For most claims under Title VII, the affected employee must file an EEOC Charge within 180 days (or 300 days in a deferral state) of the alleged discrimination.  The U.S. Supreme Court carved out an exception to this notice requirement for certain hostile environment harassment claims.  If an employee is exposed to a continuing series of harassing activities, and files a Charge within 180 days of the last alleged harassing act, the Charge will “relate back” to encompass all of the harassing activities, even those that might have occurred years ago.  In a new case from the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia Circuit, Vickers v. Powell, the court concluded that this exception applies to harassment from two successive supervisors over time.

The plaintiff alleged that she had been exposed to sexual and racial harassment from two supervisors for well over a decade.  The first harassing supervisor was replaced in 1996, and the plaintiff alleged that his replacement shortly thereafter continued the behavior.  Her employer filed for summary judgment on claims involving the first supervisor, claiming that they were untimely, because the first supervisor’s alleged conduct constituted a separate employment practice.  The D.C. Circuit disagreed, concluding that the change in supervisors was not a remedial step intended to address the plaintiff’s complaints.  Instead, it was a routine personnel move that did not interrupt the continuing violation principle.  This decision demonstrates that in certain cases, federal courts will read Title VII expansively in order to allow plaintiffs to include old harassment claims in their complaints.