Lilly Ledbetter Act Judicially Incorporated Into the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act

Russell Cawyer of the Texas Employment Law Update posted regarding an extraordinary decision from the Houston Court of Appeals in which the court concluded that it would apply the terms of the Lilly Ledbetter Act to a suit under the Texas Human Rights Act. Prairie View A&M University v. Chatha, 2010 Tex. App. LEXIS 2318 (1st Dist. Ct. App. Houston Apr. 1, 2010), available here. The plaintiff, Professor Chatha, was promoted to full professor in 2004. On September 25, 2006, she filed an administrative complaint with the EEOC, alleging discrimination. Thereafter, the Texas Workforce Commission – Civil Rights Division issued a right-to-sue letter, and she filed suit in state court, under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act ("TCHRA"), alleging that she is discriminatorily underpaid.

The University claimed that she did not file her administrative complaint on a timely basis, as the alleged adverse action occurred in 2004 when she was promoted to full professor at a lower pay rate, substantially more than 180 days before she filed suit under the Texas statute.

Plaintiff argued, in response, that her complaint was timely filed under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which amended Title VII to allow for claims based on her most recent paycheck at the lower rate. Arguing that the Ledbetter Act is applicable to the Texas statute, Plaintiff contended that her claim was timely and a waiver of the state’s immunity was established.

Relying on the reasoning of two federal district court decisions (Klebe v. University of Texas Systems, 649 F. Supp. 2d 568, 570-71 (W.D. Tex. 2009) (Magistrate Judge Andrew W. Austin), and Lohn v. Morgan Stanley D.W., Inc., 652 F. Supp. 2d 812, 829 (S.D. Tex. 2009) (District Judge Melinda Harmon), the court in Chatha held that, to achieve the Texas statute’s purpose, a Texas state court would apply the terms of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to a suit under the Texas Commission on Human Rights Act. The TCHRA states that one of its purposes is to “provide for the execution of the policies of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its subsequent amendments…” Tex. Lab. Code Ann. § 21.001. All three courts rely on that statutory language for the decisions to incorporate the LLFPA into the TCHRA.