Friday, June 22, 2018

5th Circuit: Title VII Exhaustion Requirement Is Not Jurisdictional

In Davis v. Fort Bend County, (5th Cir., June 20, 2018), the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the requirement that a person exhaust administrative remedies before bringing a Title VII action is not jurisdictional. It held that in this case, defendant "forfeited its opportunity to assert this claim" by waiting 5 years and an entire round of appeals all the way to the Supreme Court to raise the defense.  At issue is whether plaintiff exhausted her remedies on her religious discrimination claim, which she had added to her sex discrimination and harassment allegations.  Reuters reports on the decision.