Garayalde-Rijos v. Municipality of Carolina, et al

Filing

OPINION issued by Sandra L. Lynch, Chief Appellate Judge; Juan R. Torruella, Appellate Judge and Bruce M. Selya, Appellate Judge. Published. [13-1487]

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Date Filed: 03/28/2014

Entry ID: 5811398

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 13-1487
WALESKA GARAYALDE-RIJOS,
Plaintiff, Appellant,
v.
MUNICIPALITY OF CAROLINA; JOSÉ APONTE-DALMAU, Mayor of the
Municipality of Carolina,
Defendants, Appellees,
GERMÁN SANTIAGO-SERPA; JUAN ORTIZ-CRESPO;
NYDIA R. TALAVERA-FORTY, Auxiliar Director of Human Resources
Department; MABEL LÓPEZ,
Defendants.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
[Hon. Francisco A. Besosa, U.S. District Judge]

Before
Lynch, Chief Judge,
Torruella and Selya, Circuit Judges.

Juan M. Frontera Suau for appellant.
Jorge Martínez-Luciano, with whom Pedro E. Ortiz-Álvarez, LLC
was on brief, for appellee Municipality of Carolina.
Rosa Elena Pérez-Agosto, Assistant Solicitor General, with
whom Margarita Mercado-Echegaray, Solicitor General, was on brief,
for appellee José Aponte-Dalmau.

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LYNCH, Chief Judge.

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The district court granted a motion

to dismiss the Title VII and state law claims of a woman who
aspired to be a municipal firefighter.

She has appealed.

Waleska Garayalde-Rijos sued the Municipality of Carolina
(Carolina) and José Aponte-Dalmau, the Mayor of Carolina (Mayor),
in September 2011, alleging that Carolina had refused to hire her
as a firefighter for several vacancies because of her gender,
although she was allegedly the most qualified candidate.

Carolina

eventually did hire Garayalde-Rijos as a firefighter after it had
already hired allegedly less qualified males and only after the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) concluded that
Carolina had discriminated against Garayalde-Rijos in its hiring
process.

Garayalde-Rijos asserted that Carolina continued to

discriminate against her on the job and retaliated against her for
her pre-hire complaint of sex discrimination to the EEOC.
Garayalde-Rijos's complaint brought sex discrimination
and retaliation claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 et seq., as well pendent state law
claims, based on the defendants' pre- and post-hire conduct.
conclude

the

district

court's

dismissal

of

We

Garayalde-Rijos's

complaint under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) was based on at least
three

errors

of

law:

(1)

use

of

the

prima

facie

case,

an

evidentiary standard, as a pleading requirement; (2) dismissal of
plaintiff's

retaliation

claim

based

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solely

on

its

incorrect

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temporal analysis of causation at the motion-to-dismiss stage; and
(3) sua sponte dismissal of certain claims without any notice to
the parties.

As a result, we reverse in part and dismiss the

appeal as to those claims Garayalde-Rijos has waived.

We remand

for further proceedings.
I.
We

recite

the

facts

from

Garayalde-Rijos's

amended

complaint, taking her factual allegations as true and drawing
reasonable inferences in her favor.

Hammond v. Kmart Corp., 733

F.3d 360, 361 (1st Cir. 2013).
A.

Pre-Hire Discrimination and EEOC Complaint
On

firefighter

November
position

November 2009.

16,

2009,1

vacancies.

Carolina

announced

Garayalde-Rijos

eight

applied

in

She also sent the Mayor a letter on November 16

stating her skills and asking to be considered for the position.
The Mayor has final authority on all hiring decisions in Carolina.
In January 2010, Garayalde-Rijos received a phone call
from one of Carolina's employees asking her to attend a physical
fitness

test.

The

test

consisted

of

exercises,

including

weightlifting, pushups, a 100-meter run, climbing stairs, and
moving in confined spaces while wearing firefighter gear and

1

The complaint states that Carolina announced the vacancies
in November 2010, not November 2009.
We assume this was a
typographical error, as did the district court, given the timeline
that follows.
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carrying a fire hose. Garayalde-Rijos was the only woman among the
twenty-eight candidates that took the fitness test.
"rescue

truck

stair[]

climbing

test,"

other

After the
candidates

congratulated Garayalde-Rijos on her good performance.
In February 2010, Garayalde-Rijos was asked to take a
second physical fitness test that consisted of a simulated fire in
a confined space during which candidates had to help a trapped
victim.

