Mildred L. ANDERSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. METHODIST EVANGELICAL HOSPITAL, INC., Defendant-Appellant
This text of 464 F.2d 723 (Mildred L. ANDERSON, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. METHODIST EVANGELICAL HOSPITAL, INC., Defendant-Appellant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
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This is an appeal from a judgment for plaintiff in an employment racial discrimination case brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e. We affirm.
The Hospital initially raises a jurisdictional issue, contending that the complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was untimely. The procedural chronology is as follows: Mildred Anderson was discharged on April 29, 1967. Less than one month later she submitted an unsworn charge to the EEOC regional office in Cleveland, alleging that she was fired on account of her race. Following normal EEOC procedures, the complaint was forwarded to the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, the State agency which administers the Kentucky counterpart to Title VII. In response to an EEOC letter, Mrs. Anderson replied in July: “I request that the Ky. Commission maintain jurisdiction until they have finished their investigation and resolved this matter, but not for a period exeeding the 120 EEOC referral.” She was unsatisfied with the State disposition of her complaint and on November 28, 1967 formally requested the EEOC to take action. She executed a sworn charge about six weeks later.
The Hospital contends that the unsworn charge was premature in that it was filed prior to commencement of State proceedings and that the formal request was tardy in that it was made more than 210 days after the charged [725]*725discriminatory act.1 We reject these, contentions. The original charge was received by the EEOC regional office and referred to the appropriate state agency. It was not “filed” within the meaning of the Act until expiration of the referral period, at which time it became automatically filed. Submission of the original charge tolled the 210 . day time limit. See Love v. Pullman Co., 404 U.S. 522, 92 S.Ct. 616, 30 L.Ed.2d 679 (1972); Vigil v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., 455 F.2d 1222 (10th Cir. 1972).
The Hospital further urges that the findings of the District Court were unsupported by the evidence. We recognize that the record clearly shows that the Hospital’s record in race relations, insofar as upper management is concerned, is exemplary. As found by the District Court:
“It should, at this point, be expressed that we do not find any facts which. reflect that the defendant corporation, or its directors, or its administrators possessed any willful plan or desire to resist social justice, or wish to discriminate or have any person in its employ discriminated against. In fact, the Board of Directors and the high management of the hospital have an outstanding record in regard to fair and impartial treatment of the races.”
However, where a discharge by a person in authority at a lower level of management is racially motivated, Title VII provides the aggrieved employee with a ■remedy. We have examined the entire record and are unable to say that the District Court was clearly erroneous in finding that Mrs. Anderson was discharged on account of her race. See R. 52(a), Fed.R.Civ.P.
Affirmed.
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464 F.2d 723, 1972 U.S. App. LEXIS 8465, 4 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 7901, 4 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mildred-l-anderson-plaintiff-appellee-v-methodist-evangelical-hospital-ca6-1972.