Opinion ID: 181765
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Count 1: Breach of Predetermination Settlement Agreement

Text: Although not raised by the parties, we have an independent obligation to address subject matter jurisdiction before turning to the merits of the case. Williams v. United Airlines, Inc., 500 F.3d 1019, 1021 (9th Cir.2007). Whether Munoz's claim to enforce a predetermination settlement agreement [2] is one over which the district court had jurisdiction because the claim was brought under Title VII remains an open question in this court. [3] See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3). We now join our sister circuits in holding that Congress' waiver of sovereign immunity under Title VII does not extend to suits to enforce settlement agreements entered into without genuine investigation, reasonable cause determination, and conciliation efforts by the EEOC. See Lindstrom v. United States, 510 F.3d 1191, 1195 (10th Cir.2007); Frahm v. United States, 492 F.3d 258, 262 (4th Cir.2007); cf. Hansson v. Norton, 411 F.3d 231, 234-35 (D.C.Cir. 2005) (holding that a claim for attorney's fees was a contractual claim, not one brought under Title VII). The district court therefore lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Count 1, the breach of settlement agreement claim.
The Navy cannot be sued absent an express Congressional waiver of sovereign immunity. See United States v. Sherwood, 312 U.S. 584, 586, 61 S.Ct. 767, 85 L.Ed. 1058 (1941). Such waiver cannot be implied but must be unequivocally expressed. United States v. King, 395 U.S. 1, 4, 89 S.Ct. 1501, 23 L.Ed.2d 52 (1969). Furthermore, any legislative waiver of immunity must be strictly construed in favor of the sovereign and not enlarged beyond what the language requires. United States v. Nordic Vill., Inc., 503 U.S. 30, 34, 112 S.Ct. 1011, 117 L.Ed.2d 181 (1992) (internal alterations and quotations omitted); accord Dep't of Army v. Blue Fox, Inc., 525 U.S. 255, 261, 119 S.Ct. 687, 142 L.Ed.2d 718 (1999). Section 717 of Title VII protects federal employees and provides an express waiver of sovereign immunity in suits against the government for discriminatory employment practices. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-5(f), 2000e-16. The EEOC is authorized to enforce the provisions of Section 717 and to issue rules and regulations as it deems necessary. Id. § 2000e-16(b); see also 29 C.F.R. § 1614.504 et seq. (EEOC regulations concerning the federal sector). Title VII and the EEOC's implementing regulations set forth specific administrative procedures that a complainant must first exhaust before gaining access to the federal courts on a discrimination complaint. The employer and employee may, however, choose instead to resolve the discrimination complaint voluntarily with a settlement agreement, see 29 C.F.R. § 1614.603, in which case the employee, as Munoz has done here, withdraws his formal complaint and foregoes his right to a civil appeal therefrom. 29 C.F.R. § 1614.504 prescribes the procedure for claiming a breach of that agreement, and it is this provision on which the question of jurisdiction hangs. To determine whether the district court had jurisdiction over the breach of settlement claim, we look first to the plain meaning of § 1614.504 because, [a]s a general interpretive principle, `the plain meaning of a regulation governs.' See Safe Air for Everyone v. EPA, 488 F.3d 1088, 1097 (9th Cir.2007) (quoting Wards Cove Packing Corp. v. Nat'l Marine Fisheries Serv., 307 F.3d 1214, 1219 (9th Cir. 2002)). 29 C.F.R. § 1614.504 allows an employee alleging noncompliance to choose between two exclusive remedies, namely specific performance or reinstatement of the original discrimination complaint. [4] 29 C.F.R. § 1614.504(a). The regulation further provides that the EEOC is limited to awarding one of these two remedies upon determining that a breach has occurred. Id. § 1614.504(c). On its face, the regulation is silent as to whether an employee may proceed to federal court after receiving an adverse EEOC determination. Because any waiver of sovereign immunity must be unequivocally expressed, this silence counsels against a finding of jurisdiction. But the text of § 1614.504(a) does not end the matter. Had Munoz chosen to reinstate his underlying discrimination complaint instead of seeking specific performance, his claim could eventually have been heard in federal court after exhausting administrative procedures, even though § 1614.504 is silent as to that possibility. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-5(f)-(k), 2000e-16(c)-(d). The district court held that other sections of the EEOC's regulations likewise provide an unambiguous path to federal jurisdiction when a complainant elects to seek specific performance. We thus consider whether those surrounding regulations include a waiver of the government's sovereign immunity that allows the exercise of jurisdiction over Munoz's breach of settlement agreement claim.