Again, Garayalde-Rijos was the only woman.
On March 4, 2010, the Director of Carolina's Human

Resources Department, Nydia Talavera, sent Garayalde-Rijos a letter
saying that she had been included in the "Register of Eligible[s]
for the Carolina Firefighter position" with a test score of 80.
The

score

was

based

on

academic

preparation,

physical tests, and past experience.

performance

on

The letter asked her to

attend an interview on March 11, 2010.
At this point in the application process, the applicant
pool had been reduced to sixteen from the original twenty-eight.
Garayalde-Rijos was the only woman, and she had the highest test
score of all of the applicants.
Germán Santiago Serpa, the Director of the Carolina
Municipal Firefighter Brigade, interviewed Garayalde-Rijos on March
11.

Santiago knew Garayalde-Rijos from her previous job in the

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Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Fire Department.2

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He warned her that

the firefighter position is a "24/7" job and said that he knew that
she had a child.
care.

He asked her how she was going to deal with child

Juan Ortiz Crespo, the Security Manager for Carolina, also

interviewed Garayalde-Rijos.

He asked her whom she lived with, if

she lived in Carolina, and if her parents lived in Carolina.
Garayalde-Rijos followed up on her application but got no
response for several months after her March 2010 interview.

In

June 2010, she went to Carolina's Human Resources Department and
was told that Carolina had not yet hired anyone to fill the
firefighter vacancies.
On June 28, 2010, Garayalde-Rijos sent a second letter to
the Mayor stating her credentials (including her score of 80),
saying

that

"she

[would]

be

honored

to

be

the

first

woman"

firefighter in Carolina, and asking that she not be discriminated
against based on her gender.
In July 2010, Garayalde-Rijos followed-up again, this
time visiting the Carolina Municipal Fire Station directly.

There

she learned that three male candidates had in fact been hired as
firefighters.
On August 17, 2010, Garayalde-Rijos sent a third letter
to the Mayor asking why she had not been informed about the status

2

The complaint does not state whether Garayalde-Rijos worked
as a firefighter at the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Fire
Department.
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of her application and reaffirming her interest in the firefighter
position.
Garayalde-Rijos
applied

for

a

alleges

firefighter

she

position

was
and

the
she

only
met

woman

all

who

the

job

qualifications, yet male candidates with lower test scores were
hired instead of her.

As a result, she consulted with the Women

Defender's Office in Puerto Rico and sent Carolina and the Mayor
notice of her gender discrimination claim on October 27, 2010.
On November 1, 2010, Garayalde-Rijos filed a charge of
gender discrimination with the EEOC based on Carolina's refusal to
hire her.

On December 2, 2010, Carolina denied Garayalde-Rijos's

claim of sex discrimination.

At this point, Carolina had only one

of the eight firefighter vacancies left unfilled.

Men, allegedly

less qualified, had been hired for the first seven positions.
The

EEOC

later

sought

documents

from

Carolina,

Carolina complied with the request on January 31, 2011.

and

After its

investigation, the EEOC issued a "Letter of Determination" on
February 16, 2011, which Garayalde-Rijos attached to the complaint.
In that letter, the EEOC concluded that "[e]vidence obtained does
establish a violation [for gender discrimination] under Title VII."
The letter explained: "[Garayalde-Rijos] met all qualification
criteria for the [firefighter] position, yet was denied employment.
Comparatively, male candidates for the position with lower test
scores and qualifications than [Garayalde-Rijos] were hired."

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The

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EEOC sought to end Carolina's "unlawful practices by informal
methods of conciliation," attaching a Conciliation Proposal to its
Letter of Determination.
On February 24, 2011, Carolina objected to the EEOC's
determination.

Nonetheless, a month later, during the week of

March 21, 2011, it offered Garayalde-Rijos the last available
firefighter

position.

Garayalde-Rijos

started

work

as

a

firefighter on April 1, 2011.
B.

