Bland v. Kansas City, Kansas Community College

271 F. Supp. 2d 1280, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12322, 2003 WL 21674455
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedJuly 11, 2003
Docket02-2482-JWL
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 271 F. Supp. 2d 1280 (Bland v. Kansas City, Kansas Community College) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bland v. Kansas City, Kansas Community College, 271 F. Supp. 2d 1280, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12322, 2003 WL 21674455 (D. Kan. 2003).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

LUNGSTRUM, District Judge.

Plaintiff filed suit against defendant alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq., and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. This matter is presently before the court on defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiffs complaint (doc. # 11). As set forth below, the motion is granted in part and denied in part. Specifically, the motion is denied with respect to plaintiffs ADEA claim and is otherwise granted.

The court begins its analysis of defendant’s motion with those claims that plaintiff expressly concedes should be dismissed. In that regard, defendant moves to dismiss plaintiffs complaint to the extent that complaint could be read to assert claims arising under the United States Constitution. Plaintiff has clarified in her papers that she did not intend to assert such claims. Defendant’s motion to dismiss those claims, then, is granted as uncontested. In addition, plaintiff consents in her papers to the dismissal of her claim *1283 for punitive damages against defendant and, thus, defendant’s motion is granted in that regard as well.

I. Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies

The court turns, then, to plaintiffs Title VII claim, a claim that plaintiff impliedly concedes should be dismissed. Defendant moves to dismiss this claim on the grounds that plaintiff failed to exhaust her administrative remedies. According to defendant, plaintiffs charge of discrimination is totally devoid of any reference to any claim arising under Title VTI. Defendant makes the same argument with regard to plaintiffs ADA claim. In her papers, plaintiff urges only that she exhausted her remedies with respect to her ADA claim by referencing her alleged disabilityin the questionnaire she completed for the EEOC. She makes no mention of her Title VII claim and does not purport to suggest that any Title VII claim was preserved by virtue of her charge or her questionnaire. The court concludes, then, that plaintiff concedes that she did not exhaust her remedies with respect to this claim.

Even assuming plaintiff did not intend to abandon her Title VII claim by failing to mention that claim in her response to defendant’s motion to dismiss, dismissal of this claim is nonetheless appropriate. Exhaustion of administrative remedies is a jurisdictional prerequisite to bringing suit under Title VII. See Simms v. Oklahoma ex rel. Dep’t of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Servs., 165 F.3d 1321, 1326 (10th Cir.1999); Seymore v. Shawver & Sons, Inc., 111 F.3d 794, 799 (10th Cir.1997). To exhaust administrative remedies, a Title VII plaintiff generally must present her claims to the EEOC as part of her timely filed EEOC “charge” for which she has received a right-to-sue letter. See Simms, 165 F.3d at 1326. The charge “shall be in writing and signed and shall be verified,” 29 C.F.R. § 1601.9, and must at a minimum identify the parties and “describe generally the action or practices complained of,” id. § 1601.12(b). The charge tells the EEOC what to investigate, provides it with the opportunity to conciliate the claim, and gives the charged party notice of the alleged violation. See Seymore, 111 F.3d at 799; 29 C.F.R. § 1601.14(a) (requiring EEOC generally to send copy of charge to charged party or respondent within ten days of its filing). Thus, requiring a plaintiff to have first presented her claims in her EEOC charge before being allowed to bring suit serves the dual purposes of ensuring the EEOC has the opportunity to investigate and conciliate the claims and of providing notice to the charged party of the claims against it. See Seymore, 111 F.3d at 799; cf. Schnellbaecher v. Baskin Clothing Co., 887 F.2d 124, 127 (7th Cir.1989) (“[Allowing a complaint to encompass allegations outside the ambit of the predicate EEOC charge would circumvent the EEOC’s investigatory and conciliatory role, as well as deprive the charged party of notice of the charge, as surely as would an initial failure to file a timely EEOC charge.”) (quotation omitted).

On the charge form, plaintiff marked only the box referencing discrimination on the basis of age. In the “particulars” section of the charge, plaintiff wrote:

I have been employed by the above named employer since November 4, 1999, as a Child Care Teacher.
I am being paid less than younger teachers that was hired after me with less experience and less education.
I believe that I am being discriminated against because of my age (49) in viola *1284 tion of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

On its face, then, plaintiffs charge is devoid of any reference to a Title VII claim. Moreover, plaintiffs intake questionnaire-assuming for the moment that the court could consider this document for exhaustion purposes-lacks any reference to a Title VII claim. In such circumstances, it is beyond dispute that plaintiffs Title VII claim (a claim based on plaintiffs race) does not come within any of the exceptions to the exhaustion rule recognized by the Circuit; plaintiffs race claim is not “like or reasonably related to” her age discrimination claim and it is not reasonable to conclude that any alleged acts of racial discrimination would “fall within the scope of an EEOC investigation which would reasonably grow out of the charges actually made.” See Simms, 165 F.8d at 1827; Martin v. Nannie & the Newborns, Inc., 3 F.3d 1410, 1416 n. 7 (10th Cir.1993). Clearly, plaintiff has failed to exhaust her administrative remedies with respect to her Title VII claim and that claim is properly dismissed.

Not only does plaintiffs charge fail to mention a claim arising under Title VII, it also fails to mention any claim that might arise under the ADA. Again, as should be evident from the court’s recitation of plaintiffs charge, plaintiffs charge raises only an age discrimination claim. Plaintiff concedes as much in her papers, but she nonetheless urges that her ADA claim has been exhausted because she made allegations of disability discrimination in her intake questionnaire.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
271 F. Supp. 2d 1280, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12322, 2003 WL 21674455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bland-v-kansas-city-kansas-community-college-ksd-2003.