the FEHA to safeguard the employee's right to hold employment without experiencing discrimination, the limitations period set out in the FEHA should be interpreted so as to promote the resolution of potentially meritorious claims on the merits. ( Romano v. Rockwell Internal Inc. (1996) 14 Cal.4th 479, 493-94, 59 Cal.Rptr.2d 20, 926 P.2d 1114 ( Romano) . ) Romano also concluded that it is contrary to the purposes of the FEHA to interpret its statute of limitations to encourage premature litigation at the expense of informal conciliation. We held that the statute of limitations on a FEHA claim for discriminatory termination does not begin to run at the point at which an employee is notified of the termination, but rather when the termination actually occurs. One of the reasons for our holding was that a contrary rule would promote premature and potentially destructive claims, in that the employee would be required to institute a complaint with the Department while he or she still was employed, thus seeking a remedy for a harm that had not yet occurred. . . . [S]uch a rule would reduce sharply any chance of conciliation between employer and employee and draw the Department into investigations that might have been avoided through informal conciliation. [Citation.] Such a rule also would place upon the courts of this state the burden of prematurely adjudicating claims that a termination in violation of the FEHA has occurred. ( Romano, supra, 14 Cal.4th at pp. 494-495, 59 Cal.Rptr.2d 20, 926 P.2d 1114.) [4] Similarly, in Mullins v. Rockwell Internal Corp. (1997) 15 Cal.4th 731, 63 Cal. Rptr.2d 636, 936 P.2d 1246 ( Mullins) , a non-FEHA breach of contract case, we held that the statute of limitations action for constructive discharge does not commence when the employee's working conditions become intolerable, but rather when the employee resigns. We stated: As a practical matter, a rule requiring a lawsuit to be filed as soon as intolerable conditions begin would interfere with informal conciliation in the workplace. The filing of a lawsuit not only would stifle the parties' efforts to resolve differences informally; it would in most cases prompt the employee to resign at the earliest date to avoid the awkwardness of maintaining employment while pursuing litigation against his or her employer. The statute of limitations should not force the employee to institute premature legal proceedings, whether at the time the employer announces an intention to fire the employee, or at the time the employer begins to coerce a resignation by creating or knowingly permitting intolerable working conditions. ( Id. at p. 741, 63 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 936 P.2d 1246.) As in Romano and Mullins, we do not believe the FEHA statute of limitations should be interpreted to give a disabled employee engaged in the process of seeking reasonable workplace accommodation or ending disability harassment two unappealing choices: on the one hand resigning and bringing legal action soon after the first signs that her rights have been violated, or on the other hand attempting to persist in the informal accommodation process and risk forfeiture of the right to bring such an action altogether. Nor, as we have recognized, is the third choiceretaining employment while bringing formal legal action against the employera viable option for many employees. (See Mullins, supra, 15 Cal.4th at p. 741, 63 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 936 P.2d 1246.) In light of the legislative directive that the FEHA be liberally construed to safeguard the employee's right to hold employment without experiencing discrimination ( Romano, supra, 14 Cal.4th at pp. 493-494, 59 Cal.Rptr.2d 20, 926 P.2d 1114), section 12960 should not be interpreted to impose serious practical difficulties on an employee's ability to vindicate this right through litigation if it can be reasonably interpreted otherwise. Indeed, to hold that the statute of limitations begins to run at the first notice that an employee's rights have been violated would create the following incongruity: Under Mullins, an employee faced with discrimination or harassment that rises to the level of a constructive discharge would not have to take formal legal action until a year after resignation, giving him or her ample time for informal conciliation, but an employee confronted with lesser forms of harassment or discrimination would need to observe a strict one-year deadline from the time of the first unlawful employer activity. Of course, an employee confronted with such unlawful activity will generally not know whether it will eventually rise to the level of a constructive discharge. Therefore, the employee will be encouraged to take legal action before the informal conciliation process has run its course. Such a rule would effectively nullify our holding in Mullins. There is particularly good reason to view the failure over time to reasonably accommodate a disabled employee as a single course of conduct. As the federal regulations implementing the duty of reasonable accommodation in the Americans with Disabilities Act (42 U.S.C. § 12111 et seq.) make clear, [t]o determine the appropriate reasonable accommodation it may be necessary for the [employer] to initiate an informal, interactive process with the disabled employee. (29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(o )(3) (2000).) The appropriate reasonable accommodation is best determined through a flexible, interactive process that involves both the employer and the [employee] with a disability. (29 C.F.R. Appen. to 1630, Interpretive Guidance on Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act, foil. § 1630.9, Process of Determining the Appropriate Reasonable Accommodation (2000).) Thus, reasonable accommodation is often an ongoing process rather than a single action. As this case well illustrates, this process may have many facets and take a number of different forms. As with harassment, an instance of an employer's failure to accommodate that in isolation may seem trivial can assume greater significance and constitute a greater injury when viewed as one of a series of such failures. Thus, as discussed, courts applying the Berry test to the area of reasonable accommodation, as well as courts applying a broader test, have found a continuing violation for the entire course of the employer's unlawful conduct. ( Lewis v. Board of Trustees of Alabama State University, supra, 874 F.Supp. at p. 1304; Bodiford v. State of Alabama, supra, 854 F.Supp. at p. 891; Goodman v. Boeing Co., supra, 75 Wash. App. 60, 877 P.2d 703; Martini v. Boeing Co., supra, 945 P.2d at p. 254.) We believe that to interpret the FEHA statute of limitations in a way that does not short-circuit the reasonable accommodation process is consistent with both the letter and the spirit of the law. CH2M Hill objects that allowing employees to delay filing a complaint as long as they are seeking accommodation allows employees to control the date the action accrues, to the severe disadvantage of the employer. Such concern is overstated. As we said in Mullins in the context of constructive discharge: Rockwell objects that if