Emmons v. First Student, Inc.

Background

Janay Emmons alleged that First Student employed her for approximately five months in 2016 as a bus driver for high school children. She requested modified work duty after beginning new medications, and the paperwork supporting that request disclosed that she is transgender. She alleged that First Student told her she did not qualify for modified duty because she had not been injured at work, and that First Student terminated her employment on or about May 31, 2016.

Emmons later filed discrimination charges with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She alleged that the investigation covered her transgender status, termination, and later failure to rehire her. First Student removed her initial state-court lawsuit to federal court. After the parties stipulated to an amended complaint adding federal claims, Emmons filed an amended complaint and dismissed a separate state-court action that alleged federal claims.

Motion and Arguments

First Student moved under Rule 12(b)(6), the rule allowing dismissal when a complaint does not adequately state a legal claim. The motion challenged the first, second, third, and tenth causes of action: Title VII sex and gender discrimination, Title VII retaliation, violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Emmons conceded that the tenth cause of action should be dismissed.

First Student argued that the Title VII claims concerning Emmons’s termination had not been properly presented to the agencies before she sued. It also argued that the first, second, and third causes of action were untimely and barred by res judicata, a rule against relitigating matters already resolved in an earlier case.

Court’s Analysis

The court held that, at the motion-to-dismiss stage, Emmons’s allegations were sufficient to show that her first administrative charge grew to include her sex or gender discrimination and retaliation claims. The court relied on her allegations that information about her transgender status had been provided to her manager shortly before her termination and to an EEOC investigator. First Student’s challenges to the truth and relevance of those allegations were factual arguments that might matter on summary judgment, but they did not justify dismissal at this stage.

The court also denied the timeliness argument. Although Emmons received a right-to-sue notice on January 30, 2019, and first filed federal claims on June 26, 2019, she alleged that her second administrative charge concerning the failure to rehire was related to the first charge concerning termination. The court stated that the relation-back argument itself failed, but concluded that Emmons’s allegations about the relationship between the two charges preserved her federal termination claims for purposes of the motion to dismiss. Any factual dispute about timeliness would have to be resolved on a complete factual record.

The court rejected First Student’s res judicata argument because the parties had stipulated to allow Emmons to amend the complaint in this federal action before she dismissed the separate state-court action alleging federal claims. The court granted First Student’s request for judicial notice.

Disposition

Judge Susan Illston denied First Student’s motion to dismiss the first, second, and third causes of action. She granted First Student’s motion to dismiss the tenth cause of action. The opinion does not specify whether the grant or denial was with or without prejudice.