Opinion ID: 436108
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Availability of a Laches Defense in an EEOC action

Text: 58 Because the plaintiff is a governmental agency, we note that it is at least problematical, absent federal statutory authority, whether laches is ever a defense against the national sovereign. See, e.g., Costello v. United States, 365 U.S. 265, 281, 81 S.Ct. 534, 542, 5 L.Ed.2d 551 (1961); United States v. Summerlin, 310 U.S. 414, 416, 60 S.Ct. 1019, 1020, 84 L.Ed. 1283 (1940); Board of County Comm'rs v. United States, 308 U.S. 343, 351, 60 S.Ct. 285, 288, 84 L.Ed. 313 (1939). The rule that laches does not apply to the federal sovereign has been applied even when the United States sues on behalf of others. E.g., Board of County Comm'rs., 308 U.S. at 351, 60 S.Ct. at 288; United States v. Minnesota, 270 U.S. 181, 196, 46 S.Ct. 298, 301, 70 L.Ed. 539 (1926) (suit for equitable relief on behalf of Indians). Thus the EEOC's status as an arguably representative litigant is not dispositive of the availability of a non-statutory time bar against its suit. Moreover, the references in Occidental Life Ins. Co. v. EEOC, 432 U.S. 355, 373, 97 S.Ct. 2447, 2458, 53 L.Ed.2d 402 (1977), and Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 424-425, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2374-75, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975), to the district court's power to afford protection from prejudice arising from delays in prosecution may well speak only to the discretion which 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5(g) (1976) affords respecting the imposition of back pay liability rather than other forms of prospective equitable relief. 59 Those courts that have addressed the laches doctrine in EEOC actions, see note 1 supra, have not discussed the applicability to EEOC Title VII suits of the rule that the laches defense does not apply to a suit by the federal sovereign. Each court has assumed that the defense would be available as a complete bar to relief, rather than as a guide to the court in fashioning a remedy. 60 We need not, however, decide the issue at this juncture. Even assuming the availability of laches as a bar to relief, we conclude below that the elements of the defense have not, on this record, been established as a matter of law. Thus we need not decide the availability of the defense in other cases. We simply assume arguendo, without deciding, that laches may in some cases bar an EEOC action rather than simply counsel a modification of the remedy.