the statute of limitations runs from the date of actual termination of employment pursuant to a constructive discharge, the employee will control the limitations period, because it is up to the employee to decide when to leave his or her employment. . . . If the employee controls the date on which the statute of limitations begins to run, Rockwell argues, employers will live in ignorance of an impending lawsuit until memories have faded and evidence is difficult to gather. . . . [¶] . . . [¶] Rockwell's concern to avoid vesting employees with sole control over the commencement of the statute of limitations period . . . is misplaced. . . . The essence of constructive discharge is that it is a termination of employment secured by the employer through indirect means. The employer remains in control in that he or she coerces the employee's resignation. . . . Further, the employer, who has created or permitted the persistence of known intolerable conditions, should not be able to complain of delay when the employee retains employment in the hope that conditions will improve or that informal conciliation may succeed. ( Mullins, supra, 15 Cal.4th at pp. 739-740, 63 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 936 P.2d 1246, fn. omitted.) Similarly, the employer that creates or permits a persistent pattern of harassment or failure to reasonably accommodate that makes its working conditions unfavorable to the employee, even if such pattern or failure does not rise to the level of constructive discharge, cannot complain of delay when the employee retains employment in hopes that informal conciliation will succeed. On the other hand, we find merit in CH2M Hill's argument that permitting an employee indefinitely to delay the filing of a lawsuit based on the employer's failure to reasonably accommodate disability or on disability harassment would be contrary to the FEHA's statute of limitations and potentially prejudicial to the employer. When the hope that conditions will improve or that informal conciliation may succeed ( Mullins, supra, 15 Cal.4th at p. 740, 63 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 936 P.2d 1246) is unreasonable, as when an employer makes clear that it will not further accommodate an employee, justification for delay in taking formal legal action no longer exists. If the employer has made clear in word and deed that the employee's attempted further reasonable accommodation is futile, then the employee is on notice that litigation, not informal conciliation, is the only alternative for the vindication of his or her rights. Barring a constructive discharge, it is at that point the statute of limitations for the violation begins to run. Accordingly, we adopt a modified version of the Berry test. As in Berry, we hold that an employer's persistent failure to reasonably accommodate a disability, or to eliminate a hostile work environment targeting a disabled employee, is a continuing violation if the employer's unlawful actions are (1) sufficiently similar in kind recognizing, as this case illustrates, that similar kinds of unlawful employer conduct, such as acts of harassment or failures to reasonably accommodate disability, may take a number of different forms (see Fielder v. UAL Corp., supra, 218 F.3d at pp. 987-988.); (2) have occurred with reasonable frequency; (3) and have not acquired a degree of permanence. ( Berry, supra, 715 F.2d at p. 981.) But consistent with our case law and with the statutory objectives of the FEHA, we further hold that permanence in the context of an ongoing process of accommodation of disability, or ongoing disability harassment, should properly be understood to mean the following: that an employer's statements and actions make clear to a reasonable employee that any further efforts at informal conciliation to obtain reasonable accommodation or end harassment will be futile. Thus, when an employer engages in a continuing course of unlawful conduct under the FEHA by refusing reasonable accommodation of a disabled employee or engaging in disability harassment, and this course of conduct does not constitute a constructive discharge, the statute of limitations begins to run not necessarily when the employee first believes that his or her rights may have been violated, but rather, either when the course of conduct is brought to an end, as by the employer's cessation of such conduct or by the employee's resignation, or when the employee is on notice that further efforts to end the unlawful conduct will be in vain. Accordingly, an employer who is confronted with an employee seeking accommodation of disability or relief from disability harassment may assert control over its legal relationship with the employee either by accommodating the employee's requests, or by making clear to the employee in a definitive manner that it will not be granting any such requests, thereby commencing the running of the statute of limitations.
In the present case, neither the trial court nor the Court of Appeal applied the proper standard for determining a continuing violation. The trial court appears to have implicitly found to be true the first two factors of the above stated testsimilarity in the types of unlawful conduct and reasonable frequency; it stated, in the context of denying CH2M Hill's motion for a new trial on statute of limitations grounds, that the company had engaged in a continuing pattern of harassment, neglect and a violation of her rights in terms of accommodations, even reasonable accommodations, a pattern that continued on up until the day she left, practically. From our review of the record, stated above, there is substantial evidence to support the trial court's conclusions. But the trial court did not consider the permanence of the employer's conduct. The Court of Appeal, while correctly concluding that Richards made certain claims that fell within the limitations periodfailure to reasonably accommodate in connection with the fire escape plan, hallway access, and access to the elevator and supply roomsincorrectly adopted the narrow view that the statute of limitations begins to run as soon as the disabled employee is on notice that his or her rights have been violated. It thus did not consider whether CH2M Hill and Richards continued to be engaged in an informal conciliation process to resolve the latter's grievances concerning the reasonable accommodation of her disability. CH2M Hill argues that, at several critical junctures over the five-year period in question, it made clear to Richards that she was not going to be reasonably accommodated and that nothing was going to change. Richards, on the other hand, claims that she received mixed signals on her accommodation requests throughout the period, including ambiguous statements from human resource manager Carol Uhouse that she would deal with Richards's requests [her] way. Because the standard we announce is new, the proper course is to remand to the trial court for application of the continuing violation test formulated above to the facts of this case. (See Berry, supra, 715 F.2d at p. 982 [after formulating standard, the matter is remanded to the trial court for fact-specific inquiry].) [5]