Johnson Ex Rel. Johnson v. ITT-Thompson Industries, Inc.

323 F. Supp. 1258, 3 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 225
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Mississippi
DecidedMarch 4, 1971
DocketWC 7063-K
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 323 F. Supp. 1258 (Johnson Ex Rel. Johnson v. ITT-Thompson Industries, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson Ex Rel. Johnson v. ITT-Thompson Industries, Inc., 323 F. Supp. 1258, 3 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 225 (N.D. Miss. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

KEADY, Chief Judge.

This is an action brought by a black resident of Holly Springs, Mississippi, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2Ó00e et seq., alleging that defendant, a corporation, has engaged in racial discrimination in its employment practices at its Holly Springs plant. Plaintiff brings the suit as a class action on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated. Defendant has now moved in the alternative to dismiss the suit, to strike portions of the complaint, to dismiss the class action, or to define and restrict the class. Following argument and briefing, the case is now before the court for decision on defendant’s motions.

We begin with a chronology of pertinent events. The complaint alleges that on July 28, 1970, she “called Thompson factory (defendant) and asked if they were hiring anybody. I was told that they were hiring only white people.” On August 8 she filed a written charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) incorporating the above allegations. On September 30 plaintiff’s counsel made written demand on EEOC for a notice of right to sue in federal district court, which was issued on October 15. On November 8 plaintiff commenced the instant suit, alleging that defendant unlawfully refused to hire her solely on account of her race and that defendant had been and was then engaging in numerous acts of racial discrimination in its employment practices, including assignment of blacks to inferior and less desirable jobs and departments, failure to promote blacks as readily as equally-qualified whites, subjection of black employees to inferior shifts, working conditions and disciplinary measures, and discharge of black employees without good cause solely because of race.

Defendant’s first ground for dismissal is that it was not served with a copy of the EEOC charge before suit was filed, and thus never had occasion to attempt to conciliate the dispute with plaintiff as contemplated by the statute creating the EEOC machinery. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(a). Defendant argues that service upon the accused employer of the EEOC charge is a jurisdictional prerequisite to the filing of suit.

Although not precisely in point, a recent Fifth Circuit case is highly persuasive that defendant’s position is not well taken. 1 In Beverly, the court held that a plaintiff may maintain a Title VII suit in federal court even though EEOC has found that there is no reasonable cause to believe that discrimination occurred. Since the statute does not require any conciliation efforts by EEOC *1260 until after it has found reasonable cause to believe there was discrimination, the Beverly decision indicates that failure of EEOC even to attempt to conciliate is not a jurisdictional bar to maintenance of a Title VII suit in federal court by the aggrieved employee. To the same effect is Dent v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 406 F.2d 399 (5 Cir. 1969), where the court specifically held that conciliation efforts by EEOC are not required as a jurisdictional prerequisite of a Title VII suit.

Based on Beverly and Dent, this court would have little hesitation in deciding that it was compelled to rule that service of the EEOC charge on the employer is not a jurisdictional prerequisite. Nevertheless, the Fifth Circuit has indicated in at least one case that the question may not be without difficulty. In Miller v. International Paper Co., 408 F.2d 283 (5 Cir. 1969), the court reiterated its earlier holdings that actual attempts at conciliation by EEOC are not jurisdictional prerequisites for filing of a Title VII suit by the aggrieved employee. The court also stated, however, at p. 291:

“The union’s second contention is that, even assuming that they were named in the EEOC charge, they were never served with a copy of the charge and, therefore, cannot be sued. This argument has much in common with the conciliation-prerequisite theory previously considered. Nevertheless, we have decided not to consider this question” (because of other considerations in the case).

When the identical question was recently presented to Judge Smith of this district, he, too, did not rule on the issue because he found that the employer in that case had actual notice of the matter alleged in the EEOC charge even before the charge was filed and the issue of failure to serve the charge on the employer was thus moot. 2 In spite of the absence of clear and binding precedent, we are constrained to agree with the courts in Beverly and Dent, supra, which held that there are only two jurisdictional prerequisites to a Title VII suit: (1) the filing of a charge of discrimination with EEOC within 90 days of the alleged incident of discrimination; and (2) actual filing of suit by plaintiff within 30 days of receipt of a right-to-sue letter from EEOC at the end of the 60-day conciliation period. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(c) (e). Although conciliation is certainly a favored policy of the entire Title VII scheme, it is also well known that EEOC is an understaffed and overworked agency which often is unable within the 60-day limit to assist the parties in seeking a conciliation. 3 Moreover, as the Fifth Circuit stated in Miller, supra:

“The plaintiff is not responsible for the acts or omissions of the Commission. He, and the members of his class, should not be denied judicial relief because of circumstances over which they have no control. The plaintiff exhausted administrative remedies and satisfied the requirements of the Act by filing a complaint with the Commission and awaiting its advice. He is not required to show that the Commission has endeavored to conciliate. To insist that he do so, would require him to pursue an administrative remedy which may be impossible to achieve. If the Commission makes no endeavor to conciliate, the remedy is ineffective and inadequate.” Miller, supra, at p. 290, quoting from Quarles v. Philip Morris, 271 F.Supp. 842, 846-847 (E.D.Va.1967).

Since it is not necessary to federal jurisdiction that EEOC attempt to conciliate, neither is service of the charge on the employer a jurisdictional requisite. Where, as here, EEOC made no attempt whatsoever to conciliate, there would have been no reason to require service *1261 of the charge on defendant. In the absence of EEOC and its presumed expertise in conciliation, Title VII does not require private negotiations between the parties themselves, although such might take place at any other time just as well as during the 60-day conciliation period.

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Bluebook (online)
323 F. Supp. 1258, 3 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 225, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-ex-rel-johnson-v-itt-thompson-industries-inc-msnd-1971.