Post-Hire Discrimination and Retaliation
Garayalde-Rijos

alleged

she

was

subjected

to

discrimination and retaliation after she was hired because she was
treated

differently

than

her

male

colleagues.

The

male

firefighters all had appropriately-sized uniforms and bunkers3 that
Carolina had purchased for them.

In contrast, Garayalde-Rijos was

forced to share with a male firefighter a uniform and bunker that
were too big for her; the uniform was tailored to his measurements,
and the poor fit compromised her safety.
In addition, she alleged "[o]ther discriminatory and
retaliat[ory] treatment . . . related to trainings, on the job
assigned duties and comments pertaining to her filing of the EEOC
charge and the present Complaint."

This treatment occurred "with

the blessing of [the Mayor]."

3

"Bunker" gear refers to firefighters' protective clothing.
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II.
Garayalde-Rijos sued Carolina, the Mayor, and some of
Carolina's employees for sex discrimination, retaliation, and
negligence on September 26, 2011, within ninety days of having
received a right to sue letter on June 29, 2011.

She amended the

complaint on March 6, 2012, voluntarily dismissing her claims
against all named defendants other than Carolina and the Mayor, as
well as the state law negligence claim.
The amended complaint asserted sex discrimination claims
under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2, and Puerto Rico law, P.R.
Laws Ann. tit. 29, §§ 146, 1321, based on Carolina's and the
Mayor's refusal to hire Garayalde-Rijos and their discriminatory
treatment of her after she was hired.

She also alleged that the

defendants' post-hire conduct constituted unlawful retaliation for
her

EEOC

complaint

challenging

Carolina's

hiring

process,

in

violation of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3, and "Puerto Rico Law
115," P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29, § 194a.

Garayalde-Rijos alleged she

has suffered a loss of salary and benefits, as well as other
damages, due to Carolina and the Mayor's actions.
The Mayor filed a motion to dismiss the claims against
him under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) on March 6, 2012, which
Garayalde-Rijos never opposed.

On August 30, 2012, the magistrate

judge recommended dismissing with prejudice all of GarayaldeRijos's claims against the Mayor in a Report & Recommendation (R &

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R).

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The R & R alerted Garayalde-Rijos that she had 14 days to

object to it under Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(b)(2) and the District of
Puerto Rico's Local Rule 72(d), but Garayalde-Rijos did not file an
objection.
Carolina had also filed a motion to dismiss on November
2, 2011, which Garayalde-Rijos opposed on November 18, 2011.
Because Carolina's motion to dismiss was pending when GarayaldeRijos later amended her complaint on March 6, 2012, Carolina
submitted a memo on March 6, which explained that it sought to
dismiss only the post-hire Title VII discrimination claims and
analogous state law discrimination claim (Puerto Rico's "Law 100,"
P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29, § 146) against it.

Carolina did not seek

dismissal of Garayalde-Rijos's pre-hire sex discrimination claims.
The memo did not say that Carolina sought dismissal of the posthire retaliation claim, but the magistrate judge treated it as
doing so.
On August 30, 2012, the magistrate judge issued a second
R & R, which recommended granting Carolina's motion to dismiss the
post-hire Title VII claims and Puerto Rico Law 100 claim.

The

magistrate judge concluded that Garayalde-Rijos did not exhaust
administrative remedies before filing a Title VII discrimination
claim based on Carolina's post-hire conduct because the EEOC
complaint was filed before she was hired and addressed only her
failure-to-hire theory of liability.

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He recommended dismissal of

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her state law employment discrimination claim because Puerto Rico's
Law 100 does not apply to municipalities, such as Carolina.
The

magistrate

judge

also

recommended

dismissal

of

Garayalde-Rijos's Title VII retaliation claim because she had not
sufficiently alleged a prima facie case of retaliation.

In so

concluding, the magistrate judge erroneously required GarayaldeRijos's pleadings to establish a prima facie case at the motion-todismiss stage.

See Rodríguez-Reyes v. Molina-Rodríguez, 711 F.3d

49, 51 (1st Cir. 2013) ("The prima facie case is an evidentiary
model, not a pleading standard.").
Garayalde-Rijos objected to the R & R's analysis of the
sufficiency of her pleadings as to her Title VII retaliation claim.
However, she did not object to the magistrate judge's recommended
dismissal of her post-hire Title VII discrimination claim for lack
of exhaustion.
On September 25, 2012, the district court adopted the
magistrate judge's findings and recommendations as to both Carolina
and the Mayor, granting the defendants' motions to dismiss.

