Woelbling v. RC Wilson Co.

966 F. Supp. 858, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8259, 74 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 223, 1997 WL 321372
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedApril 28, 1997
Docket4:96 CV 818 DDN
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 966 F. Supp. 858 (Woelbling v. RC Wilson Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woelbling v. RC Wilson Co., 966 F. Supp. 858, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8259, 74 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 223, 1997 WL 321372 (E.D. Mo. 1997).

Opinion

966 F.Supp. 858 (1997)

Cynthia WOELBLING, Plaintiff,
v.
R.C. WILSON COMPANY, Defendant.

No. 4:96 CV 818 DDN.

United States District Court, E.D. Missouri, Eastern Division.

April 28, 1997.

*859 Cathy Steele, Cathy Steele Law Office, P.C., Clayton, MO, for plaintiff.

Steven M. Hamburg, Michael W. Newport, Summers and Compton, St. Louis, MO, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

NOCE, United States Magistrate Judge.

This action is before the Court upon the motion of defendant R.C. Wilson Company to dismiss plaintiff's complaint, which the Court has ordered be considered a motion for summary judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c). The parties have consented to the exercise of authority by the undersigned *860 United States Magistrate Judge under 28 U.S.C. § 636(c)(3).

In her first amended complaint, plaintiff Cynthia Woelbling seeks relief from employment discrimination in eight counts under federal and state law. Plaintiff's claims are brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (Title VII); the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq. (ADA); the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. §§ 621 et seq. (ADEA); the Missouri Human Rights Act, Mo.Rev.Stat. §§ 231.010 et seq. (MHRA); the Missouri Workers' Compensation Law, Mo.Rev.Stat. Ch. 287 (MWCL); and the common law of Missouri. More specifically, she alleges the following claims:

(1) Count I: under Title VII, on account of her gender, (a) she was denied the position of Insurance Supervisor and (b) was terminated;
(2) Count II: under the MHRA, on account of her gender, (a) she was denied the position of Insurance Supervisor and (b) was terminated;
(3) Count III: under the ADA, after she was injured on the job and became disabled, (a) she was subjected to conditions of employment different from those of defendant's non-disabled employees and (b) was terminated.
(4) Count IV: under the MHRA, after she was injured on the job and became handicapped, (a) she was subjected to conditions of employment different from those of defendant's non-disabled employees and (b) was terminated.
(5) Count V: under the MWCL, after she began receiving treatment for her on-the-job injury, (a) plaintiff was subjected to retaliatory conduct and (b) was terminated.
(6) Count VI: under Missouri common law, after expressing concerns about defendant's policies and specific instructions about her job duties, which she believed were unethical and in violation of federal law, (a) she was subjected to retaliation and (b) was terminated.
(7) Count VII: under the ADEA, on account of her age, she was terminated.
(8) Count VIII: under the MHRA, on account of her age, she was terminated.

Defendant has moved to dismiss certain of plaintiff's claims because she failed to exhaust her administrative remedies as to them, because they fail to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and because the Court should not exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the state law claims.[1]

Exhaustion of administrative remedies.

Defendant argues that certain of the claims must be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, because plaintiff did not assert them in the charge of discrimination brought before the Missouri Human Rights Commission (MHRC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

In support of its arguments that plaintiff has failed to exhaust her statutory administrative remedies, defendant has submitted to the Court a copy of plaintiff's charge of discrimination filed with the MHRC on October 5, 1995. In that document plaintiff alleged that she was discriminated on account of sex, disability, age, and "violation of public policy." See Motion Exh. A, filed June 25, 1996, at 2. Plaintiff specifically alleged:

I believe I was disparately treated and then terminated because of my sex, age and disabilities. I was informed by Martin Payne & Rick Richardson that I was terminated because (a) it was pretextual (b) women under 40 and males and non-disabled persons were treated favorably & given larger raises. M. Payne's evaluation of me was at a lower job performance level, for which he had no explanation, when all my women supervisors had given me [a] very good performance appraisal. I also believe my employer was retaliating against me because I refused to perform illegal actions which I was instructed to perform. *861 Id. The EEOC Notice of Right to Sue was issued to plaintiff on January 31, 1996. See Motion Exh. B, filed June 25, 1996. This action was commenced by the filing of the original complaint on April 26, 1996.

Plaintiffs who intend to bring claims in federal district court for violations of Title VII, the ADEA, the ADA, and the MHRA must first exhaust the administrative remedies as to them. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(e); 29 U.S.C. § 626(d)(1); Mo. Rev.Stat. §§ 213.075, 213.111(1); Walker v. St. Anthony's Medical Center, 881 F.2d 554, 556 (8th Cir.1989) (Title VII and ADEA); Tart v. Hill Behan Lumber Co., 31 F.3d 668, 671 (8th Cir.1994) (MHRA). Concomitant with the requirement that such employment discrimination claims be submitted to administrative remedial procedures are the following principles:

The purpose of filing a charge with the [appropriate administrative agency] is to provide [that agency] an opportunity to investigate and attempt a resolution of the controversy through conciliation before permitting the aggrieved party a lawsuit. ... Because persons filing charges with [those agencies] typically lack legal training, those charges must be interpreted with the utmost liberality in order not to frustrate the remedial purposes of [the statute invoked.] ... Accordingly, the sweep of any subsequent judicial complaint may be as broad as the scope of the [agency]'s "investigation which could reasonably be expected to grow out of the charge of discrimination."

Cobb v. Stringer, 850 F.2d 356, 359 (8th Cir.1988) (citations omitted). Thus, administrative remedies are deemed "exhausted as to all incidents of discrimination that are `like or reasonably related to the allegations of the [administrative] charge.'" Tart, 31 F.3d at 671 (quoting Anderson v. Block,

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966 F. Supp. 858, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8259, 74 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 223, 1997 WL 321372, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woelbling-v-rc-wilson-co-moed-1997.