In Blanchard v. Tulane University, Civil Action No. 22-260, 2022 WL 13733195 (E.D.La. Oct. 21, 2022), the court, inter alia, denied defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s retaliation claim asserted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
This aspect of the decision concerns Title VII’s “administrative exhaustion” requirement, which, in sum, requires an aggrieved plaintiff to timely file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) before commencing a civil action in federal court under Title VII.
From the decision:
Plaintiff is not required to administratively exhaust his retaliation claim.
Generally, a plaintiff must first exhaust his or her administrative remedies by filing an EEOC charge before commencing a civil action in federal court. However, the Fifth Circuit has carved an exception for certain retaliation claims. In Gupta v. East Texas State University, the Fifth Circuit held it is unnecessary for a plaintiff to exhaust administrative remedies prior to urging a retaliation claim growing out of an earlier charge; the district court has ancillary jurisdiction to hear such a claim when it grows out of an administrative charge that is properly before the Court. This is so because it is the nature of retaliation claims that they arise after the filing of the EEOC charge. Requiring a double filing would serve no purpose except to create additional procedural technicalities when a single filing would comply with the intent of Title VII.
Plaintiff alleges that the disciplinary action he was subject to on January 7, 2022, was part of Ms. Guy’s on-going retaliation for filing a race discrimination complaint. Because Plaintiff’s retaliation claim grows out of an earlier administrative charge, this Court has ancillary jurisdiction over the claim. Accordingly, Defendant’s motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s retaliation claim is denied.
[Cleaned up.]
The court also denied defendant’s motion to dismiss other of plaintiff’s claims, including plaintiff’s race-based harassment/hostile work environment claims.