Opinion ID: 774022
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exclusion of plaintiff's witnesses

Text: 33 Rose contends that the district court erred when it excluded evidence she had proffered regarding a pattern of discriminatory acts by Young. 4 Rose sought to question two witnesses, Ms. Solomon and Ms. Kabler, both of whom were assistant principals under Young, about their experiences of age-based discrimination. The Board argues that (1) Rose's claim is time-barred because she failed to mention a pattern of discrimination in her EEOC complaint; and (2) the testimony of Solomon and Kabler would have been irrelevant because neither was a school principal and thus neither was similarly situated to Rose. 34 A claim that is reasonably related to the allegations contained in an EEOC complaint will not be time-barred so long as the original complaint is filed within 300 days of the alleged act of discrimination. Butts v. City of New York Dept. of Hous. Preservation and Dev., 990 F.2d 1397, 1401 (2d Cir. 1993). We have recognized that a subsequent claim will be reasonably related to the original complaint if the conduct complained of would fall within the scope of the EEOC investigation which can reasonably be expected to grow out of the charge of discrimination. Id. at 1402 (internal quotation marks omitted). In her first EEOC complaint, Rose alleged age and sex-based discrimination on the part of Young. On our view, an investigation following such a complaint could reasonably be expected to inquire into other instances of alleged discrimination by the same actor. 35 With respect to the Board's second argument, testimony from two assistant principals who worked under Young regarding other instances of age-based discrimination would presumably be relevant on the issue of Young's discriminatory animus towards the elderly. The district court apparently held, and the Board now more fully articulates, that the testimony was not relevant because the witnesses were not similarly situated to Rose. It is true that, unlike Rose, Solomon and Kabler were assistant school principals, not principals. However, all three women were high-level school administrators in the protected class. We believe that the distinction between assistant principal and principal, standing alone, does not render irrelevant Solomon and Kabler's testimony. We leave to the district court the resolution of any other disputed issues regarding the relevancy of these witnesses' testimony, including whether either witness is or ever has been directly supervised by Young. We have, of course, not considered what other objections the Board may raise to the testimony of these witnesses in a new trial in the district court. 36 For the reasons set forth above, we vacate the judgment of the district court and remand for a new trial consistent with this opinion.