Paul v. Scheel All Sports
- Patrick Schiltz
- 0:23-cv-00631
- U.S. District Court · District of Minnesota
- 3
In Paul v. Scheel All Sports, Chief Judge Schiltz granted Scheels’s dismissal motion, denied Paul’s motion, and dismissed the complaint with prejudice as untimely.
Jerome Paul’s Minnesota Human Rights Act lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice. Scheel All Sports obtained dismissal of the action, and Paul’s motion was denied.
What happened
In Paul v. Scheel All Sports, Jerome Paul alleged that Scheels discriminated against him under the Minnesota Human Rights Act when he tried to buy firearms at a Scheels store. Paul represented himself, and Scheels asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit as filed too late.
The Minnesota Department of Human Rights issued a no-probable-cause decision and affirmed it on December 16, 2022. The court applied a rule presuming that Paul received the mailed decision five days later, on December 21. The law gave him 45 days to sue, so the deadline was February 6, 2023. Paul served Scheels on February 14.
The court dismissed the complaint with prejudice because it was untimely, granted Scheels’s motion to dismiss, and denied Paul’s motion. Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz entered the order on July 10, 2023.
The detailed version
- Paul v. Scheel All Sports · No. 0:23-cv-00631
- Patrick Schiltz
- July 10, 2023
Background
Jerome Paul, representing himself, alleged that defendant Scheels All Sports, Inc. discriminated against him in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act when he attempted to buy firearms from a Scheels store in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The complaint identified the defendant as “Scheel All Sports.” Scheels removed the action from Minnesota state court to the federal district court and moved to dismiss it as untimely. Paul also filed a motion.
The events underlying the complaint occurred in May
- Paul filed a discrimination charge with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights on May 25,
- The Department issued a no-probable-cause decision on November 16,
- Paul appealed, and the Department affirmed that decision on December 16, 2022.
Reasoning
The Minnesota Human Rights Act requires a person to bring a civil action within 45 days after receiving notice that the Department’s commissioner has reaffirmed a no-probable-cause determination. The statute presumes receipt five days after the Department mails its written notice. Because the Department mailed the affirmation on December 16, 2022, the court treated December 21, 2022, as the receipt date, even though Paul alleged that he did not receive the decision until February 10, 2023.
Using the presumed receipt date, the 45-day period expired on February 6, 2023. Paul served Scheels with the summons and complaint on February 14, 2023, eight days after the deadline. The court therefore concluded that the lawsuit was untimely.
Ruling
The court granted Scheels’s motion to dismiss, denied Paul’s motion, and dismissed Paul’s complaint with prejudice. The court ordered judgment to be entered accordingly. Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz signed the order.
Read the full 3-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.