Lee v. Columbia/HCA of New Orleans, Inc.

611 F. App'x 810
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMay 20, 2015
Docket14-30761
StatusUnpublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 611 F. App'x 810 (Lee v. Columbia/HCA of New Orleans, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee v. Columbia/HCA of New Orleans, Inc., 611 F. App'x 810 (5th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Pro se plaintiff Shawlean Lee sued her former employer, Columbia/HCA of New Orleans, Inc., d/b/a Tulane University Hospital. Lee’s complaint alleges discrimination based on race and disability under federal and state law. The district court dismissed Lee’s complaint, holding that it was time-barred under the filing deadlines for claims brought under Title VII and the Americans with Disabilities Act. But neither Columbia nor the district court addressed Lee’s claim under the Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law, which provides a different limitations period. We affirm the dismissal of the federal claims, but reverse and remand with respect to the state law claim that was not addressed in the district court.

Lee lost her job with Columbia in November of 2011. Shortly thereafter, she filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that Columbia discriminated against her based on race and disability. She obtained a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC, which was dated April 11, 2013 and noted that she had “90 days to file a private suit in federal or state court.” Lee attached this right-to-sue letter to the complaint that she filed in federal court. Although her complaint acknowledges that she received the EEOC letter, it alleges that she gave it to a lawyer without noticing the 90-day filing deadline.

Lee filed her lawsuit on September 24, 2013. Citing the Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law and her charge to the EEOC, Lee alleged that Columbia fired her because of her race, sex, disability, and related medical conditions. Columbia moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), arguing that Lee’s federal claims were untimely. Columbia’s motion never mentioned Lee’s claim under the Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law. The district court granted the motion and dismissed Lee’s entire complaint as time-barred, concluding that Lee did not file within 90 days of her receipt of the EEOC letter. The district court also held that *812 Lee was not entitled to equitable tolling. Like Columbia, it did not discuss Lee’s claim under Louisiana law.

We review a dismissal under Rule 12(b)(6) de novo. Taylor v. Books A Million, Inc., 296 F.3d 376, 378 (5th Cir.2002). We review a district court’s decision to deny equitable tolling for abuse of discretion. Teemac v. Henderson, 298 F.3d 452, 457 (5th Cir.2002). We hold “pro se complaints ... to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers,” but “conclusory allegations or legal conclusions masquerading as factual conclusions will not suffice to prevent a motion to dismiss.” Taylor, 296 F.3d at 378 (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted).

Title VII claimants must file suit within 90 days of receipt of an EEOC right-to-sue letter. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(l); see also Taylor, 296 F.3d at 379. The same deadline applies to claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 42 U.S.C. § 12117(a) (incorporating by reference 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5). In the absence of a concrete allegation to the contrary, we presume that a claimant receives an EEOC right-to-sue letter within three days after it is mailed. See Jenkins v. City of San Antonio, 784 F.3d 263, 267 (5th Cir.2015). Lee does not allege that she received the letter outside of that time period. Thus, applying the presumption, Lee received the EEOC letter by April 14, 2013, so she had to file her suit by July 13, 2013. She therefore filed the complaint over two months late.

Even though Lee did not ask the district court to toll the limitations period, the court considered the possibility that equitable tolling was warranted based on the following circumstances: Lee had recently suffered from abuse, her son was recently arrested, and she had resided in a women’s shelter when her lawyer attempted to fax the right-to-sue letter back to her. The record also reflects that Lee stated in her response to Columbia’s motion to dismiss that she had not been taking some of her medications, which made it difficult to “fight for [her] rights.” But the district court ultimately did not toll the limitations period.

The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to equitably toll the deadline. Although there is no exhaustive list of circumstances that justify equitable tolling, the doctrine typically applies in three situations: (1) the pendency of a suit between the same parties in the wrong forum; (2) the plaintiffs unawareness of the facts giving rise to the claim because of the defendant’s intentional concealment; or (3) the EEOC’s misleading the plaintiff about the nature of her rights. Hood v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 168 F.3d 231, 232 (5th Cir.1999). As the district court pointed out, Lee received the EEOC letter, but she either did not read it or did not read it carefully enough to notice the 90-day deadline before she gave it to her lawyer. The district court thus found that Lee’s circumstances, though difficult, did not interfere with her ability to file a complaint. Given the deferential abuse-of-discretion standard through which we consider this issue, we cannot say the district court erred in declining to apply equitable tolling. We therefore affirm dismissal of Lee’s federal claims. 1

*813 A different result is warranted for Lee’s appeal concerning her claim under the Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law. As a basis for relief, Lee’s complaint cites “LSA-R.S. 23:301 et seq.,” which is the Louisiana Employment Discrimination Law. That citation is more than existed in a recent civil rights case in which the Supreme Court held that a district court erred in dismissing the complaint on the ground that the lawyers filing it did not cite 42 U.S.C. § 1983. See Johnson v. City of Shelby, — U.S. -, 135 S.Ct. 346, 346-47, 190 L.Ed.2d 309 (2014). Lee’s complaint, which included the citation to the relevant state statute; is thus more than sufficient under the more liberal pro se pleading standard to invoke the state statute. See Erickson v. Pardus, 551 U.S. 89, 94, 127 S.Ct. 2197, 167 L.Ed.2d 1081 (2007) (“A document filed pro se is to be liberally construed and a pro se complaint, however inartfully pleaded, must be held to less stringent standards than formal pleadings drafted by lawyers.” (citations omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted)).

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611 F. App'x 810, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-columbiahca-of-new-orleans-inc-ca5-2015.