Opinion ID: 436108
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: February 1980--December 1981

Text: 75 Finally, the trial court held that the 22 month lapse between February of 1980 and December of 1981 involved unreasonable delay. In so holding the court committed legal error, for it disregarded the congressional direction to the EEOC that it must attempt conciliation, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5(b) (1976), and that [c]ooperation and voluntary compliance were selected as the preferred means of achieving [compliance]. Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36, 44, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 1017, 39 L.Ed.2d 147 (1974). Counsel for A & P as late as March of 1980 requested in writing that conciliation efforts continue. In July of 1980 and in October of 1980, Hobart Taylor, an A & P board member, sought to have the filing of a suit withheld so that settlement negotiations could continue. Taking A & P at the word of its emissary, the Philadelphia Office of the EEOC waited for a promised settlement proposal. It filed the action only when, after a reasonable time, none was forthcoming. 76 The trial court's ruling with respect to Hobart Taylor's conciliation overtures, see Part III A supra, is legally indefensible. Neither Title VII nor any regulation known to us suggests that the director of a corporation is an inappropriate participant in the congressionally favored process of voluntary compliance. Nor is it relevant that the Commission's efforts toward voluntary settlement occurred after serving the notice of failure of conciliation. The express policy of Title VII favors voluntary compliance not only before, but even after an EEOC suit is filed. Hence, as we have observed, Title VII authorizes the stay of an action for 60 days pending further efforts of the Commission to obtain voluntary compliance. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5(f)(1) (1976). It would be inconsistent with that policy to attribute to the EEOC delays which, on this record, were attributable to A & P's own request that the policy of voluntary compliance be honored. Any such holding would penalize the EEOC for engaging in precisely the course of conference, conciliation and persuasion mandated by Congress, and would discourage the EEOC from entertaining settlement overtures after serving a notice of failure of conciliation. 77 Consequently, we hold that the district court's conclusion of inexcusable delay cannot, as a matter of law, be sustained. We therefore have no occasion to decide whether, had any of the delay been inexcusable, a dismissal of the entire complaint on grounds of laches would in these circumstances have constituted an abuse of the district court's discretion.