Lee v. Nasatir et al

Filing 9

MEMORANDUM Order. Signed by the Honorable Milton I. Shadur on 8/10/2016:Mailed notice(clw, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

ELAINE J. LEE, Ed.D.,
Plaintiff,
v.
SCOTT NASATIR, et al.,
Defendants.

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Case No. 16 C 7528

MEMORANDUM ORDER
On July 25, 2016 plaintiff Elaine Lee ("Lee") filed a self-prepared Complaint charging
four defendants with employment discrimination under Title VII in connection with her
employment as a school psychologist for the Melrose Park School District 89 in Melrose Park,
Illinois. This Court promptly issued a brief July 28 memorandum order ("Order," a copy of
which is attached) that, although it also reflected the contemporaneous issuance of this Court's
customary initial scheduling order, pointed primarily to Lee's omission of the EEOC right-to-sue
letter that had been described by Complaint ¶ 8 as its attached Ex. 2 but was missing from Lee's
filing.
Lee has now complied with the Order by the submission of an August 5 filing that
comprises a hand-printed note and a copy of the EEOC Dismissal and Notice of Rights. But that
right-to-sue letter, sent to Lee at the street address in Montgomery, Illinois that she had listed in
her original Charge of Discrimination, was dated March 31, 2016, so that Lee had not filed this

action until more than three weeks had elapsed beyond the 90-day deadline specified in the rightto-sue letter: 1
- NOTICE OF SUIT RIGHTS Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act, or the Age Discrimination in Employment Act: This
will be the only notice of dismissal and of your right to sue that we will send you.
You may file a lawsuit against the respondent(s) under federal law based on this
charge in federal or state court. Your lawsuit must be filed WITHIN 90 DAYS
of your receipt of this notice; or your right to sue based on this charge will be
lost. (The time limit for filing suit based on a claim under state law may be
different.)
There is really no arguable justification for that delay. Lee's self-prepared Complaint
describes herself as possessing a Doctor's degree in education, and (quite understandably) she is
wholly articulate in spelling out the nature of her claim. She is plainly not an unlettered
nonlawyer who might conceivably have some excuse for not reading, or not having understood
after reading, the plain language of the Notice of Suit Rights as spelled out in the right-to-sue
letter.
Accordingly both Lee's Complaint and this action are dismissed in accordance with the
right-to-sue letter's forecast that unless suit would be filed within 90 days of Lee's receipt of the
notice, her "right to sue based on this charge will be lost." This dismissal also vacates the
previously-set 9 a.m. September 16, 2016 status hearing date.

Date: August 10, 2016

__________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge

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What follows in the text reproduces the Notice of Suit Rights in its original form,
including the portions in boldface type, the portions in all-capital-letter form and the
underscoring for emphasis.
-2-

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS
EASTERN DIVISION

ELAINE J. LEE, Ed.D.,

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Plaintiff,
v.
SCOTT NASATIR,
Defendants.

Case No. 16 C 7528

MEMORANDUM ORDER
Elaine Lee ("Lee") has filed a self-prepared Complaint charging four defendants with
employment discrimination under Title VII in connection with her employment as a school
psychologist for the Melrose Park School District 89 in Melrose Park, Illinois. Although this
Court is contemporaneously issuing its customary initial scheduling order in the case, its printout
of Lee's Complaint (Dkt. No. 1) includes only its Ex. 1 (her EEOC Charge of Discrimination,
shown as "page 8 of 8") but not EEOC's right-to-sue letter, which Complaint ¶ 8 mistakenly
alleges "is attached as Exhibit 2." Accordingly Lee is ordered (1) to file the missing Ex. 2 (with
a direction to the Clerk's Office that identifies it as part of this Case No. 16 C 7528) and also
(2) to send a copy of that Exhibit directly to this Court's chambers, as required by District Court
LR 5.2(f).

__________________________________________
Milton I. Shadur
Senior United States District Judge
Date: July 28, 2016

ATTACHMENT