Opinion ID: 1830213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: analysis

Text: Section 20-148 was enacted in 1977 to provide an immediate and expeditious civil remedy to any person in Nebraska whose constitutional or statutory rights have been violated. See Statement of Purpose, L.B. 66, Committee on Judiciary, 86th Leg., 1st Sess. (Jan. 18, 1977). Section 20-148 thus provides: (1) Any person or company, as defined in section 49-801, except any political subdivision, who subjects or causes to be subjected any citizen of this state or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the United States Constitution or the Constitution and laws of the State of Nebraska, shall be liable to such injured person in a civil action or other proper proceeding for redress brought by such injured person. (2) The remedies provided by this section shall be in addition to any other remedy provided by Chapter 20, article 1, and shall not be interpreted as denying any person the right of seeking other proper remedies provided thereunder. Conspicuously absent from § 20-148 is a statute of limitations for actions brought within its purview. As noted previously, Adkins brought his FEPA claim pursuant to § 20-148, and the district court determined that § 48-1118(2) provided the applicable statute of limitations for Adkins' claim. Section 48-1118(2) is contained within a statutory section describing the administrative procedure for filing FEPA claims with the Equal Opportunity Commission and provides: A written charge of violation of the Nebraska Fair Employment Practice Act shall be filed within three hundred days after the occurrence of the alleged unlawful employment practice and notice of the charge, including a statement of the date, place, and circumstances of the alleged unlawful employment practice, shall be served upon the person against whom such charge is made within ten days thereafter. (Emphasis supplied.) Adkins argues that the limitations period set forth in § 25-212 governs the instant case, rather than the period contained in § 48-1118(2). Section 25-212 provides, An action for relief not hereinbefore provided for can only be brought within four years after the cause of action shall have accrued. Since § 20-148 contains no statute of limitations, we must determine which statute of limitations, § 48-1118(2) or § 25-212, applies. Our analysis is guided by both legislative intent and an examination of the underlying policies of § 20-148 as compared with both §§ 48-1118(2) and 25-212, respectively. We are of the view that if the Legislature has indicated that a particular statute of limitations should apply to a claim, that statute is prima facie the most appropriate statute of limitations to apply to a civil rights action. See Burnett v. Grattan, 468 U.S. 42, 104 S.Ct. 2924, 82 L.Ed.2d 36 (1984) (Rehnquist, J., concurring; Burger, C.J., and O'Connor, J., join). In the instant case, the Legislature specifically enacted § 48-1118(2) as the statute of limitations for employment discrimination claims. Section 25-212, in contrast, provides the catchall limitations period for any action seeking relief for which the Legislature has not enacted a more specific statute of limitations. Section 48-1118(2) is thus prima facie the most appropriate statute of limitations to apply to an employment discrimination claim brought pursuant to § 20-148. See Burnett v. Grattan, supra . Our conclusion is supported by an examination of the underlying policies of § 20-148, viewed in light of §§ 48-1118(2) and 25-212, respectively. As previously noted, the express purpose of § 20-148 is to provide a speedy and expeditious resolution for violations of constitutional and statutory rights. See Statement of Purpose, L.B. 66, Committee on Judiciary, 86th Leg., 1st Sess. (Jan. 18, 1977). This focus on prompt action is similarly found in FEPA. See, § 48-1118(1) (setting forth various, short time limitations for action by Equal Opportunity Commission after receipt of complaint, after investigation, and after probable cause finding); § 48-1118(3) (requiring written response to charge of FEPA violation to be filed within 30 days after service); § 48-1119(3) (providing that after conclusion of hearing, Equal Opportunity Commission shall make and file its findings of fact and conclusions of law within 10 days). This similar emphasis on the prompt resolution of employment discrimination disputes demonstrates that the policies behind § 48-1118(2) are consistent with those of § 20-148. Section 25-212, however, contains no such emphasis on an expedited system for dispute resolution. Additionally, we note that using § 25-212 for FEPA actions brought pursuant to § 20-148 would actually undermine this purpose of § 20-148. One of the primary concerns motivating the introduction of L.B. 66, now codified as § 20-148, was the problem of stale evidence if the Equal Opportunity Commission remained the sole avenue for processing discrimination claims. In response to questioning, the senator who introduced L.B. 66 stated: [I]f I have a grievance against you and I take it to court, they can review it and see if there is a basis for it in the first place. If there is not, they can dismiss it and we know. If it does go into court, then I present all that I have on which I base the claim and then you oppose it and the court makes a decision. And we are in the judicial system then and a definitive answer can be given. But through the other system [Equal Opportunity Commission] you can go on for up to two years as I said and even longer and after all of that is completed you then might go into court anyway and start all over. By that time evidence can be old, witnesses can be gone or dead, and it becomes in a lot of cases, a paper victory, if you win it. Judiciary Committee Hearing, L.B. 66, 86th Leg., 1st Sess. 3 (Jan. 18, 1977). If § 25-212 were the applicable statute of limitations and, consequently, plaintiffs had 4 years in which to file employment discrimination claims, the potential for stale evidence or hollow victories remains for both plaintiffs and defendants with respect to discrimination disputes. This is so because some of the primary remedies for employment discrimination include hiring, reinstatement, or promotion of an affected individual, rather than solely the award of damages at a later date. § 48-1119(3). Thus, in employment discrimination cases, there is a premium on expedited review and resolution of the dispute for the benefit of both parties. We determine that § 48-1118(2) more specifically addresses this concern by limiting the time period in which plaintiffs can file their discrimination claims to 300 days. In light of the fact that the Legislature specifically enacted § 48-1118(2) as a statute of limitations for employment discrimination claims and both §§ 20-148 and 48-1118(2) similarly focus on the expedited resolution of these claims, we hold that § 48-1118(2) provides the applicable statute of limitations (i.e., within 300 days after the occurrence of the alleged unlawful employment practice) for FEPA claims brought pursuant to § 20-148. Accordingly, since the alleged discriminatory act in the instant case occurred on or about December 15, 1994, and the original petition was not filed until January 1997, Adkins' action is untimely as more than 300 days had elapsed prior to the filing of his petition. Our determination that § 48-1118(2) provides the applicable statute of limitations for FEPA claims brought pursuant to § 20-148 is in accordance with Goolsby v. Anderson, 250 Neb. 306, 313, 549 N.W.2d 153, 157 (1996), in which we stated that § 20-148 is a procedural statute which does not create any new substantive rights. By using the same statute of limitations for both FEPA claims brought through the administrative process and FEPA claims filed pursuant to § 20-148, our construction avoids using § 20-148 to inadvertently create expanded rights (other than an alternative civil avenue of recovery) not present in an administrative FEPA claim.