Opinion ID: 382784
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The 90-Day Period for Filing Suit in Federal Court

Text: 43 The statute also has been read to require as a prerequisite for a successful private suit under Title VII that that suit be filed in federal court within 90 days of receipt by the charging party of notice of his right to sue. This requirement has generated a great deal of case law in this and other circuits, usually in the context of a determination by the EEOC that its administrative processes are at an end and that the EEOC will not itself file suit in the charging party's behalf. This circuit 7 has taken the position that in this context, the 90-day limitations period begins to run upon receipt by the charging party of unambiguous notice that the EEOC's processes have terminated and that the EEOC has decided not to bring suit; the notice need not, however, specifically inform the charging party of his right to file suit within the 90-day limitations period. E. g., Gonzalez v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 610 F.2d 241, 245 (5th Cir. 1980); Crawford v. Western Electric Co., 614 F.2d 1300, 1307 (5th Cir. 1980); Key v. Lumberjack Meats, Inc., 611 F.2d 602, 603 (5th Cir. 1980); Hefner v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., 605 F.2d 893, 895 (5th Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 955, 100 S.Ct. 1639, 64 L.Ed.2d 231 (1980); Prophet v. Armco Steel, Inc., 575 F.2d 579, 580 (5th Cir. 1978); Page v. U.S. Industries, 556 F.2d 346, 351, 354 (5th Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1045, 98 S.Ct. 890, 54 L.Ed.2d 796 (1978); Turner v. Texas Instruments, Inc., 556 F.2d 1349, 1351 (5th Cir. 1977); Huckeby v. Frozen Food Express, 555 F.2d 542, 544-45 (5th Cir. 1977); Zambuto v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 544 F.2d 1333, 1335 (5th Cir. 1977). The premise that underlies this rule is that until the charging party receives notice of the type described above, he is entitled to continue to rely upon the efforts of the EEOC. The issue of whether plaintiffs can be precluded from bringing suit because they have not done so within 90 days of receipt of a Commission notice of failure of conciliation may now fairly be regarded as closed. B. Schlei & P. Grossman, supra, at 238 (1979 Supp.). 44 There is no question from the record in this case but that Mrs. Whitehead never received sufficient notice that the EEOC's processes had terminated and that it had decided not to file suit in her behalf. Even if-as is by no means certain from this record-she received a copy of the EEOC's letter to Reliance of April 5, 1977, that letter does not foreclose the possibility of further action by the EEOC; rather, it explicitly stated that there was a chance that the charge would be reopened in the future. Though in some cases we have found an administrative closure by the EEOC to indicate unambiguously that the EEOC's processes had terminated and that the EEOC had decided not to sue, see, e. g., Hefner v. New Orleans Public Service, Inc., supra, 605 F.2d at 895, this is simply not a case in which the charging party was clearly informed that he could expect no further action from the EEOC, i. e., that, as far as the EEOC was concerned, his charge was dismissed. Id. From Mrs. Whitehead's point of view, then, the EEOC had never consented to her request for withdrawal of the charge, and neither had it ever indicated that its administrative processes had ceased and that it had decided not to file suit on her behalf. Hers is in the second category of private suits that is discussed in part II-A of this opinion, supra: i. e., she was a dissatisfied private party who had complied with the statutory requirement that she wait at least 180 days from the filing of the complaint with the EEOC before bringing an independent private action in federal court. She filed suit well within the 90-day limitations period that began to run upon her receipt of the requested right to sue notice. Therefore, Mrs. Whitehead is not barred by the statute's requirement that a private suit be filed in federal court within 90 days of receipt of the statutory notice. 45 Reliance argues strenuously that this case should be controlled by our holding in Zambuto v. American Telephone & Telegraph Co., supra, wherein we condemned the EEOC's former practice of allowing a charging party to determine the date from which the 90-day limitations period would begin to run by its use of a two-tier notification procedure. Under that procedure, the EEOC first notified the charging party that its administrative processes had ended and that it had decided not to file suit; simultaneously, however, it told the charging party that the 90-day limitations period would not begin to run until the charging party had requested and received a separate right to sue notice. After noting the components that were required for effective statutory notice, we held: 46 The statutory plan is to keep claims fresh. When the aggrieved party knows EEOC has completed its efforts, the time for suit has come and the statute fixes its season as 90 days. This is a protection to the employer and is plainly there for its benefit alone. To the extent that EEOC has adopted a practice which places the commencement of this 90-day period within the claimant's power by bifurcating the statutory notice, it is an invalid procedure which is counter to the plain language of the statute and to the Congressional purpose undergirding it. 47 544 F.2d at 1335 (emphasis added; footnote omitted). 48 It seems likely in this case that the EEOC at some point made an internal decision that its administrative processes were at an end and that it would not sue. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the EEOC administratively closed the charge, and then destroyed the file on the charge when it had not been reopened within six months of the administrative closure. If that is so, then the EEOC has violated its statutory mandate by failing to send the required notice to the charging party that its processes were at an end and that it had decided not to sue. The EEOC is not a party to this appeal, and neither has it been subject to any discovery that appears in this record; we therefore simply do not know how the EEOC would characterize whatever happened here. However, even if the EEOC did violate its statutory mandate, Mrs. Whitehead should not be charged with knowledge of that fact, nor should Reliance benefit therefrom, given that the very nature of the violation was the failure to give the required notice. As the district court noted, we have been loath to visit the harsh effects of the EEOC's erroneous practices upon individual charging parties. See, e. g., Zambuto, 544 F.2d at 1335-36; Page v. U.S. Industries, supra, 556 F.2d at 351; White v. Dallas Independent School District, 581 F.2d 556, 562 (5th Cir. 1978) (en banc); Bernard v. Gulf Oil Co., 596 F.2d 1249, 1254 (5th Cir. 1979), adopted in part and modified on other grounds on rehearing, 619 F.2d 459 (5th Cir. 1980) (en banc).