Opinion ID: 765099
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The claims in Churchill II required administrative exhaustion.

Text: 19 As we have indicated the court granted Appellees' motion for judgment on the pleadings on Churchill's ADA and PHRA claims in Churchill II. 5 Unlike the FMLA, both the ADA and the PHRA require pursuit of administrative remedies before a plaintiff may file a complaint in court. Thus, a party who brings an employment discrimination claim under Title I of the ADA must follow the administrative procedures set forth in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5. See Bishop v. Okidata, Inc., 864 F. Supp. 416, 424 (D.N.J. 1994). Accordingly, a party must wait 180 days after filing a charge with the EEOC for ADA violations before being able to forego the administrative process and file suit in court. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e)(1). After 180 days, [i]f a complainant is dissatisfied with the progress the EEOC is making on his or her charge of employment discrimination, he or she may elect to circumvent the EEOC procedures and seek relief through a private enforcement action in a district court. Occidental Life Ins. Co. of California v. EEOC, 432 U.S. 355, 361, 97 S.Ct. 2447, 2451 (1977). 20 Similarly, a party must wait one year after filing charges with the PHRC for alleged PHRA violations before having the option to forego the state administrative process and file suit in court. PHRA provides that the PHRC shall have exclusive jurisdiction of an administrative claim for one year after its filing, unless the PHRC resolves the claim before the one year has elapsed. See 43 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 962(c)(1). 6 21 As we discuss below, Churchill should have moved to consolidate Churchill I and Churchill II for they advanced the same cause of action. Churchill could have filed both the PHRA and ADA claims presented in Churchill II in time to join them with her FMLA claim in Churchill I. In the case of the PHRA claim, no special steps were needed to preserve that claim and join it to the FMLA action. On May 20, 1997, the date Churchill filed Churchill I, the PHRC still was investigating her PHRA claim. The EEOC charge was held in abeyance pending the PHRC's investigation. The PHRC made a finding of no probable cause on the PHRA charge on November 14, 1997. Thus, prior to the start of the trial in Churchill I, Churchill knew that the PHRC had dismissed her PHRA complaint, and accordingly she could have brought an action on that claim about three months before Churchill I went to trial. 22 As for the ADA claim, Churchill could have requested a right to sue letter after 180 days had passed from the filing date of her EEOC charge. At the end of the 180-day period the employee is entitled to sue, regardless of EEOC proceedings. Waiters v. Parsons, 729 F.2d 233, 237 (3d Cir. 1984). Thus, on August 25, 1997, well before the Churchill I trial, she could have requested a right to sue letter. 7 The EEOC must issue the letter upon request. See McNasby v. Crown Cork and Seal Co., 888 F.2d 270, 274 n.3 (3d Cir. 1989). Churchill did not request a right to sue letter, instead waiting for the EEOC to issue it. Thus, she sat on her rights when she could have attempted to join the ADA claim to the FMLA claim in consolidated litigation. While Churchill argues that in some cases the EEOC may not respond promptly and correctly to such requests, we will not address the argument because she did not attempt to obtain the letter. 23 Moreover, the district court correctly alternatively held that Churchill could have requested the court to stay Churchill I, while she waited for the right to sue letter, and by that procedural step preserved the PHRA and ADA claims now precluded. See Churchill II, 3 F. Supp.2d at 630. Churchill points out that the court in Churchill I was aware of her pending administrative claims, and asserts that the court improperly and unfairly put the responsibility of promoting the ideas of claim preclusion and judicial economy solely on [her] back. We reject that argument summarily. Attorneys should organize litigation that they are pursuing to avoid claim preclusion. Accordingly, the mere fact that the district court was aware of Churchill's administrative claims and sua sponte might have stayed Churchill I did not relieve Churchill of the necessity to take steps to preserve her claims. See, e.g., Nernberg v. United States, 463 F. Supp. 752 (W.D. Pa. 1979). 