The

court noted that Garayalde-Rijos's failure to object to the R & R
recommending dismissal of her complaint against the Mayor "waived
the right to further review of that R & R in the district court"
under Davet v. Maccarone, 973 F.2d 22, 30-31 (1st Cir. 1992).
The district court also sua sponte dismissed plaintiff's
entire

complaint

against

Carolina,

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including

her

pre-hire

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It did so without explanation or notice to

the parties even though neither Carolina's motion to dismiss nor
the magistrate judge's corresponding R & R encompassed these prehire claims.
On

October

4,

2012,

Garayalde-Rijos

moved

for

reconsideration, asking the district court to reinstate the claims
against Carolina that it had sua sponte dismissed. (These included
claims under "Law 69 [and] Law 115," Puerto Rico's sex-based
employment

retaliation

statutes,

respectively, and a Title VII failure-to-hire claim.)

She also

sought

discrimination

reconsideration

of

and

the

workplace

dismissal

retaliation claim against Carolina.

of

her

Title

VII

The district court denied

Garayalde-Rijos's motion in a text order on February 25, 2013.
This appeal followed.
III.
Garayalde-Rijos has waived review of several claims on
appeal.

We briefly address the scope of the waiver before turning

to those issues that have been preserved.
A.

Waiver of Claims Against the Mayor and Post-Hire
Discrimination Claims
On appeal, Garayalde-Rijos challenges the dismissal of

her pre-hire discrimination claims against the Mayor.

However,

Garayalde-Rijos never objected to the R & R addressing those
claims, which the district court adopted.

That R & R did not

distinguish between her pre- and post-hire discrimination claims
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and recommended dismissing all of her claims against the Mayor.4
It also notified plaintiff that a failure to object risked waiver.
Because Garayalde-Rijos was given adequate notice, her "failure to
assert a specific objection to [the R & R] [has] irretrievably
waive[d] any right to review by the district court and th[is] court
of appeals."5

Cortés-Rivera v. Dep't of Corr. & Rehab. of P.R.,

626 F.3d 21, 27 (1st Cir. 2010) (quoting Santiago v. Canon U.S.A.,
Inc., 138 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 1998)) (internal quotation mark
omitted).
Similarly,

Garayalde-Rijos's

failure

to

object

specifically to the magistrate judge's recommendation that her
post-hire

Title

VII

discrimination

claim

against

Carolina

be

dismissed for lack of exhaustion of administrative remedies waives
her right to this court's review of that claim.

In fact, the

4

The magistrate judge recommended dismissing the Title VII
claims against the Mayor because the federal statute does not
impose liability on individuals.
As to Garayalde-Rijos's state law claims, the magistrate
judge concluded that Puerto Rico law imposes individual liability
only on supervisors who directly and personally commit the alleged
acts of discrimination and retaliation.
He reasoned that
Garayalde-Rijos's allegations failed to state a claim of
discrimination against the Mayor because they said only that her
letters to the Mayor regarding her application went unanswered. He
also found the claim that the post-hiring discriminatory and
retaliatory conduct had occurred "with the blessing of [the Mayor]"
was "merely conclusory" and so was insufficient to state a
plausible claim.
5

At oral argument, Garayalde-Rijos's attorney conceded that
her arguments against the Mayor are waived if the R & R addressed
all of the claims against the Mayor, which it did.
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absence

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of

any

developed

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argument

on

appeal

as

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to

this

discrimination claim constitutes double default. Cf. United States
v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir. 1990).6

However, we note that

the same factual allegations that form the basis of GarayaldeRijos's post-hire discrimination claim also support her retaliation
claim; her waiver as to the former in no way restricts our review
of the latter.7
We address below Garayalde-Rijos's arguments concerning
the dismissal of the pre-hire discrimination claims and post-hire
retaliation claims against Carolina.
B.

The District Court's Sua Sponte Dismissal of GarayaldeRijos's Complaint
We review de novo a district court's dismissal of a

complaint for failure to state a claim.

