Appellate Law

CA1: partial exhaustion of discrimination claims makes for bootstrapping fun

By S. COTUS

Franceschi v. US Dept of Veterans Affairs, No. 06-2677.  This is a case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. essentially alleging age discrimination and retaliation.  The problem is he got a partial right to sue letter after he filed suit.  The EEOC accepted one of his claims.  The court writes ?The EEOC's letter does not explicitly tell Franceschi that he was prohibited from suing in federal court on Claim A until final action had been taken on the whole complaint, but such a prohibition is clearly contemplated in the applicable regulations [29 C.F.R. § 1614.107(a)]. The retaliation claim doesn?t require exhastion, but ?Yet where, as here, administrative remedies have not been exhausted with respect to any of the other Title VII claims in the civil action, there is nothing properly before the court to which the retaliation claim may be bootstrapped.?  So the First affirms, nothing that the dismissal is without prejudice to properly brining them. 

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on January 30, 2008 (boomark / email).