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EEOC intake questionnaire at the Supreme Court
June 04, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
Can an EEOC intake questionnaire be treated as a formal "charge"?
The US Supreme Court granted certiorari on June 4, 2007 in Federal Express Corporation v. Holowecki, which will answer that question. The case will be briefed and argued in October 2007 or later.
In order to file a suit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), a plaintiff must first file a "charge" with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The 2nd Circuit held that plaintiff Patricia Kennedy satisfied the requirement of filing a "charge."
What she filed was an EEOC Intake Questionnaire plus a four-page verified affidavit detailing her claims of age discrimination. The EEOC did not assign a case number, did not investigate or attempt to resolve the matter, and did not notify the employer.
The 2nd Circuit held that Kennedy's filing (1) contained the information required by the statute and by the EEOC's interpreting regulations, and (2) demonstrated Kennedy's intent to activate the EEOC's administrative process.
The formal Question Presented by the petition for certiorari:
Whether the Second Circuit erred in concluding, contrary to the law of several other circuits and implicating an issue this Court has examined but not yet decided, that an "intake questionnaire" submitted to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") may suffice for the charge of discrimination that must be submitted pursuant to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. ("ASEA"), even in the absence of evidence that the EEOC treated the form as a charge or the employee submitting the questionnaire reasonably believed it constituted a charge.
There is a significant split of authority among the federal circuit courts as to exactly what it means to file an EEOC "charge."
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