García-Catalán v. United

States, 734 F.3d 100, 102 (1st Cir. 2013).
Here, the district court sua sponte dismissed GarayaldeRijos's entire complaint in one sentence although Carolina did not
seek that relief and had moved to dismiss only a subset of the

6

We do not understand Garayalde-Rijos to challenge the
dismissal of her Puerto Rico Law 100 employment discrimination
claim against Carolina given that her brief makes no arguments nor
requests any relief on this ground. In any event, we deem this
claim waived.
7

The R & R correctly stated that a separate retaliation
claim need not be filed with the EEOC to exhaust administrative
remedies. Clockedile v. N.H. Dep't of Corr., 245 F.3d 1, 6 (1st
Cir. 2001) ("[Title VII] retaliation claims are preserved so long
as the retaliation is reasonably related to and grows out of the
discrimination complained of to the agency . . . .").
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claims asserted against it.

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Nor did the R & R, which the district

court adopted, address the pre-hire discrimination claims (under
Title VII and Puerto Rico Law 69) and retaliation claim (Puerto
Rico Law 115) that Carolina had not moved to dismiss. The district
court later denied Garayalde-Rijos's request that it reinstate
these claims.

The sua sponte dismissal of these claims, without

explanation or notice, was error.
"Sua sponte dismissals are strong medicine, and should be
dispensed sparingly." Chute v. Walker, 281 F.3d 314, 319 (1st Cir.
2002) (quoting Gonzales-Gonzalez v. United States, 257 F.3d 31, 33
(1st Cir. 2001)) (internal quotation marks omitted).

The general

rule is that sua sponte dismissals of complaints under Rule
12(b)(6) are "erroneous unless the parties have been afforded
notice and an opportunity to amend the complaint or otherwise
respond."

Futura Dev. of P.R., Inc. v. Estado Libre Asociado de

P.R., 144 F.3d 7, 14 (1st Cir. 1998).

Only where "it is crystal

clear that the plaintiff cannot prevail and that amending the
complaint would be futile" can a sua sponte Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal
stand. Chute, 281 F.3d at 319 (quoting Gonzales-Gonzalez, 257 F.3d
at 37) (internal quotation mark omitted). "The party defending the
dismissal

must

show

that

'the

allegations

contained

in

the

complaint, taken in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, are
patently meritless and beyond all hope of redemption.'"
(quoting Gonzalez-Gonzalez, 257 F.3d at 37).

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Carolina has not attempted to meet this burden, nor could
it.

See id. at 319-20 (reversing district court's cursory, sua

sponte dismissal of plaintiff's complaint for failure to state a
claim without giving the parties an opportunity to respond); Futura
Dev. of P.R., Inc., 144 F.3d at 14 (same).
In addition, we reject Carolina's request that we affirm
the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's failure-to-hire Title
VII claim on the asserted alternate grounds that the claim will
fail on remand.

Carolina argues that Garayalde-Rijos will not be

able to prove discrimination in its hiring process because she was
in fact hired for one of eight positions to which she applied.
Carolina contends that at most Garayalde-Rijos complains of a delay
in hiring, and Title VII does not entitle her to get hired in any
particular order.
Carolina's argument ignores that this case is on appeal
at

the

motion-to-dismiss

stage.

Plaintiff

must

allege

only

"sufficient factual matter to state a claim to relief that is
plausible on its face." Grajales v. P.R. Ports Auth., 682 F.3d 40,
44 (1st Cir. 2012) (quoting Katz v. Pershing, LLC, 672 F.3d 64, 7273 (1st Cir. 2012)) (internal quotation mark omitted).

"A claim

has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content
that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the
defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged."
Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678 (2009).

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Ashcroft v.

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The
standard.

claims

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asserted

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plainly

meet

the

Entry ID: 5811398

plausibility

Title VII makes it unlawful for an employer to "fail or

refuse to hire . . . any individual, or otherwise to discriminate
against any individual with respect to [her] compensation, terms,
conditions,

or

privileges

individual's . . . sex."
added).

of

employment,

because

of

such

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) (emphases

It is not difficult to infer reasonably from her factual

allegations that the reason Carolina failed to hire Garayalde-Rijos
for any of the first seven vacancies was her gender.

