Court Opinion

ID: 9486766
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:59:21.649853+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:55.285551
License: Public Domain

RYAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in sections IIC and IID of the majority opinion, regarding prejudgment interest and the scope of the district court’s injunction. In addition, I concur in section IIA’s affirmance of the award to Dawn McMullan. I do not, however, concur in reasoning used to reach that affirmance. Finally, I dissent from the decision to uphold the award of medical expenses to Barbara Ellis, as discussed in section IIB of the majority opinion.
I.
McMullan’s Award
In section IIA of its opinion, the majority relies on the “single filing rule” to support its affirmance of the award to Dawn McMullan. As the majority opinion recognizes, this circuit has never previously discussed or applied the “single filing rule.” The opinion does not recognize, however, that this circuit has adopted the “reasonable investigation rule,” which will also support an affirmance of the district court’s decision regarding McMullan.1 I see no need to adopt a new legal standard when an existing one reaches the same result.
According to the “reasonable investigation rule,” a complaint filed by the EEOC may include all claims discovered in an investigation which is reasonably expected to grow out of the initial charge of discrimination. EEOC v. Bailey Co., 563 F.2d 439 (6th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 915, 98 S.Ct. 1468, 55 L.Ed.2d 506 (1978); see also EEOC v. Keco Indus., Inc., 748 F.2d 1097 (6th Cir. 1984). The initial charges filed by Barbara and William Ellis relate to sexual harassment. Those charges were filed in 1984, and the EEOC investigation lasted until 1988. Elmer Wilson sexually harassed McMullan in 1987. Thus, the EEOC could reasonably be expected to have learned about McMullan during the course of its investigation.
This requirement, however, is not the sole requirement the EEOC must meet prior to bringing suit on behalf of McMullan. The EEOC also must have given Wilson Metal Casket Company both notice of the fact that it was investigating more than the Ellises’ claims and an opportunity to conciliate the claims. Keco Indus., 748 F.2d at 1101. A district court may not inquire into the sufficiency of any conciliation attempts; the court is limited to determining whether any such attempts were made. Id. at 1100.
The determination letter issued by the EEOC did not specifically name McMullan. This court, however, has explicitly declared that “the recitation of each claim of discrimination in the EEOC’s letter of determination is [not] a rigid prerequisite to the assertion of those claims by the EEOC at trial.” EEOC v. McCall Printing Corp., 633 F.2d 1232, 1236 (6th Cir.1980). It is sufficient that the letter informed Wilson Metal that the EEOC had determined that reasonable cause existed to believe that Elmer Wilson “had a common practice of making sexual advances to female employees and that ... at least two other females were forced to quit because of the sexual advances of ... Wilson.”
The magistrate judge found that the EEOC’s letter of determination gave sufficient notice to Wilson Metal of McMullan’s claim and that the EEOC provided Wilson Metal the opportunity to conciliate MeMul-lan’s claim. These findings must stand unless clearly erroneous, and Wilson Metal has not pointed to any evidence that would indicate that the findings were clearly erroneous. Defendant’s primary argument is that McMullan did not formally indicate until 1989 that she wished to pursue a claim against Wilson Metal. This does not, however, mean that the EEOC was not aware of the facts underlying the claim. Because the EEOC notified Wilson Metal that it found a possible pattern and practice of sexual harassment, it is reasonable to assume that conciliation proceeded on those grounds. Wilson Metal has not provided any evidence that would dispute this characterization of the scope of concilia*844tion. Accordingly, McMullan’s claim satisfies the three elements of the “reasonable investigation rule,” and she is entitled to recover her damages.
Since the stated law in this circuit supports the district court’s decision, there is no need to forge new law in this ease. Accordingly, I concur in the result of section IIA, but not for the reasons stated therein.
II.
Medical Expenses
The majority opinion upholds the district court’s award of medical expenses to Barbara Ellis. I cannot agree, and I would reverse the judgment of the district court on this issue.
My disagreement with the majority opinion is not with legal standards it employs in determining Ellis’s entitlement to medical expenses, but with its application of these standards.
This circuit has not defined the evidentiary burden imposed upon a claimant who seeks reimbursement for medical expenses in a case of this nature, particularly in the context of medical insurance. The Fourth and Fifth Circuits have, and what they have said is instructive.
The Fourth Circuit ordinarily does not allow a claimant to recover the proceeds of any insurance coverage, but rather limits recovery to the amount of the premiums the employer would have paid. Fariss v. Lynch-burg Foundry, 769 F.2d 958 (4th Cir.1985). The Fourth Circuit has made an exception to this rule when the claimant shows that she made a “serious effort to obtain other insurance” and that she incurred medical bills that she had to pay out-of-pocket due to the loss of insurance. EEOC v. Service News Co., 898 F.2d 958, 964 (4th Cir.1990).
