Alaska Employment Law

It is well-settled Supreme Court law that an EEOC right-to-sue letter is not a jurisdictional prerequisite to a Title VII action.  It’s a conditional precedent that may be waived by the parties or the court.  Zipes v. TransWorld Airlines, Inc. 455 U.S. 385 (1982).  In this morning’s case, the ex-employee filed with the state (California) agency and, at the end, was told she needed to contact the EEOC to obtain a federal right-to-sue letter.  She didn’t.  Had she contacted the EEOC, it would automatically have given her the letter, given the passage of time.  

The panel holds:

where, as here, a plaintiff is entitled to receive a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC, a plaintiff may proceed absent such a letter, provided she has received a right-to-sue letter from the appropriate state agency.

The panel then affirmed the dismissal of the Title VII/§ 1981 suit on the merits.  

Surrell v. California Water Service Co., 2008 WL _______ (9th Cir. Mar. 11, 2008)

Note: Just recently, Judge Sedwick denied a motion to dismiss a Title VII claim for failure to plead that the employee filed within 90 days of the EEOC letter.  Sedwick gave the plaintiff 30 days to re-plead.  Ketelsen v. Geren, 2008 WL 621093 (D.Alaska Mar. 4, 2008).