By: Derek Hawkins//September 23, 2019//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Martin Chaidez, et al. v. Ford Motor Company, et al.
Case No.: 18-2753
Officials: BAUER, MANION, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.
Focus: EEOC Claim – Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies
The plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and those similarly situated, allege a racially discriminatory hiring scheme that has resulted in a lack of Hispanic and Latino line workers at Ford Motor Company’s Chicago assembly plant. The district court dismissed the suit for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, holding the plaintiffs’ claims were not “like or reasonably related to” the claims asserted in their EEOC charges. Because we conclude that the claims included in Count II of the plaintiffs’ complaint were properly exhausted before the EEOC, we vacate the district court’s dismissal of Count II and remand for further proceedings. We also modify the district court’s dismissal of Count I to be without prejudice.
Affirmed and modified in part. Vacated and remanded in part.