Opinion ID: 77222
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Brown Exhausted His Administrative Remedies.

Text: 13 Snow's argument that the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction because Brown failed to exhaust his administrative remedies is twofold. First, Snow contends that Brown failed to wait 180 days from the day he filed his appeal with the EEOC before he filed his complaint in the district court. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c). Second, Snow contends that Brown failed to contact a counselor at the Equal Employment Office of the IRS within 45 days after the alleged harassment. We address each argument in turn. 14 1. Brown Did Not Fail to Cooperate with the EEOC When He Prematurely Filed His Complaint. 15 Both federal statutes and EEOC regulations require a federal employee to exhaust an administrative process before filing a civil complaint of discrimination in the workplace. An aggrieved federal employee first must file a formal complaint with the agency that allegedly discriminated against him. 29 C.F.R. § 1614.106(a). After the agency has rendered a final decision, the employee has the option to appeal the decision of the agency to either the federal district court or the EEOC. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c). If the employee appeals to the EEOC and the EEOC does not issue a decision within 180 days, the employee may file a complaint in the district court. Id.; 29 C.F.R. § 1614.407(d). 16 Although the 180-day waiting period is part of the administrative process that must be exhausted before filing suit in a federal district court, it is unclear whether a premature filing of a complaint deprives a district court of subject matter jurisdiction. Although our case law establishes that [a] federal employee must pursue and exhaust her administrative remedies as a jurisdictional prerequisite to filing a Title VII action, Crawford v. Babbitt, 186 F.3d 1322, 1326 (11th Cir.1999), we have not addressed whether prematurely filing a complaint is, by itself, a failure to exhaust administrative remedies. 17 The constant theme of our precedents is that the purpose of exhaustion is to give the agency the information it needs to investigate and resolve the dispute between the employee and the employer. Wade v. Sec'y of the Army, 796 F.2d 1369, 1377 (11th Cir.1986); see also Johnson v. Bergland, 614 F.2d 415, 418 (5th Cir.1980). To determine whether an employee failed to exhaust his administrative remedies, we consider whether the complainant made a good faith effort to comply with the regulations and, particularly, to provide all the relevant, specific information available to him or her. Wade, 796 F.2d at 1376; see also Crawford, 186 F.3d at 1326. Satisfaction of this requirement will ensure that the agency [is] given every opportunity to investigate and resolve the dispute[—]all that is intended by the exhaustion requirement. Wade, 796 F.2d at 1378. 18 We have applied the exhaustion requirement to affirm dismissals for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when the employee did not provide information requested by the investigating agency. In Johnson, for example, we concluded that a federal employee's failure to make a complaint more specific regarding dates and incidents of discrimination, as required by the agency, was a failure to exhaust administrative remedies that required dismissal. 614 F.2d at 417. More recently, in Crawford, we concluded that another federal employee's failure to provide information requested by the agency regarding the employee's injuries and medical treatment was a failure to exhaust administrative remedies that deprived the district court of subject matter jurisdiction. 186 F.3d at 1326. 19 We have reversed a dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction when it was unclear from the record whether an employee had provided the agency with the information needed to investigate the complaint. In Wade, a complaints examiner for the Department of the Army notified federal employees who alleged racial discrimination against a class of black employees that their complaint did not allege numerosity, typicality, commonality, and adequacy of representation as required by agency regulation. 796 F.2d at 1372. Because we could not discern from the record whether the employees had made a good faith effort to comply with the regulations and, particularly, to provide all the relevant, specific information available to them, id. at 1376, we reversed the district court and remanded to allow the district court to consider the exhaustion requirement in light of the information presented to the agency and complaints examiner by [the employees]. Id. at 1378. 