Opinion ID: 509338
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Necessity of a Timely Charge

Text: 18 In enacting ADEA, Congress borrowed from two rather different pre-existing statutory schemes--the FLSA and Title VII. Here we must decide which of these schemes controls when a party who has not filed a charge with the EEOC later attempts to join an action with other plaintiffs who did file such a charge. Since ADEA's statutory language does not give us a clear-cut answer, 8 it is necessary to identify the intent of Congress from the text and structure of the statute as well as from its legislative history. Fortunately, several pronouncements from the Supreme Court guide our inquiry. 19 The basic model for ADEA is the FLSA. See Lorillard v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 578-82, 98 S.Ct. 866, 868-71, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978). [T]he rights created by the ADEA are to be 'enforced in accordance with the powers, remedies and procedures' of specified sections of the FLSA. Id. at 579, 98 S.Ct. at 869 (quoting 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(b)). The selectivity that Congress exhibited in incorporating provisions and in modifying certain FLSA practices strongly suggests that but for those changes Congress expressly made, it intended to incorporate fully the remedies and procedures of the FLSA. Id. at 582, 98 S.Ct. at 871. Thus, ADEA's basic judicial remedies follow the structure of the FLSA. The Court in Lorillard noted, referring to ADEA's litigation procedures as they existed until January 1, 1979: 9 20 Following the model of the FLSA, the ADEA establishes two primary enforcement mechanisms. Under the FLSA provisions incorporated in Sec. 7(b) of the ADEA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(b), the Secretary of Labor may bring suit on behalf of an aggrieved individual for injunctive and monetary relief. 29 U.S.C. Secs. 216(c), 217 (1970 ed. and Supp. V). The incorporated FLSA provisions together with Sec. 7(c) of the ADEA, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(c), in addition, authorize private civil actions for such legal equitable relief as will effectuate the purposes of the ADEA. 21 Id. at 579, 98 S.Ct. at 869 (quoting 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(c)). 22 However, from the beginning, the prelitigation procedures under ADEA have not followed the FLSA. As the Lorillard Court noted: 23 Although not required by the FLSA, prior to the initiation of any ADEA action, an individual must give notice to the Secretary of Labor of his intention to sue in order that the Secretary can attempt to eliminate the alleged unlawful practice through informal methods. Sec. 7(d), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(d). After allowing the Secretary 60 days to conciliate the alleged unlawful practice, the individual may file suit. The right of the individual to sue on his own terminates, however, if the Secretary commences an action on his behalf. Sec. 7(c), 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(c). 24 Id. at 579-80, 98 S.Ct. at 869-70. The language of section 626(d), the charge-filing requirement, as it existed at the time of Lorillard, read as follows: 25 No civil action may be commenced by an individual under this section until the individual has given the Secretary not less than sixty days' notice of an intent to file such action. 26 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(d) (1967). It is unclear whether this language was meant to require that every individual give notice to the Secretary prior to suit. In addressing another prelitigation device under ADEA--the requirement of notification of state agencies under 29 U.S.C. Sec. 633(b)--the Supreme Court noted the obvious parallelism between the prelitigation stages of Title VII actions and those of ADEA actions and suggested that, while exhaustion would be required for claims for individual relief, [n]othing in our decision in anywise disturbs the rule of Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 414 n. 8, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2370 n. 8, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975), concerning the rights of unnamed parties in plaintiff class actions. Oscar Mayer & Co. v. Evans, 441 U.S. 750, 758 n. 6, 99 S.Ct. 2066, 2073 n. 6, 60 L.Ed.2d 609 (1979). In Albemarle Paper Co., the Court had noted that Congress clearly intended that back pay could be awarded to unnamed parties in a Title VII plaintiff class who had not exhausted administrative remedies by filing charges with the Secretary of Labor. This dictum in Oscar Mayer & Co. may be read to mean that Congress did not intend to require that every litigant make a timely filing before commencing an ADEA action in district court. 27 In 1978, Congress amended the requirement that the Secretary of Labor be notified prior to the institution of an ADEA suit; the plaintiff would now file a charge rather than a notice of intent to sue. However, the basic purpose of this prelitigation device remained unchanged: 28 This change in language is not intended to alter the basic purpose of the notice requirement, which is to provide the Department with sufficient information so that it may notify prospective defendants and to provide the Secretary with an opportunity to eliminate the alleged unlawful practices through informal methods of conciliation. Therefore, the conferees intend that the charge requirement will be satisfied by the filing of a written statement which identifies the potential defendant and generally describes the action believed to be discriminatory. 29 H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 950, 95th Cong., 2d Sess., reprinted in 1978 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 504, 528, 534. More important, the statutory language also was altered to eliminate the requirement that no suit be filed until the individual has given  notice. The new statutory language simply requires that [n]o civil action may be commenced by an individual under this section until 60 days after a charge alleging unlawful discrimination has been filed.... 29 U.S.C. Sec. 626(d). 