Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Bartenders International Union

369 F. Supp. 827
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJune 21, 1973
DocketNo. C-73-0508 RFP
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 369 F. Supp. 827 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Bartenders International Union) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Bartenders International Union, 369 F. Supp. 827 (N.D. Cal. 1973).

Opinion

PECKHAM, District Judge.

This case is before the court on a motion to dismiss the complaint for failure to comply with certain statutory preconditions for the bringing of an action within the time frame allegedly set forth in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.1 Alternatively defendant seeks a motion for a more definite statement.

The plaintiff, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the Commission), brought this action for preliminary2 and permanent injunctive relief from alleged discriminatory employment - practices in violation of 'the Act by the defendant Bartenders International Union, Local 41.

According to the allegations in the complaint an administrative charge was filed on or about December 29, 1967. Approximately a year later the Commission determined that there was reasonable cause to believe that Local 41 was engaging in practices in violation of Title VII. The complaint further states generally that attempts to reach conciliation failed. On March 29, 1973 the Commission filed suit in this court.

Under the original Act the Commission had investigatory and conciliatory powers, but only an aggrieved party3 or the Attorney General4 could commence a suit.

As the statute now reads the Commission may bring a suit to enforce the Act. Section 706(f)(1), 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(f)(1) (1973) reads in part:

If within thirty days after a charge is filed with the Commission . . . the Commission has been unable to secure from the respondent .a conciliation agreement acceptable to the Commission, the Commission may bring a civil action.

By a specific provision in the amending legislation, section 706 applied to all charges which were pending before the Commission as of the date of the Amendment.5

I.

Defendant herein, contends that the conciliation attempts must be accomplished within the thirty days as a prerequisite to the suit by the Commission. Such a claim is wholly without merit.

Title VII, § 706(b), 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(b) (1973) reads:

If the Commission determines after such investigation that there is reasonable cause to believe that the charge is true, the Commission shall endeavor to eliminate any such alleged unlawful employment practices by informal conference, conciliation, and pursuasion . . . The Commission shall make its determination on reasonable cause as promptly as possible and, so far as practicable, not later than one hundred and twenty days from the filing of the charge . . . (emphasis added.)

In Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Container Corporation of America, 352 F.Supp. 262 (M.D.Fla. 1972), the court found that each step set forth in the above section was a deliberate part of a scheme, set forth by Congress, and a mandatory prerequisite to the Commission’s maintaining an action. In this regard the court distinguished a number of cases which have held prior to the amendments that the failure of the Commission to attempt conciliation did not bar an aggrieved party from bringing suit. See Cunningham v. Litton Industries, 413 F.2d 887 (9th Cir. 1969). Accordingly the court found that administrative charge, investiga[829]*829tion, determination as to reasonable cause to believe the charge is true, and attempts at conciliation are mandatory preconditions to the maintenance of a suit by the Commission. Container Corporation of America, 352 F.Supp. at 265. The Commission does not argue otherwise. The dispute here is with respect to time constraints in which those requirements must be met.

The conciliation requirement follows a determination that there is reasonable cause to believe that the charge is true. The reasonable cause determination is to be made “so far as practicable” within 120 days from the filing of the charges.6 Conciliation follows that determination. Therefore, it is frivolous to contend, as defendant does here that Congress meant in § 706(b) that the investigation, reasonable cause determination, and conciliation attempts must be effected within thirty days from the filing of the charge.

Section 706(f)(1) is read by this court as only imposing the requirement that the Commission must wait at least thirty days before it commences suit. However, that provision does recognize that the Commission must still proceed in accordance with the requirement of subsection (b) of that section providing that investigation, reasonable cause determination and conciliation must precede the filing of a suit. But nothing in § 706(f) (1) requires that these procedural safeguards must be accomplished within thirty days, and no such interpretation was intended by Congress.

II.

The defendant also contends that the Commission must commence suit, if at all, within 180 days from the filing of the charge. Section 706(f) (1) generally provides that if the charge was dismissed by the Commission, or if, no conciliation being reached, the Commission had not filed suit within 180 days, it must notify persons aggrieved and they will have ninety days to commence an action.

The defendant contends that the 180 day notification requirement defines the boundaries of time in which the Commission may bring suit based on that charge. Defendant argues quite forcefully that Congress did not intend that actions be commenced in federal court on the basis of stale charges. It was presumably for this reason that Congress requires that a private party must bring suit within ninety days of being notified by the Commission. Defendant points to the fact that five years have passed since the filing of charges in the instant case. But as this court has recognized, the considerations which allow for a private party to sue are often separate considerations from those involving the government’s right to proceed against an alleged violator of the act. See United States v. Local Union No. 3, International Union of Operating Engineers, 4 FEP Cases 1088 (N. D.Cal.1972). The Commission does not sue for damages. Cf. § 706(g) (back-pay liability limited). And while Congress did intend that liability for damages based on a past discrimination should be expeditiously determined, the matter is in a different posture where, as here, the Government seeks an injunction to restrain an allegedly present and continuing violation of the Act.

On the other hand it is apparent that the Commission was without power to commence an action at the time when the 180 day period expired in this case. The 180 day period itself was a creation of an amendment which did not go into effect until four years after. The original Act contained no time limit within which the Commission was to notify the aggrieved party.7 To accept defendant’s contention that the placing of a time within which the Commission is to notify the aggrieved party is in effect a statute of limitation on further Commission action, would mean that numerous [830]*830cases on which the Commission was working were precluded from being brought to suit even before the Commission had the power to bring the actions. This court cannot accept such an interpretation.

As originally proposed the House Bill H.R.

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369 F. Supp. 827, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-bartenders-international-union-cand-1973.