Barbara Ellis presented no evidence whatever, that Wilson Metals provided medical insurance for its employees during 1987 and 1988, when her medical expenses were incurred. Indeed, she did not introduce any documentary evidence, such as a copy of the insurance policy, to prove the existence of medical insurance coverage at the time of her discharge in 1984. She chose instead to rely solely on her own testimony, but even then, offered no testimony that the company’s earlier policy would have covered the expenses she incurred. She testified that, during the time she worked for Wilson Metal, she was covered by hospitalization insurance that provided for “major medical benefits.” Ellis later clarified that the policy paid for 100% of “medical expenses, hospitalization and doctor bills” after the employee paid a $200 deductible. Ellis illustrated this coverage by testifying that she had GI tract surgery during the time she worked for Wilson Metal and that she was only required to pay the $200 deductible; everything else was covered. She then introduced various bills and receipts to document the amount of her out-of-pocket medical expenses. All the expenses were incurred in 1987 and 1988, and most of them related to Ellis’s hospitalization for alcoholism treatment and rehabilitation.
The district court awarded Ellis the full amount of her out-of-pocket losses. If this court were to apply the Fourth Circuit’s test, it must reverse this award. Ellis presented no evidence at trial to show she made a “serious effort” to obtain coverage after she was discharged from Wilson Metal. Thus, under the Fourth Circuit’s rule, Ellis would be entitled to the amount of the premiums that Wilson Metal would have paid toward her health insurance, and no more. I believe, however, that this test is too stringent because, as I will explain later, it places a greater burden on Ellis than our past decisions would support.
The Fifth Circuit’s rules are a little more vague concerning what the claimant must show. In Purcell v. Seguin State Bank & Trust Co., that court stated:
In [a prior opinion], we considered whether a successful ADEA claimant could recoup automatically the value of a health insurance fringe benefit. We held that the ADEA claimant was limited to recovery of actual expenses incurred either to purchase replacement health insurance or to pay for actual medical expenses. And the record shows that [the plaintiff] presented no evidence that he either purchased sub*845stitute insurance or paid for medical treatment that insurance would have covered.
999 F.2d 950, 960 (5th Cir.1993). Ellis did show that she had to pay for medical treatment after her unlawful discharge. The question, then, is whether Ellis sufficiently showed that this was treatment “that insurance would have covered.”
Even if we indulge the presumption that the medical insurance benefits Ellis claimed existed in 1984 were still in place in 1987 and 1988, Ellis offered no proof that the medical expenses she incurred would be covered. She made no effort to show that the expenses for her treatment and rehabilitation for alcoholism would have been covered under Wilson Metal’s health insurance program, either before or after her discharge. Drug and alcohol rehabilitation are special kinds of medical expenses; they are not the same as GI tract surgery. Simply because the policy covered the latter expense does not mean that it covered the former. Because Ellis failed to show that her medical expenses were compensable losses covered by Wilson Metal’s health insurance policy, she was not entitled to an award for those expenses.
Although this circuit has not decided how the proof burdens should be allocated for medical expense claims, we have done so with regard to back pay claims:
Once a claimant establishes a prima facie case and presents evidence on the issue of damages, the burden of producing sufficient evidence to establish the amount of interim earnings or lack of diligence shifts to the defendant.
Rasimas v. Michigan Dep’t of Mental Health, 714 F.2d 614, 623 (6th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 466 U.S. 950, 104 S.Ct. 2151, 80 L.Ed.2d 537 (1984). To establish a prima facie back pay case, a claimant must present evidence from which the district court can determine her salary, as well as any raises to which the claimant would have been entitled but for the discrimination. According to Ra-simas, the defendant can then seek to reduce this award by showing that the claimant either partially mitigated her damages by accepting other employment or failed to mitigate damages by not making diligent efforts to seek other employment.
Applying this logic to the present case and to medical benefits, Ellis was required to prove both the amount of her damages and that these damages would have been covered under her health insurance at Wilson Metal. Ellis did not show that any policy provided by Wilson Metal, either before or after she was discharged, would have covered these expenses. Because Ellis did not present a prima facie case, the burden of rebuttal never shifted to Wilson Metal. Accordingly, the magistrate judge was correct to recommend that medical expenses not be awarded, and the district court erred in awarding such damages.

. Indeed, the EEOC itself opines that the "single filing rule” does not apply to this case and that the “reasonable investigation rule” is the more correct standard to apply.