10 This language, while not identical to that employed in Title VII, is similar. See 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e-5. Moreover, Congress made it clear that the filing requirement was not jurisdictional: 30 The conferees agree that the charge requirement is not a jurisdictional prerequisite to maintaining an action under the ADEA and that therefore equitable modification for failing to file within the time period will be available to plaintiffs under this Act. 31 H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 950, supra, reprinted in 1978 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 528, 534. 32 Although they did not deal with the precise question before us, three Supreme Court cases have noted the similarity between the filing requirements of ADEA and Title VII. See EEOC v. Commercial Office Prods., --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 1666, 1675, 100 L.Ed.2d 96 (1988); Zipes v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 455 U.S. 385, 395 n. 11, 102 S.Ct. 1127, 1133 n. 11, 71 L.Ed.2d 234 (1982); Oscar Mayer & Co., 441 U.S. at 755, 99 S.Ct. at 2071. Certainly, both the Title VII requirement and the ADEA charge requirement are intended to perform the same functions. In both statutory schemes, the charge is designed to afford the defendant notice of the allegations and to permit conciliation by the EEOC. See H.R.Conf.Rep. No. 950, supra, reprinted in 1978 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 528, 534; Babrocky v. Jewel Food Co., 773 F.2d 857, 863 (7th Cir.1985). Notably, neither of these purposes is at all relevant in FLSA actions. The FLSA has no prelitigation charge-filing requirement, and conciliation is not an objective of FLSA procedures. EEOC v. Hernando Bank, Inc., 724 F.2d 1188, 1193-94 (5th Cir.1984); EEOC v. Home of Economy, Inc., 712 F.2d 356, 357 (8th Cir.1983); Ososky v. Wick, 704 F.2d 1264, 1265-66 (D.C.Cir.1983); DiMartino v. City of Hartford, 636 F.Supp. 1241, 1246 (D.Conn.1986). 33 The question we must resolve, therefore, is whether the differences between the litigation schemes of Title VII and ADEA require that we impose different standards on the charge-filing requirements despite their similarities in purpose during the prelitigation stage. In our view, the strong parallelism between the charge-filing requirements of ADEA and Title VII cannot be ignored. See Stearns v. Consolidated Management, Inc., 747 F.2d 1105, 1111 (7th Cir.1984). We conclude, therefore, that Congress did not intend to require that every individual who files a suit under ADEA also must have filed an individual charge. However, we also believe that the charge-filing requirements under ADEA cannot be interpreted without any reference to the FLSA-based litigation process that Congress has mandated. In opting for the FLSA scheme, Congress also chose the opt-in provision of the FLSA. Under this provision, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 216(b), all plaintiffs in an ADEA representative action must affirmatively opt-in to the suit. Thus, there are no anonymous plaintiffs under ADEA. One of the chief purposes behind this particular provision was to prevent the filing of claims on behalf of a large group of unnamed and nonparticipating plaintiffs. See Arrington v. National Broadcasting Co., 531 F.Supp. 498, 501 (D.D.C.1982). In light of this litigation procedure, we believe it is necessary that the defendant at least be apprised during the conciliation process of the possibility of a subsequent lawsuit with many plaintiffs. Therefore, in our view, the charge must, at the very least, contain an allegation of class-wide discrimination. This notification is necessary in order to satisfy Congress' express desire that the defendant understand, during the conciliation stage, the magnitude of his potential liability. We therefore approve of the basic position taken by the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Circuits that only a charge that fulfills this notice criterion may serve as a basis for suit by others who are similarly situated. See Kloos v. Carter-Day Co., 799 F.2d 397, 400-02 (8th Cir.1986) (timely charge must allege class-wide age discrimination or purport to represent a class in order to allow piggybacking); Naton v. Bank of California, 649 F.2d 691, 697 (9th Cir.1981) (piggybacking not allowed when no charge had been timely filed and when charges did not put Secretary of Labor and defendants on notice that the discrimination charges encompassed a pattern of unlawful conduct transcending an isolated individual claim and that they should act accordingly); Mistretta v. Sandia Corp., 639 F.2d 588, 593-95 (10th Cir.1980) (piggybacking permissible based on rationale of Bean v. Crocker Nat'l Bank, 600 F.2d 754 (9th Cir.1979)); Bean v. Crocker Nat'l Bank, 600 F.2d 754, 759-60 (9th Cir.1979) (relying on Title VII precedents, court concludes that piggybacking permissible because timely charge placed Secretary of Labor and defendant on notice of class-wide discrimination). 11 34 We understand that each of these cases expresses the notification requirement somewhat differently and that some can be read as requiring that the charge expressly state that the complainant intends to represent himself and others similarly situated. However, we do not believe that such an explicit mention that a representative action is contemplated is necessary. Like the Kloos court, we believe that [t]o be faithful to the purposes of the filing requirement, an administrative charge must allege class-wide age discrimination or claim to represent a class in order to serve as the basis for an ADEA class action under section 216(b). 799 F.2d at 400. Such a representation will inform and give notice to the employer that the consequences of an individual plaintiff's charge may ' transcend[ ] an insolated [sic] individual claim. '  Id. (quoting Naton, 649 F.2d at 697 (quoting Bean, 600 F.2d at 760)). 35 In this case at least 27 charges, 23 of which were timely, contained plain allegations of class-based discrimination. 12 The district court specifically found that these charges notified the EEOC and Montgomery Ward that Montgomery Ward may have engaged in systematic age discrimination. Ward III, 650 F.Supp. at 1478. We have examined the charges and there can be no doubt that many clearly alleged class-wide discrimination. Montgomery Ward certainly knew, and indeed it has admitted knowing, 13 that it faced a class-wide ADEA suit. Under these facts, we can only conclude that all the purposes for ADEA's charge-filing requirement have been satisfied. For that reason, the district court did not err when it denied Montgomery Ward's motion to dismiss the seven appellees who did not file timely EEOC charges.