The fact that

Garayalde-Rijos was eventually hired does not mean there was not
unlawful discrimination in the hiring decisions for the first seven
firefighter positions.
Here, Garayalde-Rijos alleged she was the only woman to
apply for the firefighter positions and she had the highest score
of all of the applicants based on Carolina's evaluation of their
"academic preparation, experience, and [performance on] physical
tests."

Although

Garayalde-Rijos

alleges

she

was

the

most

qualified candidate, Carolina filled the first seven vacancies with
male candidates between June/July and December of 2010.

In

contrast, Carolina did not offer Garayalde-Rijos a position until
the last week of March 2011 and only after the EEOC, an independent
body,

reviewed

these

facts

and

concluded

that

Carolina

had

discriminated against Garayalde-Rijos in its hiring process.
During the lengthy, eight-month delay before Garayalde-Rijos was

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hired, she was denied salary and other valuable employment benefits
that allegedly less qualified candidates were receiving.
Given these factual allegations, it is reasonable to
infer that Carolina refused to hire Garayalde-Rijos (seven times)
because she was a woman, even though she was the most qualified
candidate, and that Carolina hired Garayalde-Rijos months later
only because of the adverse EEOC determination.

These allegations

state a plausible claim of sex discrimination under Title VII,
including for damages based on Garayalde-Rijos's claim that she
would have been hired months earlier absent any discrimination.
C.

The District Court's Dismissal of Garayalde-Rijos's Title
VII Retaliation Claim for Failure to State a Claim
Title VII bars employers from retaliating against an

applicant or employee because she "has opposed any practice made an
unlawful employment practice by this subchapter, or because [s]he
has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any
manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this
subchapter."

42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a).

To establish a prima facie

case of retaliation, a plaintiff must show: (1) she engaged in
protected conduct; (2) she suffered an adverse employment action;
and (3) that a "causal nexus exists between the protected [conduct]
and the adverse action."

Ponte v. Steelcase Inc., 741 F.3d 310,

321 (1st Cir. 2014); id. (noting that plaintiff must prove but-for
causation (citing Univ. of Tex. Sw. Med. Ctr. v. Nassar, 133 S. Ct.
2517, 2534 (2013))).
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The

district

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court

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concluded

that

Entry ID: 5811398

Garayalde-Rijos's

complaint failed to state a claim of retaliation because she had
not sufficiently alleged a prima facie case.
that

she

had

adequately

pleaded

the

The court determined

first

two

prongs

given

allegations that she: (1) had filed an EEOC complaint alleging sex
discrimination; and (2) suffered a material harm after she was
hired as the only firefighter denied a protective uniform and
bunker that were tailored to her measurements and so safe.
court

held

that

her

"retaliation

claim

fails

at

the

The
last

prong, however, because she has not sufficiently alleged a causal
connection between her protected conduct and the adverse employment
action."

The district court made at least three errors.
First, the district court faulted Garayalde-Rijos for not

stating specific facts that "connect" the alleged mistreatment
after she was hired to the filing of her EEOC complaint.

In so

doing, the district court treated the prima facie case, "a flexible
evidentiary standard," as a "rigid pleading standard," Swierkiewicz
v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 512 (2002), requiring Garayalde-Rijos
to establish each prong of the prima facie case to survive a motion
to dismiss.

This was an error of law.

We have explicitly held that plaintiffs need not plead
facts in the complaint that establish a prima facie case under
Title VII nor must they "allege every fact necessary to win at
trial."

Rodríguez-Vives v. P.R. Firefighters Corps of P.R., ___

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Document: 00116667160

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Entry ID: 5811398

F.3d ___, 2014 WL 593673, at *3 (1st Cir. Feb. 18, 2014) (reversing
Rule

12(b)(6)

retaliation

dismissal

claim);

of

female

Rodríguez-Reyes,

firefighter's

Title

VII

711

54.

The

F.3d

at

plausibility standard governs on a motion to dismiss.

So, "[n]o

single allegation need [establish] . . . some necessary element [of
the cause of action], provided that, in sum, the allegations of the
complaint make the claim as a whole at least plausible."