24 Churchill argues that she made a motion for a stay at trial. In support of this assertion she refers to a side bar conference during Churchill I, in which the court excluded references to the administrative claims. The court did not permit reference to the PHRA and ADA claims because they were not being litigated along with the FMLA claim. While these evidentiary proceedings demonstrate that the court was aware of the administrative claims, they surely do not include a motion for a stay. In any event, if Churchill desired that the court stay Churchill I so that she could include her PHRA and ADA claims in that action, she should have asked for the stay before the trial. 25 Churchill also argues that if the court stayed Churchill I she would have been prejudiced because FMLA offers equitable relief, such as reinstatement and resumption of benefits, which should not be delayed for reasons of judicial economy. Arguing that she sought a prompt determination of her FMLA claims, she contends that she now has been prevented unjustly from pursuing her rights under the ADA and PHRA. 26 In considering this argument, we address the policy concerns behind FMLA which Congress enacted to promote job stability when workers confront illness or family emergencies. The FMLA history evinces Congress's intent to pass FMLA as an addition to federal labor laws establishing minimum standards for employment: 27 The [FMLA] accommodates the important societal interest in assisting families, by establishing a minimum labor standard for leave. The bill is based on the same principle as the child labor laws, the minimum wage, Social Security, the safety and health laws, the pension and welfare benefit laws, and other labor laws that establish minimum standards for employment. S. Rep. No. 103-3 at 4, 1993 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 6-7. 28 Congress stated that the purposes of FMLA include the following: (1) to balance the demands of the workplace with the needs of families, to promote the stability and economic security of families, and to promote national interests in preserving family integrity; [and] (2) to entitle employees to take reasonable leave for medical reasons, for the birth or adoption of a child, and for the care of a child, spouse or parent who has a serious health condition; . . . FMLA § 2(b)(1), (2), 29 U.S.C. § 2601(b)(1), (2). 29 In support of its decision to enact FMLA, Congress made several findings, including the recognition that the primary responsibility for family caretaking often falls on women, and such responsibility affects the working lives of women more than it affects the working lives of men; . . . FMLA § 2(a)(2), (3), (5), 29 U.S.C. § 2601(a)(2), (3), (5). Given this background, it is clear that FMLA is intended to aid workers --especially but not exclusively working mothers like Churchill--maintain job stability when they must care for themselves or their family. Nevertheless, despite the substantive protection FMLA provides, we see no reason to hold that Congress intended in enacting FMLA that proceedings under the statute are not to be given preclusive effect in later litigation. Thus, while FMLA provides for equitable relief, including reinstatement, we cannot find that this important legislative goal trumps long standing preclusive effect doctrines. 30 Case law dealing with FMLA is limited. Churchill does not cite any case law to buttress her contention that an FMLA plaintiff is somehow due greater latitude than other plaintiffs with respect to the need to delay litigation in order to consolidate separate cases. To the contrary, federal courts thus far have viewed FMLA as similar to Title VII, the ADA, and other laws which protect employees. See, e.g., Holmes v. Pizza Hut of Am., Inc., 1998 WL 564443, at  (E.D. Pa. 1998) (FMLA, PHRA and ADA protect the same interests and provide relief for the same violations). 31 We may look to case law under Title VII in assessing the situation of plaintiffs who do not seek a stay of an FMLA suit as they wait for an EEOC right to sue letter before asserting an ADA claim, or who for some other reason delay bringing an ADA claim. Three courts of appeals have held that a plaintiff in an employment discrimination case may have to forego administrative remedies and obtain an early right to sue letter. See Heyliger v. State Univ. and Community College Sys. of Tenn., 126 F.3d 849, 855 n.2 (6th Cir. 1997), cert. denied, 118 S.Ct. 1054 (1998); Herrmann v. Cencom Cable Assocs., Inc., 999 F.2d 223, 225 (7th Cir. 1993); and Woods v. Dunlop Tire Corp., 972 F.2d 36, 40 (2d Cir. 1992). We agree with these persuasive decisions. 