Opinion ID: 775028
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timely Charges as a Basis for the EEOC's Suit

Text: 18 Under the ADEA, the EEOC has the power to investigate violations, to sue on behalf of aggrieved individuals, and to institute injunctive proceedings. See 29 U.S.C. sec.sec. 626(a) & (b). In EEOC v. United States Steel Corp., 921 F.2d 489, 496 (3d Cir. 1990), our colleagues in the Third Circuit noted that this power encompasses two distinct roles-- vindicating specific private claims and protecting the public interest. When the EEOC seeks individualized benefits under the ADEA for particular grievants, . . . the Commission functions to that extent as their representative. U.S. Steel, 921 F.2d at 496. Consequently, courts have held that the EEOC is precluded from seeking monetary relief for individuals who are barred from seeking the same relief themselves because their claims have been adjudicated or are subject to arbitration agreements. 7 See EEOC v. Harris Chernin, Inc., 10 F.3d 1286, 1291 (7th Cir. 1993) (holding that the EEOC's claim for individual monetary relief was barred by res judicata because the individual on whose behalf the EEOC brought suit previously had been dismissed for failure to file a timely charge of discrimination); see also EEOC v. Kidder, Peabody & Co., 156 F.3d 298, 300-01 (2d Cir. 1998) (holding that the EEOC's claim for individual monetary relief was precluded by a prior arbitration agreement between the employee and the employer); U.S. Steel, 921 F.2d at 496-97 (holding that the EEOC's claim for individual monetary relief was barred by res judicata). 19 In these cases, we, along with the Second and Third Circuits, have emphasized the distinctive enforcement scheme of the ADEA, which places the EEOC in privity with the individual for whom it seeks relief. Under the statute, the EEOC steps into the shoes of the individual because the right of any person to bring such action shall terminate upon the commencement of an action by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the right of such employee under [the ADEA]. 29 U.S.C. sec. 626(c)(1); see also Kidder, 156 F.3d at 302; Harris Chernin, 10 F.3d at 1291; U.S. Steel, 921 F.2d at 494. As the Third Circuit has noted, in this respect, the drafters of the ADEA consciously departed from the enforcement scheme of Title VII, which does not terminate the rights of the employee once the EEOC has brought suit. See U.S. Steel, 921 F.2d at 494 n.4. Indeed, in U.S. Steel, the Third Circuit suggested that Congress would have preserved the individual's right to bring a complaint in some other fashion if it had not believed that the EEOC would represent the interests of the individual. See id. at 495. It is this privity, created by the ADEA's distinctive enforcement scheme, that precludes the EEOC from seeking monetary relief that is not available to the individual. 20 In Harris Chernin, we held that the EEOC could not seek back pay, liquidated damages, and reinstatement under the ADEA on behalf of an employee whose individual claim already had been adjudicated. See Harris Chernin, 10 F.3d at 1291. Prior to the EEOC's suit, the employee had filed a complaint that was dismissed by the district court on summary judgment because the claim was barred by the statute of limitations in effect at that time. See id. at 1288. We held that the EEOC, because it was the employee's representative, was barred by res judicata from subsequently seeking monetary relief on his behalf. See id. at 1291. We adopted the Third Circuit's reasoning in U.S. Steel that, 'if a person first litigates in his own behalf, that person may be precluded from claiming any of the benefits of a judgment in a subsequent action that is brought or defended by a party representing him.' Id. (quoting U.S. Steel, 921 F.2d at 493). Because we accepted the Third Circuit's determination that there is privity between the EEOC and individuals for whom it seeks individual benefits, we held that individuals were precluded from obtaining individualized relief in a subsequent EEOC action based on the same claims. See id. at 1290-91; see also U.S. Steel, 921 F.2d at 496. 21 In Kidder, the EEOC sought back pay and liquidated damages on behalf of nine employees. See Kidder, 156 F.3d at 300. The Second Circuit held that, under the ADEA, the EEOC was barred from bringing an action for monetary relief on behalf of an individual who had signed a binding arbitration agreement with the employer. See id. at 300-01. The court also relied on the distinctive enforcement scheme of the ADEA and noted that circuit courts have uniformly held that the EEOC may not seek monetary relief in the name of an employee who has waived, settled, or previously litigated the claim. Id. at 301. 22 In contrast, the same courts recognize the EEOC's right to pursue injunctive relief to vindicate broader concerns affecting the public interest. In making this distinction, the courts have distinguished claims for injunctive relief from those for individual monetary damages by contrasting the high level of public interest served when the EEOC seeks an injunction with the minimal public interest served by an individual monetary award. When the EEOC sues on its own behalf to obtain an injunction that prohibits discrimination, it promotes the public interest because its interests are broader than those of the individuals injured by discrimination. Harris Chernin, 10 F.3d at 1291. '[T]he ADEA is designed not only to address individual grievances, but also to further important social policies' such as deterrence of employment discrimination and prevention of future discrimination through class- wide relief. Kidder, 156 F.3d at 302 (quoting Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp., 500 U.S. 20, 27 (1991)). 23 Our reasoning in Harris Chernin, shared by our sister circuits in the cases that we just have discussed, is applicable to the situation before us. An individual must have filed timely charges of discrimination with the EEOC in order to file a claim of discrimination himself. See 29 U.S.C. sec. 626(d). Despite this filing requirement, the EEOC asks us to hold that it may bring suit for monetary damages even when none of the individuals on whose behalf it sues have filed timely charges. Because of the distinctive enforcement scheme of the ADEA, however, the EEOC is in privity with the NGSC teachers, and it represents their interests in this claim for monetary relief. As their representative, the EEOC is barred from seeking individual benefits that the employees would be unable to pursue on their own. 24 Although the EEOC's suit against NGSC is not barred by res judicata, as the suit in Harris Chernin was, the circumstances in Harris Chernin nevertheless support the decision we reach today. Procedurally, the employee in Harris Chernin took a step that the seven individuals represented by the EEOC here did not take--the employee brought suit on his own prior to being represented by the EEOC. However, five of the NGSC teachers never filed charges of discrimination, and, as we will discuss in the next section, the charges filed by the remaining two teachers were untimely. If any of the individuals from NGSC had attempted to bring suit in the district court based on untimely or nonexistent charges, the claim would have been dismissed by the district court for a failure to comply with the statutory filing requirement. At that point, the seven would be in the same position as the employee in Harris Chernin, and the prohibition Harris Chernin placed on the EEOC's subsequent relitigation of the same claims would apply squarely. 25