Ocasio-

Hernández v. Fortuño-Burset, 640 F.3d 1, 14-15 (1st Cir. 2011).
The district court also erred when it found GarayaldeRijos's pleadings inadequate due to its view that alleged causation
for retaliation must be deemed implausible based solely on a fivemonth period between the protected conduct and adverse employment
action.

Specifically, the court concluded that Garayalde-Rijos

could not rely on "temporal proximity" to "establish causation"
because the five-month gap between the November 1, 2010 filing of
the EEOC complaint and April 1, 2011, when the alleged post-hire
retaliation started, was too long.

However, "temporal proximity"

is merely one factor relevant to causation and usually only later
in the proceedings, for example at summary judgment.8

8

See, e.g.,

The parties have directed us to no case dismissing a Title
VII retaliation claim under Rule 12(b)(6) utilizing only a temporal
analysis to defeat causation allegations. Once a complaint has
alleged enough facts that retaliation for protected conduct is
plausible, the plaintiff is entitled to proceed to discovery.
Rodríguez-Vives, 2014 WL 593673, at *6.
And discovery might
unearth evidence of retaliation such that at summary judgment or
trial, the plaintiff will not have to rely heavily on the "temporal
proximity" between protected conduct and adverse actions to prove
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Trainor v. HEI Hospitality, LLC, 699 F.3d 19, 28 (1st Cir. 2012)
(treating "temporal proximity" between adverse employment action
and protected conduct as just one factor, "reinforced by other
evidence," that supported a jury verdict of retaliation); SánchezRodríguez v. AT&T Mobility P.R., Inc., 673 F.3d 1, 15 (1st Cir.
2012) (noting that evidence of close "temporal proximity" can help
establish causation prong of prima facie case at summary judgment);
Calero-Cerezo v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 355 F.3d 6, 25 (1st Cir.
2004) (same).9

We do not rule out that some pleadings may allege

a temporal gap so attenuated as not to meet the plausibility
standard for surviving motions to dismiss, but this case is a far
cry from that.
Beyond that, the temporal analysis here is flawed.

The

court's rote evaluation of the time lag failed to read GarayaldeRijos's complaint holistically and ignored relevant context.

See

Braden v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 588 F.3d 585, 594 (8th Cir. 2009)
(explaining that the complaint should be read in its entirety and
"not parsed piece by piece to determine whether each allegation, in
isolation,

her case.

is

plausible").

In

fact,

the

post-hire

adverse

See Swierkiewicz, 534 U.S. at 511-12.

9

The cases on which the district court's temporal analysis
of causation relied were on appeal from a grant of summary
judgment, not a Rule 12(b)(6) dismissal. See Calero-Cerezo, 355
F.3d 6.
In addition, all of the cases that Carolina cites to
support the district court's temporal analysis involve summary
judgment, not motions to dismiss.
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Entry ID: 5811398

treatment occurred only weeks after the EEOC finding and the
decision to hire her.
A more common-sense, plausible reading of GarayaldeRijos's

complaint

is

that

the

post-hire

mistreatment

was

in

retaliation for Garayalde-Rijos's pre-hire EEOC complaint of sex
discrimination.

Garayalde-Rijos alleged facts that suggest: (1)

Carolina reluctantly hired her only after the EEOC had determined
that Garayalde-Rijos's complaint of sex discrimination was likely
meritorious; and (2) as soon as Garayalde-Rijos started working,
Carolina treated her unequally compared to her male counterparts
and in a way that risked her safety.

The district court erred in

ignoring Garayalde-Rijos's allegations of pre-hire discrimination,
which

set

the

stage

retaliation claim.

for

the

plausibility

of

her

post-hire

Indeed, since the hiring date was in the

control of Carolina, the district court's analysis threatens to
reward defendants who continue to practice discrimination in hiring
and then engage in post-hiring retaliation.
IV.
We reverse the dismissal of the claims against Carolina
as to the Title VII failure-to-hire and retaliation claims and
pendent state law claims (P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 29, §§ 194a and
1321).

We dismiss the appeal insofar as it relates to the waived

claims against the Mayor and the post-hire discrimination claim
against Carolina.

Costs are assessed against Carolina.

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