20 Both Brown and Snow refer us to decisions of our sister circuits that addressed the premature filing of a complaint by a federal employee to support their respective arguments regarding exhaustion. Their arguments are unavailing, although for different reasons. We address each party's argument in turn. 21 Brown cites a Second Circuit case, Boos v. Runyon, 201 F.3d 178 (2d Cir.2000), to support his argument that the 180-day waiting period is not jurisdictional, but Brown's reliance on Boos is misplaced. The Second Circuit reasoned that administrative exhaustion is not jurisdictional, id. at 181-82, but our precedents say otherwise, see, e.g., Crawford, 186 F.3d at 1326. The Boos court also declined to decide whether the federal employee who had filed her complaint prematurely had exhausted her administrative remedies. Boos, 201 F.3d at 183-84. 22 Snow's arguments about decisions of the Tenth and Fifth Circuits are also unpersuasive. In Knopp v. Magaw, 9 F.3d 1478, 1479 (10th Cir.1993), the Tenth Circuit, on the one hand, held that the 180-day waiting period must be exhausted as a jurisdictional prerequisite to suit, but the Tenth Circuit did not explain whether the investigation of the complaint by the EEOC had been impeded. The Fifth Circuit, in Tolbert v. United States, 916 F.2d 245, 249 (5th Cir.1990), on the other hand, upheld a dismissal for failure to exhaust administrative remedies even though the EEOC issued its decision before [the employee's] claim was dismissed by the district court. In contrast with Knopp and Tolbert, our precedents, in Johnson, Wade, and Crawford, require that we discern from the record whether the complainant participated in the administrative process in good faith. 23 The record does not establish that Brown's premature filing of his complaint evidenced a refusal to cooperate in good faith with the EEOC. Although Brown filed his complaint in the district court 35 days early, the EEOC was not notified by the IRS of Brown's filing until 183 days had elapsed from the date Brown appealed the decision of the IRS to the EEOC. Brown did not ask the EEOC to end its investigation, and there is no evidence that the EEOC terminated its investigation before the 180 days had elapsed. 24 The record even suggests that the IRS may have been responsible for Brown's delay. In response to the recommendation of the magistrate judge that Brown's complaint be dismissed based on a failure to exhaust his administrative remedies, Brown alleged, in a pro se filing, that he had been misled by officials of the IRS about the deadline for filing his complaint in the district court. The IRS did not refute or otherwise respond to this assertion, but the district court referenced Brown's assertion when it denied the motion of the IRS to dismiss Brown's complaint. 25 We have explained, If the employee is hampered by the action of the agency . . ., he or she should not be deemed thereby to have failed to comply with exhaustion requirements. Wade, 796 F.2d at 1377. Brown's unrefuted assertion that he had been misled by officials of the IRS further supports the decision of the district court. The IRS failed to establish that Brown refused to cooperate in good faith with the EEOC. 26 From all that appears in the record, the EEOC was given every opportunity to investigate and resolve the dispute .... Id. at 1378. Brown cooperated in good faith with the EEOC, and his early filing did not prevent the EEOC from investigating his complaint for the full 180 days. The district court correctly refused to dismiss Brown's complaint for failure to exhaust his administrative remedies. 27 2. The Record Does Not Establish Brown's Failure to Cooperate with Agency Counseling. 28 Snow also erroneously argues that Brown failed to exhaust his administrative remedies because he did not contact a counselor at the Equal Employment Office of the IRS within 45 days of the alleged harassment. A federal regulation requires a complainant to initiate contact within 45 days of the date of the matter alleged to be discriminatory, 29 C.F.R. § 1614.105(a)(1), but that regulation also provides an exception for complainants who acted in good faith, id. § 1614.105(a)(2). Snow bore the burden of establishing Brown's failure to comply with this regulation, and Snow failed to satisfy his burden. 29 The district court rejected Snow's argument because Snow failed to supply several of Brown's records regarding his complaint of discrimination. Snow failed to present any documentation regarding Brown's informal EEO counseling session on September 10, 2002, or the attachment to Brown's formal complaint. Snow even failed to produce the formal ruling of the EEO. Without this information, the district court could not decide whether Brown had failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. 30 We are in the same predicament as the district court. There is insufficient evidence that Brown failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. We cannot conclude that the district court erred in exercising jurisdiction. 31