Opinion ID: 203122
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Title VII and Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies

Text: Title VII is a vehicle through which an individual may seek recovery for employment discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. See Jorge v. Rumsfeld, 404 F.3d 556, 564 (1st Cir.2005). Nevertheless, [j]udicial recourse under Title VII . . . is not a remedy of first resort. Id. (quoting Morales-Vallellanes v. Potter, 339 F.3d 9, 18 (1st Cir.2003)). Before an employee may sue in federal court on a Title VII claim, he must first exhaust administrative remedies. See Love v. Pullman Co., 404 U.S. 522, 523, 92 S.Ct. 616, 30 L.Ed.2d 679 (1972). The Title VII administrative process begins with the filing of an administrative charge before the EEOC. See Jorge, 404 F.3d at 564 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-16(c)). [3] The employee may sue in federal court only if the EEOC dismisses the administrative charge, or if it does not bring civil suit or enter into a conciliation agreement within 180 days of the filing of the administrative charge. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1). In either case, the EEOC must send the employee notice, in the form of what is known as a right-to-sue letter. [4] See Jorge, 404 F.3d at 564 (citing 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1)); Clockedile v. N.H. Dep't of Corr., 245 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir.2001); see also Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n v. D.H. Holmes Co., Ltd., 556 F.2d 787, 790 n. 4 (5th Cir.1977) (`Right to sue letter' refers to the notification required by 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1) as a necessary condition for a private suit.). Upon receiving such notice, the employee has ninety days to sue in federal court. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1); see also Williams v. Little Rock Mun. Water Works, 21 F.3d 218, 222 (8th Cir.1994). With limited exceptions, such as that described below regarding claims of retaliation for filing an administrative charge, the failure to exhaust this administrative process bars the courthouse door. Bonilla v. Muebles J.J. Alvarez, Inc., 194 F.3d 275, 278 (1st Cir. 1999). Franceschi filed his formal administrative charge on March 26, 2004; he filed his complaint in the district court 118 days later on July 22, 2004. Administrative remedies could not be considered to have been exhausted, however, until the EEOC issued Franceschi a right-tosue letter. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1). The EEOC sent him a letter on June 7, 2004 stating that it had dismissed one of the claims in the administrative charge Claim A, which alleged harassmentbut that it had accepted Claim B, which alleged discrimination through poor job performance ratings. In accordance with applicable federal regulations, the EEOC informed Franceschi that, because Claim B had been accepted for processing and investigation, the dismissal of Claim A did not constitute final action on the administrative charge as a whole, and that he could not avail himself of the agency's appeal procedures until final action had been taken. See 29 C.F.R. § 1614.107(b). The EEOC's letter does not explicitly tell Franceschi that he was prohibited from suing in federal court on Claim A until final action had been taken on the whole complaint, but such a prohibition is clearly contemplated in the applicable regulations. See id. §§ 1614.407(a), 1614.110(b). The EEOC was not given the opportunity to take final action on the administrative charge. It had only just started to investigate Claim B when Franceschi jumped the gun by filing suit. Administrative remedies were accordingly not exhausted with respect to either claimthat alleging a hostile work environment, or that alleging gender-based discrimination [5] and we decline to consider their merits. The district court's grant of summary judgment on these two claims is affirmed without prejudice as to any civil action Franceschi may bring after he has exhausted administrative remedies. See Lebrón-Ríos v. U.S. Marshal Serv., 341 F.3d 7, 14-15 (1st Cir. 2003) (non-prejudicial dismissal of prematurely filed Title VII claim warranted where plaintiff apparently not barred from returning to the EEOC to continue pursuit of administrative relief); see also Frederique-Alexandre, 478 F.3d at 440; Weber v. Cranston Sch. Comm., 212 F.3d 41, 54 (1st Cir.2000).