32 In Heyliger, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that an employee's prior state court lawsuit against his employer under a state civil rights law prevented the employee from suing the employer in federal court for allegedly violating Title VII. The court determined that the state and federal claims arose out of the employer's decision not to renew the employee's contract, the state court had entered a valid and final judgment on merits of state claims, and the Title VII claim could have been added to the state claims. The court of appeals concluded that requiring a plaintiff in the circumstances in Heyliger to seek a right to sue letter and to amend his complaint to add the federal claim would not impose a burden on him beyond that of a due diligence standard. Id. at 856. Similarly, in Herrmann v. Cencom Cable Assoc., Inc., 999 F.2d at 225-26, the court held that the plaintiff, in order to avoid claim preclusion, had been obliged to seek a right to sue letter and join his Title VII claim with another, sufficiently related, pending federal action. Finally, in Woods v. Dunlop Tire Corp., 972 F.2d at 40-41, the court precluded a Title VII action where the plaintiff could have sought a right to sue letter and an order to file an amended complaint in a pending federal case to include the Title VII claim. 33 Thus, courts have rejected favoring the language and policy of Title VII as against application of well-settled claim preclusion principles. Woods, 972 F.2d at 39. We do not find that the language and policy of FMLA is so different from that of Title VII as to trump the claim preclusion principles. Title VII, like FMLA, provides for back pay and front pay or reinstatement. 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. See Marinelli v. City of Erie, 25 F. Supp.2d 674, 678 (W.D. Pa.), appeal dismissed, 135 F.3d 765 (3d Cir. 1998). Accordingly, the harm to a successful plaintiff under both FMLA and Title VII will be mitigated in many cases by the accrual of back pay and prejudgment interest if she prevails. 34 We recognize the burden placed upon working, single parents like Churchill in confronting their own serious illness or that of a family member, and acknowledge the protection offered by FMLA and the important interests it addresses. Yet Title VII similarly addresses injuries sustained by employees suffering discrimination, who wrongly may be forced from work and required to wait for redress in the form of reinstatement or back pay as they pursue their claims. Persons pursuing rights under these statutes must preserve their ability to seek redress in a manner compatible with longstanding principles of judicial economy: requesting a right to sue letter is not an onerous burden, and we believe that in many cases a motion to stay an FLMA action will preserve all legal claims without undue prejudice to the plaintiff. We believe that district courts are likely to look favorably on applications for stays of FMLA proceedings while plaintiffs promptly pursue administrative remedies under Title VII and similar state laws and we urge them to do so. 8 35 It is also important to bear in mind another point. Churchill I and II involved statutes with fee-shifting provisions. See 29 U.S.C. § 2617(a)(3) (FMLA); 43 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. § 962(c.2) (PHRA); 42 U.S.C. § 12205 (ADA). Thus, an employer held liable in consecutive actions without doubt will be confronted with multiple motions for attorney's fees and costs. Moreover, employers defending consecutive actions, whether or not the actions are successful, will incur greater attorney's fees and other expenses for their defenses than they would incur if defending only a single case. Surely it is only fair that such applications and expenses be avoided as the purpose of statutes such as the FMLA, the PHRA, and the ADA is to provide protection for employees and to allow them to recover damages or other relief for employers' conduct if the employees can establish liability under the applicable statute. Congress did not pass the statutes for the purpose of generating legal fees for plaintiffs' and defendants' attorneys. We are not so naive that we do not recognize that if we reached a different result on the claim preclusion issue we would be encouraging knowledgeable plaintiffs' attorneys to bring separate cases to generate additional attorney's fees in situations in which a single case would suffice. Applying claim preclusion principles as we do will further the legitimate policy of avoiding unnecessary legal expenses. 36 Overall, then, we are satisfied that in this case we should apply ordinary claim preclusion principles. Thus, we address the question of whether Churchill I and Churchill II involved the same cause of action so that Churchill II is precluded. 37