Reyes v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad

53 F.R.D. 293, 3 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 121, 14 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1551, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15100, 3 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8105
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedJanuary 12, 1971
DocketNo. KC-3149
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 53 F.R.D. 293 (Reyes v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reyes v. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, 53 F.R.D. 293, 3 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 121, 14 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1551, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15100, 3 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8105 (D. Kan. 1971).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ARTHUR J. STANLEY, Jr., Senior Judge.

This is an action for relief under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in which the plaintiff alleges that he has been the victim of discriminatory employment practices. Jurisdiction is premised upon 42 U.S.C.A. 2000e-5(f). The matter is now before the court upon the defendant’s motion to dismiss and in the alternative to strike certain allegations in the complaint.

The plaintiff is a Mexican-American who was, at the time of the alleged discrimination, an employee of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad Company. According to the charge which he filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (hereinafter EEOC or the Commission), Mr. Reyes was hired by defendant in August of 1967 as a laborer. Approximately six months later he was promoted to the position of pipe fitter’s helper. From the fall of 1966 until April, 1967, four Caucasian laborers were promoted around the plaintiff to the position of pipe fitter mechanic, and on April 19, 1967, plaintiff’s position was abolished and he was terminated. Apparently no other position was abolished at the defendant’s diesel shop in Parsons, Kansas, where the plaintiff was working at the time of his termination. Mr. Reyes was refused reinstatement to his former laborer classification assertedly because of his national origin, although Caucasians had previously been granted such reinstatement. Plaintiff also avers that he was the only Mexican-American or Negro who had attained a position with the defendant at the Parsons location at a classification higher than laborer.

The plaintiff attempts to prosecute this suit as a class action, the class consisting of minority groups who are employed or might be employed by defendant at its diesel shop in Parsons, Kansas. He prays for an injunction against continuation of the specified unlawful employment practices, back pay, reinstatement and such other relief as is appropriate.

The defendant has moved to dismiss the complaint on three grounds. It asserts, (1) that the court lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter of this suit, (2) that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, [296]*296and (3) that plaintiff has failed to join necessary parties whose presence is required by Rule 19 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Title 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(e) requires that a civil action be brought within 30 days after the EEOC notifies the person aggrieved that it has been unable to achieve voluntary compliance with the provisions of the Act. In this case, the Commission mailed its letter of notification on March 23, 1970, and it was received by the plaintiff, as the receipt indicates, on March 30, 1970. On April 24, 1970, pursuant to EEOC instructions and accompanying forms which apparently were mailed to plaintiff, he lodged, with the clerk of this court, an application for leave to file an action under Title VII without payment of fees, costs or security and for the appointment of counsel as provided in the Act. He also tendered the notification of the right to sue letter which he received from the Commission. I indicated in an earlier memorandum and order, granting plaintiff’s request for the appointment of counsel, that I was then reserving the question whether an action was timely brought in this case, and this question is now directly raised by the motion to dismiss. Under Rule 3 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure a civil action is commenced by filing a complaint with the court, and Rule 8 requires that a complaint contain a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. No such complaint was filed in this case within 30 days of the date on which the plaintiff received notification of the right to sue, and defendant asserts that such procedure is jurisdictional. Plaintiff has cited authorities, as did the EEOC in a letter which it sent to Mr. Reyes, for the proposition that filing of the notice of right to sue letter by the charging party is sufficient to toll the statute. McQueen v. E.M.C. Plastic Company, 302 F.Supp 881 (E.D.Texas 1969); Brock v. Southern Bell, Civil No. 68-1685 (E.D.La. 1970); Austin v. Reynolds Metals Co., 327 F.Supp. 1145 (E.D.Va.1970). This result has been reached in recognition of the “heavy overtones of public interest” associated with suits under Title VII, Jenkins v. United Gas Corporation, 400 F.2d 28 (5th Cir. 1968), and because of the type of people commonly involved in such suits. As the court said in Antonopulos v. Aerojet-General Corporation, 295 F.Supp. 1390 (E.D.Cal.1968):

“ * * * This law is a remedial one, and the Congressional purpose would not be furthered by making plaintiffs of the kind with which we are concerned, members of the working class who are generally without substantial higher education, dot every T and cross every ‘t’ on their way to the courthouse.” (p. 1395)

The decision in McQueen v. E.M.C. Plastic Company, supra, was also occasioned in part by the view of that court that shortcomings in papers obviously prepared by the staff of the EEOC, as in our case, should not be attributed to the plaintiff.

After reviewing the pertinent authorities, and bearing in mind the remedial purpose of Title VII, I have determined to follow those courts that have held the filing of the notice of right to sue letter within the statutory 30-day period sufficient to toll the statute. The filing of a complaint within a reasonable time thereafter, in my judgment, constitutes substantial compliance with the Act.

The defendant has also moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted because it does not allege that the discrimination referred to in the complaint was the sole cause of the injury to the plaintiff and because the allegations of the complaint are vague, confused, indefinite, and conclusory, I can detect no requirement in 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-5(g) that the complaint allege that discrimination in na[297]*297tional origin was the sole cause of plaintiff’s injury, and it is this section of the statute upon which the defendant relies to establish this proposition. Section (g) does limit the power of the court to grant certain specified relief if the alleged discrimination was based on some reason other than that prohibited by the Act, but there is no mention of a pleading requirement in that section. Furthermore, the Tenth Circuit, in reversing a decision of this court, held in connection with another section under Title VII that “notice pleading” has not been supplanted by the requirement that facts pertaining to the practice of discrimination be set forth in the complaint. United States v. Gustin-Bacon Div., Certainteed Prod. Corp., 426 F.2d 539 (10th Cir. 1970). Although the circuit court distinguished the pleading requirements in 2000e-6(a), with which that case was concerned, from charges directed to the EEOC under 2000e-5, I do not believe that the pleading requirements are different as to civil actions under the two sections of Title VII. I view the complaint to be sufficient under notice pleading requirements.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Potter v. Continental Trailways, Inc.
480 F. Supp. 207 (D. Colorado, 1979)
Metcalf v. Omaha Steel Castings Co.
476 F. Supp. 870 (D. Nebraska, 1979)
Johnson v. Host Enterprise, Inc.
470 F. Supp. 381 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1979)
Hawkins v. International Harvester
461 F. Supp. 588 (W.D. Tennessee, 1978)
Stevenson v. International Paper Co.
432 F. Supp. 390 (W.D. Louisiana, 1977)
Crook v. Penn Central Transportation Co.
427 F. Supp. 956 (N.D. Illinois, 1977)
Kendrick v. Commission of Zoological Subdistrict
427 F. Supp. 497 (E.D. Missouri, 1976)
Braxton v. Virginia Folding Box Co.
72 F.R.D. 124 (E.D. Virginia, 1976)
Grogg v. General Motors Corp.
72 F.R.D. 523 (S.D. New York, 1976)
Hinton v. CPC International, Inc.
520 F.2d 1312 (Eighth Circuit, 1975)
Robertson v. National Basketball Association
389 F. Supp. 867 (S.D. New York, 1975)
Padilla v. Stringer
395 F. Supp. 495 (D. New Mexico, 1974)
Holiday v. Red Ball Motor Freight, Inc.
399 F. Supp. 81 (S.D. Texas, 1974)
Hinton v. CPC International, Inc.
386 F. Supp. 757 (W.D. Missouri, 1974)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 F.R.D. 293, 3 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 121, 14 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 1551, 1971 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15100, 3 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 8105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reyes-v-missouri-kansas-texas-railroad-ksd-1971.