Filed: Sep. 21, 1999
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT _ No. 98-11454 Summary Calendar _ PEGGY S. HOLBROOK, Plaintiff-Appellant, VERSUS LOCKHEED MARTIN TACTICAL AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp.; STEVE WIGGINS, in his various capacities of employment for Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Defendants-Appellees. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (4:97-CV-432-Y) _ September 20, 1999 Before DAVIS, EMILIO M. GARZA, and DENNIS
Summary: UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT _ No. 98-11454 Summary Calendar _ PEGGY S. HOLBROOK, Plaintiff-Appellant, VERSUS LOCKHEED MARTIN TACTICAL AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS, a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corp.; STEVE WIGGINS, in his various capacities of employment for Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems, Defendants-Appellees. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (4:97-CV-432-Y) _ September 20, 1999 Before DAVIS, EMILIO M. GARZA, and DENNIS,..
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UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
___________________________
No. 98-11454
Summary Calendar
___________________________
PEGGY S. HOLBROOK,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
VERSUS
LOCKHEED MARTIN TACTICAL AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS, a subsidiary of
Lockheed Martin Corp.; STEVE WIGGINS, in his various
capacities of employment for Lockheed Martin Tactical
Aircraft Systems,
Defendants-Appellees.
___________________________________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Texas
(4:97-CV-432-Y)
___________________________________________________
September 20, 1999
Before DAVIS, EMILIO M. GARZA, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM*:
Holbrook appeals the district court’s grant of summary
judgment to her former employer, Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft
Systems, on her Title VII claim. We find no error and affirm.
On appeal, Holbrook argues that genuine issues of material
fact exist concerning whether she was subject to a continuing
course of discrimination that would give rise to application of the
*
Pursuant to 5th CIR. R. 47.5, the Court has determined that this
opinion should not be pubished and is not precedent except under
the limited circumstances set forth in 5th CIR. R. 47.5.4.
continuing-violation theory and save her claim from the statute of
limitations. We agree with the district court that the defendants
met their summary judgment burden by asserting all elements of a
valid affirmative statute-of-limitations defense and that Holbrook
failed to go beyond the pleadings and set forth specific facts
showing a genuine issue for trial.
While the statute of limitations on Title VII claims is three
hundred days, Holbrook failed to file her EEOC claim until August
of 1996, more than four years after the last alleged assault and
more than eighteen months after the Lockheed Corporation
administratively terminated her employment. Holbrook, however,
claims that the continuing-violation exception to conventional
statute of limitations rules should apply to her claim. This
equitable doctrine relieves plaintiffs of the burden of showing
that an entire violation occurred within the limitations period if
an unlawful employment practice manifests itself over time, see
Abrams v. Baylor College of Medicine,
805 F.2d 528, 532 (5th Cir.
1986), and some action in the illegal course of conduct occurred
within the limitations period, see Berry v. Board of Supervisors,
715 F.2d 971, 981 (5th Cir. 1983). The district court properly
held that Holbrook failed to satisfy either of these elements.
The district court was correct to conclude that the
continuing-violation doctrine was inapplicable to this case because
the complained of conduct, a series of workplace rapes, are
“discrete instance[s] of discriminatory conduct” that should put an
employee on notice to the existence of a cause of action. Huckabay
v. Moore,
142 F.3d 233, 239 (5th Cir. 1998). Thus, Holbrook’s
claims are antithetical the theory’s requirement of an unlawful
employment practice that manifests itself over a period of time.
Furthermore, the district court appropriately held that Wiggin’s
seemingly innocuous phone calls, the actionable conduct Holbrook
claims occurred within the limitations period, were not similar
enough to the alleged rapes to be part of the same course of
conduct required to constitute a continuing violation. See Berry
at 981 (requiring that the “alleged acts involve the same type of
discrimination.”).
Finally, because none of the evidence excluded by the district
court would, if admitted, be relevant to application of the
continuing-violation theory, appellant’s only substantive issue
raised on appeal, any possible error in the exclusion of such
evidence would be harmless.
AFFIRMED.