Court Opinion

ID: 9465222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:39:28.471941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:02.624893
License: Public Domain

HANSON, Senior District Judge,

concurring.

I concur in Judge Stephenson’s analysis as it relates to when the alleged unlawful employment practice “occurred” within the meaning of the statute. My purpose in concurring separately is to stress that in rejecting Rudolph’s other argument that International Union of Electrical Workers, Local 790 v. Robbins & Myers, Inc., 429 U.S. 229, 97 S.Ct. 441, 50 L.Ed.2d 427 (1976), should be applied nonretroactively (or prospectively only), I have felt compelled to follow inferences gained from the rationale employed by the Supreme Court in Electrical Workers, and have not predicated my conclusion on an independent review of the standards articulated in Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106-07, 92 S.Ct. 349, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971).
Though the Supreme Court was not faced with the retroactivity question in Electrical Workers, I think the clear implication in the language and reasoning used by the Supreme Court in concluding that pursuit of a contractual grievance procedure does not toll Title VII time limitations suggests that its holding should be given retroactive effect. The Supreme Court’s stress on the clarity of legislative history indicating that Title VII was “designed to supplement, rather than supplant, existing laws and institutions relating to employment discrimination,” Electrical Workers, supra 429 U.S. at 236 n.8, 97 S.Ct. at 447, quoting Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36, 48-49, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 39 L.Ed.2d 147 (1974), and its observation that Alexander, supra, and Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U.S. 454, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975), “virtually foreclosed” any argument in favor of tolling indicates to me that the *96Supreme Court would be likely to resolve the first and second components of the Chevron test against Rudolph. As Judge Stephenson notes, “[although the discussion in Electrical Workers is not articulated as a discussion of the Chevron standards, the Supreme Court considers the substance of each of the Chevron standards in reaching its decision.” Op. at 93, supra.
Only because I feel bound by what I can infer from the parallelism between the Electrical Workers opinion and the Chevron standards do I concur in the conclusion that the holding in Electrical Workers should be applied retroactively.