Ryan Ray
The Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeal sided with a plaintiff alleging employment discrimination and against the state of Florida and its Department of Health in a new opinion issued Wednesday morning.
A wrongful termination suit won by the state in a Leon County court will now be sent back to trial court on procedural grounds. The appellate court ruled that although the state was correct in asserting the plaintiff had prematurely brought her case per statutory limits on such suits, the plaintiff’s broader case still stands and should not be scuttled for that reason alone.
The plaintiff, Sandra Sheridan, filed suit against the state after she was dismissed from her job at the department, alleging racial discrimination in violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992.
Sheridan subsequently filed complaints with both the Florida Commission on Human Relations and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which under a work-sharing agreement are both authorized to hear the complaint on the other’s behalf.
Attorneys for the state argued Sheridan’s case was invalidated by her failure to abide by a federal timeline required for the federal Commission to make a finding of probable cause, submitting her suit before their investigation was complete.
Though the court threw out arguments by plaintiff’s attorneys that Sheridan faced a “Hobson’s Choice” of either abiding by state or federal timelines, which conflicted. Nonetheless, the court said her case may continue on its merits.
“Under the unique facts of this case, the premature filing of Ms. Sheridan’s lawsuit was indeed cured by the passage of time before the issue of the premature filing went before the trial court,” Judge Stephanie Ray wrote for the court. “The premature filing did not deprive the Commission of the opportunity to fulfill its statutorily mandated responsibilities under the Act and, due to the timing of the proceedings in the trial court, did not threaten to circumvent the possibility of a dismissal by the Commission which would have foreclosed the option of filing an action in court.”
“Consistent with our charge to liberally construe the FCRA so as not to unduly restrict a citizen’s constitutionally guaranteed access to the courts, we reverse the order granting final summary judgment for the Department and remand for the trial court to reinstate Ms. Sheridan’s complaint,” the opinion concluded.
Sheridan’s case against the state will now be reconsidered by the lower court in Leon County.