No such waiver of sovereign immunity exists in the regulatory or statutory scheme as a whole; rather, reading 29 C.F.R. § 1614.504 in context only reinforces our conclusion that Congress had no intention of providing a cause of action based on an alleged breach of a predetermination settlement agreement. The district court's conflation of generic complaints of noncompliance with formal Title VII complaints of prohibited conduct led it to the opposite conclusion. The district court reasoned as follows: (1) 29 C.F.R. § 1614.401(e) allows a complainant to appeal an agency's alleged noncompliance with a settlement agreement to the EEOC; (2) § 1614.405 considers an EEOC decision on appeal a final decision within the meaning of § 1614.407; and (3) § 1614.407(c) allows a complainant to file a civil action within 90 days of receiving a final EEOC decision. Munoz v. England, 557 F.Supp.2d 1145, 1160 & n. 12 (D.Haw. 2008). A closer examination of the regulatory provisions, however, reveals that complaint, as used throughout 29 C.F.R. § 1614, is a term of art as defined by § 1614.103. Section 1614.103, titled Complaints of discrimination covered by this part, states that [i]ndividual and class complaints of employment discrimination and retaliation prohibited by title VII [and the ADEA] ... shall be processed in accordance with this part. 29 C.F.R. § 1614.103(a) (emphasis added). Section 1614.407 provides that [a] complainant who has filed an individual complaint may file a civil action within 90 days of receiving a final EEOC decision. Id. § 1614.407(c); see also id. § 1614.106 (discussing [i]ndividual complaints). Accordingly, an employee's right to a civil appeal pursuant to § 1614.407 is limited by the nature of his underlying grievance. The district court reasoned that Munoz has already filed a complaint (that is, the underlying complaint resolved by the settlement agreement he now seeks to enforce), and that this serves as a sufficient gateway for judicial review of all subsequent EEOC actions concerning him. See Munoz, 557 F.Supp.2d at 1160 n. 12. Because Munoz withdrew this complaint in exchange for securing the settlement agreement, it cannot serve as a basis for jurisdiction. This scenario appears to be precisely why § 1614.504 permits an aggrieved employee to request reinstatement of his complaint for further processing. The regulatory context does not support an implied cause of action for the enforcement of predetermination settlement agreements.
We note, finally, that our reasoning conforms with the Supreme Court's teaching that a suit to enforce a settlement agreement requires its own basis of jurisdiction independent from the federal source of the underlying claim, Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 378, 381-82, 114 S.Ct. 1673, 128 L.Ed.2d 391 (1994), as well as with the Court of Federal Claims's recent interpretations of its own exclusive jurisdiction over damage actions in contract against the United States worth more than $10,000, pursuant to the Tucker Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1491. [5] See, e.g., Westover v. United States, 71 Fed.Cl. 635 (2006). While recognizing that Title VII provides the exclusive judicial remedy for claims of discrimination in federal employment, Brown v. Gen. Servs. Admin., 425 U.S. 820, 835, 96 S.Ct. 1961, 48 L.Ed.2d 402 (1976) (emphasis added), [6] the Court of Federal Claims has recently concluded, in light of Kokkonen, that Title VII's [c]omprehensive [s]cheme of [r]eview [d]oes [n]ot [p]reclude Tucker Act [j]urisdiction in the Court of Federal Claims [o]ver Title VII [s]ettlement [a]greements, Taylor v. United States, 73 Fed. Cl. 532, 541 (2006); see also Greenhill v. United States, 92 Fed.Cl. 385 (2010); Westover, 71 Fed.Cl. at 639. In other words, the Court of Federal Claims has jurisdiction over such claims because they are not brought under Title VII § 706(f)(3). See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3); cf. Kokkonen, 511 U.S. at 378, 381-82, 114 S.Ct. 1673. Because Munoz's breach of settlement agreement claim is essentially a contract action against the federal government whose resolution requires no interpretation of Title VII itself, his claim cannot seek jurisdictional refuge in Title VII and belongs, if anywhere, in the Court of Federal Claims. See 28 U.S.C. § 1491; Greenhill v. Spellings, 482 F.3d 569, 575 (D.C.Cir.2007), reh'g en banc denied (June 20, 2007); Hansson, 411 F.3d at 234-35. Congress, while encouraging resolution of Title VII complaints through predetermination settlement agreements, [7] see 29 C.F.R. §§ 1601.20(a), 1614.603, has nonetheless not provided for enforcement of such agreements in federal court. The plain meaning of the text, the overarching regulatory framework, and the long-held prudential interest in narrowly construing waivers of sovereign immunity all compel this conclusion. [8]