EEOC's Houston, TX office filed this Title VII pregnancy discrimination lawsuit against Matthews Daycare & Training Center Inc. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston) on 03/28/1997. On behalf of three former female employees and a class of similarly situated females, the EEOC claimed that the defendant unlawfully perpetuated a policy of placing its pregnant employees on unpaid leave. EEOC sought a permanent injunction, and compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of the individual complainants. The complainants did not intervene.

After eight months of discovery, the defendant filed a motion for summary judgment for the entire suit. District Judge Ewing Werlein, Jr. granted in part and denied in part. Summary judgment was granted as to EEOC's claims on behalf of two individual complainants because the individuals did not timely file a charge with the EEOC and under the 'single filing rule,' the two individuals could not rely on the third individual's timely filing of the charge because they did not experience a similar act of discrimination within 300 days of the third individual's filing of the complaint. The case was finally resolved after a three-day jury trial.

Under the final judgment entered pursuant to the jury verdict, the remaining individual complainant would receive $1,260 in back pay, $568.01 in pre-judgment interest on the backpay, $1,260 in compensatory damages, and post-judgment interest at the rate of 5.375%.

Justin Kanter - 06/10/2007


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