Ang v. Proctor & Gamble Co.

715 F. Supp. 851, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8167, 51 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 39,304, 50 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 764, 1989 WL 81327
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedJune 28, 1989
DocketC-1-88-0689
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 715 F. Supp. 851 (Ang v. Proctor & Gamble Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ang v. Proctor & Gamble Co., 715 F. Supp. 851, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8167, 51 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 39,304, 50 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 764, 1989 WL 81327 (S.D. Ohio 1989).

Opinion

ORDER

CARL B. RUBIN, Chief Judge.

This matter is before the Court upon the motion of defendant The Proctor and Gamble Co. to dismiss plaintiff’s claim of retaliatory dismissal under § 704(a) of Title VII of the amended complaint filed April 27, 1989 pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) (Doc. No. 19). Memoranda in opposition to and in support of such motion have been filed by the parties (Doc. Nos. 22, 25). For the reasons contained herein defendant’s motion is hereby GRANTED.

*852 On August 3, 1988, plaintiff Ignatius G. Ang filed a complaint against his former employer The Proctor and Gamble Co. alleging that defendant had discriminated against him because of his race, ancestry, ethnicity and national origin (Doc. No. 1). On April 27, 1989, plaintiff filed an amended complaint in which he alleged in addition to that above, defendant discriminated against the plaintiff because of plaintiffs activities which were in opposition to the discriminatory practices of defendant. The basis of defendant’s motion is that plaintiffs allegation of retaliatory dismissal is outside the scope of his administrative charge of discrimination, will fail as a matter of law and should therefore be dismissed.

I.

A Rule 12(b)(6) motion examines whether a cognizable claim has been pleaded in the complaint. Rule 8(a) sets forth the basic federal pleading requirement that a pleading “shall contain ... a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Westlake v. Lucas, 537 F.2d 857, 858 (6th Cir.1976). The objective of Rule 8(a)(2) is to provide the defendant with “fair notice of what plaintiffs claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 47, 78 S.Ct. 99, 103, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957). The familiar standard enunciated in Jones v. Sherrill, 827 F.2d 1102, 1103 (6th Cir.1987) states:

In reviewing a dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6), the Court must accept as true all factual allegations in the complaint. Windsor v. The Tennessean, 719 F.2d 155, 158 (6th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 826 [105 S.Ct. 105, 83 L.Ed.2d 50] (1984). The motion to dismiss must be denied unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of the claim which would entitle them to relief. Id. at 158; Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41 [78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80] (1957).

Although this standard for Rule 12(b)(6) dismissals is quite liberal, more than bare assertions of legal conclusions are ordinarily required to satisfy federal notice pleading requirements. 5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1357 at 596 (1969). “In practice, a complaint must contain either direct or inferential allegations respecting all the material elements to sustain a recovery under some viable legal theory.” Car Carriers, Inc. v. Ford Motor Co., 745 F.2d 1101, 1106 (7th Cir.1984) (quoting In re Plywood Antitrust Litigation, 655 F.2d 627, 641 (5th Cir.1981), cert. dismissed, 462 U.S. 1125, 103 S.Ct. 3100, 77 L.Ed.2d 1358 (1983)), cert. denied, 470 U.S. 1054, 105 S.Ct. 1758, 84 L.Ed.2d 821 (1985); see also Sutliff, Inc. v. Donovan Cos., 727 F.2d 648, 654 (7th Cir.1984); 5 C. Wright & A. Miller, Federal Practice & Procedure § 1216 at 121-23 (1969). When scrutinizing the complaint, all well pleaded facts are construed liberally in favor of the party opposing the motion. Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1686, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974).

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently stated:

“[W]e are not holding the pleader to an impossibly high standard; we recognize the policies behind Rule 8 and the concept of notice pleading. A plaintiff will not be thrown out of court for failing to plead facts in support of every arcane element of his claim. But when a complaint omits facts that, if they existed, would clearly dominate the case, it seems fair to assume that those facts do not exist.”

Scheid v. Fanny Farmer Candy Shops, Inc., 859 F.2d 434 (6th Cir.1988); McGregor v. Industrial Excess Landfill, Inc., 856 F.2d 39 (6th Cir.1988) quoting, O’Brien v. DiGrazia, 544 F.2d 543, 546 n. 3 (1st Cir.1976).

The Court has carefully reviewed the pleadings and scrutinized the record. This Court finds that plaintiff has sufficiently plead his cause of action in conformance with the foregoing standard to sustain the burden imposed upon him. Accordingly, defendant’s argument is rejected.

II.

Defendant has alternatively argued its position pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) that since plaintiff’s *853 claim was not first presented to the E.E. O.C., it may not be adjudicated before this Court.

It is a well settled doctrine in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that a Title VII litigant’s assertion of discriminatory conduct in Court is “limited to the scope of the E.E.O.C. investigation reasonably expected to grow out of the charge of discrimination.” E.E.O.C. v. McCall Printing, 633 F.2d 1232, 1235 (6th Cir.1980); E.E.O.C. v. Bailey Co., 563 F.2d 439, 446 (6th Cir.1977) cert. denied, 435 U.S. 915, 98 S.Ct. 1468, 55 L.Ed.2d 506 (1978). The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has further set forth its reasoning behind this Rule. First, it permits an effective functioning of Title VII when the persons filing complaints are not trained legal technicians.

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715 F. Supp. 851, 1989 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8167, 51 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 39,304, 50 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 764, 1989 WL 81327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ang-v-proctor-gamble-co-ohsd-1989.