Opinion ID: 419839
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timeliness of Nelson's EEOC complaint

Text: 6 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5(e) states: A charge ... shall be filed within one hundred and eighty days after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred .... This 180 day filing requirement is not jurisdictional but is similar to a statute of limitation, subject to waiver and estoppel. Zipes v. TWA, 455 U.S. 385, 102 S.Ct. 1127, 1132, 71 L.Ed.2d 234 (1982). 2 The issue before us is whether the district court erred in holding that Nelson did not demonstrate that an instance of alleged discrimination occurred within 180 days before she filed her EEOC complaint. 3 7 On August 10, 1976, Nelson filed her complaint with the EEOC, charging U.S. Steel with racial discrimination in refusing to hire her. She testified at the hearing that four days previously on August 6 she had a telephone conversation with Frank Jones, one of U.S. Steel's personnel officials, in which he informed her that he had just filled some clerical positions. At the evidentiary hearing Nelson's counsel seemed to contend that Nelson's version of the telephone conversation provided a sufficient basis for a finding that an instance of alleged discrimination had occurred within 180 days before Nelson's EEOC complaint was filed. In addition, when pressed by the court to enumerate specific instances of alleged discrimination and identify when they occurred, Nelson's counsel, using hiring information submitted by U.S. Steel at the hearing, pointed to U.S. Steel's failure to hire plaintiff for two department clerk positions it filled with white persons on May 10, 1976, and June 14, 1976, respectively, as the factual basis for the contention that an alleged instance of discrimination had occurred within 180 days before Nelson filed her EEOC complaint. 8 The district court, however, held that Nelson had not satisfied the limitation provision. It made a credibility finding against Nelson's account of the August 6 telephone call. Applying the McDonnell Douglas test, 4 the court further held that Nelson was obligated to produce evidence showing that she is qualified for a job filled during the limitation period. Although Nelson testified that Jones had told her that she is qualified for clerical positions, transcript of hearing at 27, the district court evidently concluded that the evidence of Nelson's qualifications for the two department clerk positions filled in May and June was insufficient. 9 In holding that Nelson was obligated to show that she is qualified for the two positions filled in May and June, the district court applied an erroneous legal standard. 5 To satisfy the limitation provision, Nelson was not required to establish a case on the merits under McDonnell Douglas with respect to acts occurring within 180 days before the filing of her EEOC complaint. The statute requires the filing of a complainant's EEOC complaint within 180 days after the alleged instance of discrimination occurred. The issue of Nelson's qualifications is relevant only to the merits of Nelson's claim, not when the acts she alleges to constitute unlawful discrimination occurred. If a plaintiff were required to make out a full case on the merits to satisfy the timely filing provision, considerations of judicial economy would obviously no longer justify conducting a separate trial of the timely filing issue. 10 Nor was Nelson obligated to produce evidence sufficient to support an allegation that she is qualified for the two positions. Nelson was not defending a motion for summary judgment on the merits of the dispute; the hearing was limited to the timely filing and class certification issues. 11 The district court therefore erred in holding at the evidentiary hearing that Nelson had failed to satisfy the timely filing requirement. 12 We vacate the credibility finding concerning the August 6 telephone call in order that the court can reconsider this question. Whether Jones in fact stated that U.S. Steel had just filled clerical positions is relevant to the timely filing issue, that is, when specific acts that provide the basis of Nelson's allegation of discrimination occurred. But Nelson's account of the call is also relevant to the merits of her discrimination claim, that is, whether U.S. Steel filled clerical positions for which Nelson is qualified. The district court arguably had no authority to find facts that go to the very basis of the plaintiff's substantive cause of action in proceedings prior to and separate from an adjudication of the merits. See Land v. Dollar, 330 U.S. 731, 735 & n. 4, 67 S.Ct. 1009, 1011 & n. 4, 91 L.Ed. 1209 (1947); McLain v. Real Estate Board of New Orleans, Inc., 583 F.2d 1315, 1323 (5th Cir.1978); McBeath v. Inter-American Citizens for Decency Committee, 374 F.2d 359, 362-63 (5th Cir.1967); Zunamon v. Brown, 418 F.2d 883, 886 (8th Cir.1969); Gordon v. National Youth Work Alliance, 675 F.2d 356, 361, 363 & n. 13 (D.C.Cir.1982) (Robinson, C.J., concurring). Because the evidence concerning the hiring of whites in May and June met the timely filing requirement the court did not need to reach the content of the August 6 call, and, under the authority just discussed, possibly could not validly reach it. The court can reconsider this matter in a full trial on the merits.