Court Opinion

ID: 9477409
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:23:06.963874+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:52.219454
License: Public Domain

LAY, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority holds that resolution of the plaintiff’s ADEA claim by a state administrative agency provides issue preclusion of that claim filed in the federal court. I am afraid that in the interest of giving a final adjudication due to the weakness of the plaintiff’s factual case, the majority has written some bad law. The majority’s analysis and conclusion will cause more direct filings of age discrimination cases in the federal forum and encourage claimants to bypass the opportunity for state EEOC exhaustion, which serves to terminate many cases without federal litigation.
Preclusive Effect
I would adopt the opinions of the Fourth and Seventh Circuits, which contain persuasive analyses as to why there should be no preclusive effect given to a state agency’s determination in age discrimination cases. The decision in Duggan v. Board of Educ. of E. Chicago Heights, 818 F.2d 1291 (7th Cir.1987), was rendered by a distinguished panel of the Seventh Circuit composed of Judges Cudahy, Easterbrook, and Posner. In an opinion written by Judge Cudahy, that court made an exhaustive analysis of the case law and legislative intent before concluding that unreviewed administrative decisions would not preclude subsequent actions under the ADEA.1
Judge Cudahy pointed up the similarities in the deferral mechanisms of the ADEA and Title VII. In addition to the fact that both statutes provide a limited opportunity for state agency resolution, the ADEA’s deferral mechanism “was patterned after and is virtually in haec verba with” the deferral mechanism in Title VII, Oscar Mayer & Co. v. Evans, 441 U.S. 750, 755, 99 S.Ct. 2066, 2071, 60 L.Ed.2d 609 (1979). The Seventh Circuit noted the Supreme Court’s holding that, “the resolution of statutory or constitutional issues is a primary responsibility of courts, and judicial *284construction has proved especially necessary with respect to Title VII, whose broad language frequently can be given meaning only by reference to public law concepts.” Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U.S. 36, 57, 94 S.Ct. 1011, 1024, 39 L.Ed.2d 147 (1974). Judge Cudahy then concluded that this proposition was equally true for the ADEA because its substantive provisions were also derived from Title VII. Duggan, 818 F.2d at 1295 (citing Lorillard, A Division of Loew’s Theatres, Inc. v. Pons, 434 U.S. 575, 585, 98 S.Ct. 866, 872, 55 L.Ed.2d 40 (1978)). That court also observed that EEOC decisions receive de novo review in federal court, and concluded that giving preclusive effect to a state agency’s decision would produce inequitable results dependent upon whether a particular state had empowered a state agency to resolve such disputes. This would be true, the court reasoned, because in those states the agency’s decision would be preclusive whereas in the remaining states the EEOC’s decision would not preclude litigation.
Finally, the court concluded that the administrative proceedings under the ADEA were due less deference than such proceedings under Title VII. Under 29 U.S.C. § 633(b) a claimant cannot institute a federal suit for sixty days after filing with the state agency, but the claimant can file a complaint with the EEOC. However, under Title VII, all federal proceedings, both administrative and judicial, are deferred for sixty days after state proceedings are begun. Additionally, 29 U.S.C. § 633(a) states that, “upon commencement of action under this Act such action shall supersede any State action,” whereas Title VII contains no such limitation. Both of these provisions in the ADEA demonstrate the congressional intent to limit the effect of a state agency’s action.
In a decision predating Elliott, the Fourth Circuit also held ADEA claims to be analogous to Title VII claims and denied any preclusive effect to prior administrative decisions. Rosenfeld v. Department of the Army, 769 F.2d 237 (4th Cir.1985). The Fourth Circuit relied, in part, on the Supreme Court’s decision in Chandler v. Roudebush, 425 U.S. 840, 96 S.Ct. 1949, 48 L.Ed.2d 416 (1976) (federal employees entitled to a trial de novo on a Title VII claim, not just judicial review of federal administrative action).
As the majority concedes, the only decision indicating the opposite result is Mack v. South Bay Beer Distrib., 798 F.2d 1279 (9th Cir.1986). Mack involved a discharged employee who was denied state unemployment benefits by the state’s Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. He brought an ADEA claim in federal court. The court of appeals presumed without discussion that Elliott required the agency’s decision be given issue preclusive effect if the agency had acted in a judicial capacity and if Mack had had an adequate opportunity to litigate. That court concluded, however, that Mack was not precluded from filing his ADEA claim because he had not had an adequate opportunity to litigate the issue before the administrative panel.2
*285Although we are not bound by our sister circuits’ determinations, it seems to me that the majority’s decision creates unnecessary deviation from the establishment of uniform princples of law governing this area. See Aldens, Inc. v. Miller, 610 F.2d 538, 541 (8th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 919, 100 S.Ct. 1853, 64 L.Ed.2d 273 (1980). We should give greater deference to our sister circuits’ reasoning and analysis, particularly when, as here, there is no obvious error or flaw in that reasoning.
Failure to Promote
The majority finds no subject matter jurisdiction of plaintiff’s claim that she was additionally discriminated against by IAC’s failure to promote her to the position of director. This issue of subject matter jurisdiction was not raised in the trial court nor has it been raised on appeal. The issue on appeal relates to the trial court’s application of claim preclusion in holding that Stillians had had an opportunity to bring the claim before the IMEC. Claim preclusion is inapplicable here. Preclusive effect of an agency’s decision has been limited by the Supreme Court of the United States to issue preclusion and does not involve the full scope of res judicata. University of Tenn. v. Elliott, 478 U.S. 788, 106 S.Ct. 3220, 92 L.Ed.2d 635 (1986). The Iowa Supreme Court has held that failure to actually litigate an issue prevents the prior decision from having any preclusive effect. In re Kjos, 346 N.W.2d 25 (Iowa 1984).
The panel finds the position of director to be at the policy-making level and therefore exempt under the ADEA. Because this issue was not raised in the district court and this court’s resolution of the same will come as a surprise to the litigants, I would make no judgment on the issue. In all fairness to the parties, we should give them an opportunity to address the issue before passing on it. There exists a serious question in my mind whether the panel is right. In any event, judicial fairness requires that the issue be fully addressed by the litigants before final adjudication here.
I therefore dissent from the entire majority opinion.

