Court Opinion

ID: 9497997
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:05:24.119766+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:32.950159
License: Public Domain

*1170HILL, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Today, the majority holds that a plaintiffs failure to allege facts sufficient to inform the EEOC that he complained of hostile work environment as well as wrongful termination is a “procedural technicality” that cannot be allowed to bar a subsequent Title VII claim. Although conceding that Green’s EEOC charge does not allege a single fact that reasonably could have been expected to prompt the EEOC to investigate a charge of hostile work environment,1 the majority characterizes this as a failure to articulate a correct legal conclusion emanating from his factual allegations, and then excuses this failure as the result of Green’s lack of legal training. Respectfully, I cannot concur in this characterization of the record in this case.
Furthermore, I cannot concur in the majority’s conclusion that Green’s assertion that he was “discriminated against because of [his] race,” constitutes a factual allegation sufficient to support hostile work environment claim. Such an allegation, then, by itself, and without more, would support any conceivable judicial discrimination claim and render the requirement to exhaust ones claims in the EEOC totally irrelevant.
We have indeed traveled a long way down the road that permits us to liberally construe the factual allegations of a plaintiffs EEOC charge in determining what claims were fairly raised there. But I am unaware of any case that, heretofore, permitted us to conclude that a claim was fairly raised in the absence of a single factual allegation that would support such an inference. Therefore, I must respectfully dissent.2

. Green’s charge complained only of his termination. Additionally, he defined the relevant time period of the discriminatory conduct as the single day on which he was fired.

. In Sanchez v. Standard Brands, Inc., 431 F.2d 455, relied upon by our panel here, the failure of the employee to present to the EEOC a full statement of his complaint is referred to on each and every page of the decision (Parts II, III, IV and V) as a "technicality.” Perhaps my view is informed by my own experience as a young (what a memory!) lawyer, complaining that the point advanced against my position by opposing counsel was "a mere technicality.” The very fine judge presiding looked at me, kindly but positively, and said, "Mr. Hill, a technicality is a point of law upon which you lose. If you win on it, it is a cornerstone of American jurisprudence!”