Davis v. Palos Health

District Court, N.D. Illinois·Decided June 27, 2019·No. 1:18-cv-04345·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS EASTERN DIVISION

) ALONZO DAVIS, )

) Plaintiff, )

) No. 18 C 4345 v. )

) Judge Virginia M. Kendall PALOS HEALTH ) (PALOS COMMUNITY HOSPITAL), )

Defendant. ) )

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Alonzo Davis sued his former employer Palos Community Hospital (PCH) al- leging it discriminated against him because of his race and age, then retaliated against him when he complained about it. (Dkt. 1-1.) The Court previously dismissed Davis’s complaint because it failed to state a claim. (Dkt. 34.) Davis amended his complaint asserting his four original claims and adding factual content that he pre- sumably believes makes his claims plausible. (Dkt. 35.) PCH again moved to dismiss arguing Davis failed to cure the deficiencies the Court identified in his original complaint. (Dkt. 39.) In his response, Davis volun- tarily withdrew his intentional infliction of emotional distress (“IIED”) claim (Count III) and his request for certain damages associated with his Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) claim. (Dkt. 47 at 5.) Because Davis’s complaint was un- timely, and his claims are still facially implausible, the Court grants PCH’s motion to dismiss (Dkt. 39) with prejudice because any amendment would be futile. I The Court assumes the parties’ familiarity with the relevant facts as recounted in the first opinion dismissing Davis’s complaint. See Davis v. Palos Health, No. 18

C 4345, 2019 WL 214916, at *1 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 16, 2019). Davis states three claims against PCH: age discrimination in violation of Title VII and the ADEA (Count I); race discrimination in violation of Title VII and Section 1981 (Count II); and retalia- tion in violation of Title VII (Count IV, incorrectly styled as Count VI). A Addressing a few preliminary matters at the top should streamline the legal

analysis. First, Davis insinuates several times in his complaint that PCH discrimi- nated against him based on gender—Davis is a man. (Dkt. 35 ¶¶ 5, 33–34.) But those allegations amount to conclusory statements, so they do not suffice. See Hernandez v. Nieves, 762 F. App’x 325, 326 (7th Cir. 2019). What is more, Davis did not assert sex discrimination in his Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charge; he did not style one of his counts as sex discrimination in violation of Title VII in his complaint; and he never alleged facts that suggest PCH terminated him—

and then decided not to rehire him—because he is a man. The same goes for any disability (Dkt. 35 ¶¶ 15, 20) and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) (Dkt. 35 ¶ 25) discrimination that Davis mentions in passing but does not develop beyond speculation. Those are discrete forms of discrimination that several federal statutes protect against. Davis cannot continue to leave PCH and the Court guessing as to the basic reasons for his lawsuit. Davis did not state Title VII (based on sex), FMLA, or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claims, so the Court need not rule on them. B

Second, Davis purports to allege an age discrimination claim under Title VII in Count I. (Dkt. 35 at 9.) That was a technical error, though Davis need not plead law. To clarify the issue, Title VII does not proscribe age discrimination; the ADEA does. Compare 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–2 (prohibiting discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin”), with 29 U.S.C. § 621 (banning discrimination based on “age”); see Donnelly v. Yellow Freight Sys., Inc., 874 F.2d 402, 408 (7th Cir. 1989),

aff’d, 494 U.S. 820 (1990); Jennings v. Sallie Mae, Inc., 358 F. App’x 719, 721 (7th Cir. 2009); Greer v. Bd. of Trustees of Univ. of D.C., 113 F. Supp. 3d 297, 304–05 (D.D.C. 2015). As it happens, Congress considered and rejected adding age to Title VII’s list of protected classes when it was deliberating the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. See Smith v. City of Jackson, Miss., 544 U.S. 228, 232–33 (2005) (discussing the legislative history of Title VII and the ADEA). Of course, three years later, Con-

gress passed the ADEA. See id.; see also Kleber v. CareFusion Corp., 914 F.3d 480, 496 (7th Cir. 2019) (en banc) (Hamilton, J., dissenting) (addressing the remarkable similarity of the two statutes). The Court will accordingly resolve PCH’s motion to dismiss Count I under the ADEA. II Moving to the merits, PCH once again argues in its motion to dismiss that: (1) Davis’s complaint was untimely; (2) certain allegations are outside the statutes of

limitations; and (3) the discrimination claims are facially implausible. The Court analyzes each contention in turn. A The Court previously held that Davis’s statutory discrimination claims were untimely because he filed his federal lawsuit 99 days after the EEOC issued its right- to-sue letter. Generally, Title VII and ADEA plaintiffs must sue within 90 days of

receiving notice of their right to sue. 42 U.S.C. 29 § 2000e-5(f)(1); U.S.C. § 626(e). In this context, notice means “actual notice,” or the day the individual received the EEOC’s letter and not the day the EEOC sent it. See Johnson v. Fed. Marine Termi- nals, Inc., 626 F. App’x 190, 192 (7th Cir. 2015). So, if a plaintiff does not receive the letter through no fault of her own, the 90- day clock does not start running until she does receive it. See Gray-Brock v. Illinois Am. Water Co., 609 F. App’x 867, 869–70 (7th Cir. 2015). But if the plaintiff, for

instance, does not update her address with the EEOC, that makes her non-receipt of the right-to-sue letter her own fault, and the 90-day clock starts running once the Postal Service attempts delivery at the last known address. See King v. Ford Motor Co., 872 F.3d 833, 839 (7th Cir. 2017) (citing Reschny v. Elk Grove Plating Co., 414 F.3d 821, 823 (7th Cir. 2005)). To be sure, this rule is an affirmative defense, which typically means Davis need not anticipate and overcome it. See Del Korth v. Supervalu, Inc., 46 F. App’x 846, 847–48 (7th Cir. 2002). But by alleging the relevant dates in his complaint,

Davis gave the Court everything it needs to rule. See Lee v. Nasatir, 671 F. App’x 388 (7th Cir. 2016); Prince v. Stewart, 580 F.3d 571, 574 (7th Cir. 2009). In this case, Davis alleges neither him nor his counsel ever received the right- to-sue letter in the mail. (Dkt. 35 ¶ 36.) Instead, Davis’s counsel received the letter via email nearly a month later. Id. But, relying on Bobbitt v. Freeman Companies, 268 F.3d 535 (7th Cir. 2001), the Court previously directed Davis to explain his coun-

sel’s failure to receive the notice within the presumptive five days, seeing that the notice itself indicates that the EEOC properly addressed it to Davis’s counsel’s office. (Dkt. 34 at 5.) Davis failed to allege why his counsel did not receive the letter after the EEOC sent it to counsel’s office.

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