. Here, the majority concludes without any supporting authority that a comparison of the ADEA and Title VII is an improper method of determining congressional intent. Yet the majority opinion proceeds to make just such a comparison immediately following that conclusion. Maj. op. at 282. The Supreme Court’s decision in Elliott utilized just such an approach by comparing Title VII and section 1983.

. The Eleventh Circuit, in two cases, has examined the preclusive effect of unreviewed state agency decisions under Elliott. Gjellum v. City of Birmingham, 829 F.2d 1056 (11th Cir.1987); Delgado v. Lockheed-Georgia Co., A Division of Lockheed Corp., 815 F.2d 641 (11th Cir.1987). After their discharge from Lockheed, Delgado and others filed for unemployment benefits with the Georgia Employment Security Agency. All benefits were administratively denied, and they filed suit under the ADEA in federal court. The court noted that both Title VII and the ADEA share "a common purpose in eliminating discrimination in the workplace * * Delgado, 815 F.2d at 646. That circuit, too, concluded that the differences in the deferral mechanisms required that less deference be given an ADEA action than an action under Title VII. However, the court then concluded that it need not decide the preclusion issue because the state agency involved did not afford the appellants an adequate opportunity to litigate their age discrimination claims. Thus there was no preclusion in the case before that court, irrespective of its interpretation of the effects of Elliott.
In Gjellum, the Eleventh Circuit interpreted Elliott as requiring nothing more than issue preclusion, not claim preclusion, even under section 1983. Gjellum v. City of Birmingham, 829 F.2d 1056 (11th Cir.1987). They concluded that even though they were to look to state preclusion law, when federal rights were involved those rights must be balanced against the nature of the state forum. They held that the importance of the federal rights in that case *285required that no claim preclusive effect be given the unreviewed state agency decision. Gjellum, 829 F.2d at 1064. That court also held that Elliott required preclusion only for factfinding actually done by the agency. Id. at 1068.