Thomas v. JBS Green Bay, Inc., No. 24-1404 (7th Cir. 2024)

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Miko Thomas, an employee of JBS Green Bay, filed a lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging racial discrimination. He claimed that his employer delayed his training for three years, denied his vacation requests while approving similar requests for others, and transferred him to a different shift despite knowing it caused childcare issues. Thomas argued these actions were discriminatory based on his color.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin dismissed Thomas's complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim. The court found that the alleged events were not serious enough to be actionable under Title VII and that Thomas's complaint did not include all necessary elements to prove his case. After Thomas amended his complaint, the district court dismissed the suit outright, maintaining that the complaint lacked sufficient detail and did not meet the required legal standards.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reviewed the case and found the district court's dismissal to be mistaken. The appellate court held that the district court incorrectly required the complaint to allege significant or material injury, which is not necessary under Title VII as clarified by the Supreme Court in Muldrow v. St. Louis. The appellate court also noted that the district court improperly demanded that the complaint include every element of proof needed for summary judgment, contrary to the notice pleading standard established by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and reaffirmed in Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A.

The Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal and remanded the case for further proceedings, allowing it to move to the summary-judgment stage and potentially to trial.

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In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-1404 MIKO THOMAS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. JBS GREEN BAY, INC., Defendant-Appellee. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. No. 23-C-861 — William C. Griesbach, Judge. ____________________ ARGUED OCTOBER 29, 2024 — DECIDED NOVEMBER 8, 2024 ____________________ Before EASTERBROOK, MALDONADO, Circuit Judges. JACKSON-AKIWUMI, and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge. In this suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §2000e to §2000e–17, Miko Thomas contends that his employer, JBS Green Bay, discriminated against him on account of his color. His complaint alleges seven discriminatory acts or related sets of acts, of which we discuss three: (1) the employer delayed for three years his training on a particular machine; (2) the employer 2 No. 24-1404 denied his request for vacation time while granting equivalent requests by other workers; and (3) the employer transferred him to a di erent shift even though it knew that this caused him problems in raising a young child. The district court dismissed the complaint under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219755 (E.D. Wis. Dec. 11, 2023). After Thomas amended the complaint, the district court dismissed the suit outright. 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48841 (E.D. Wis. Feb. 15, 2024). The judge saw two problems that ran through both complaints: rst, the events of which Thomas complains are not su ciently serious to be cognizable under Title VII; second, the complaints did not lay out every element or ingredient that Thomas eventually would need to prove. In other words, the judge demanded that the complaint include allegations corresponding to each component of the proof that Thomas would need to defeat a motion for summary judgment. Both aspects of the judge’s decisions are mistaken. Whether or not the rst aspect (insu cient injury) re ected circuit law at the time, it has been overtaken by Muldrow v. St. Louis, 601 U.S. 346, 355 (2024), which says that a Title VII plainti “must show some harm respecting an identi able term or condition of employment. What the [plainti ] does not have to show, according to the relevant text, is that the harm incurred was ‘signi cant.’ Or serious, or substantial, or any similar adjective suggesting that the disadvantage to the employee must exceed a heightened bar” (cleaned up). Decisions requiring allegations of “signi cant” or “material” injury did not survive Muldrow. Each of the three things we have mentioned entails “some harm”. Deferred training can mean deferred promotions or No. 24-1404 3 deferred raises. Denial of one’s preferred vacation schedule can make the vacation less pleasant—not just because it may end up o -season at the destination but also because the goal of a vacation may be to see family members who will not be available at a di erent time. Title VII does not permit employers to con ne that pleasure to workers of particular colors; it must distribute fringe bene ts equally. Likewise with the third allegation: if the employer considers family circumstances when assigning shifts, it must do so without regard to color, because inability to care for a child is a deeply felt loss for all parents. Demanding details about loss in the complaint—as opposed to the summary-judgment stage—also is a problem because complaints need not plead damages. Special damages yes, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 9(g), but ordinary injuries no. Prevailing parties receive the relief to which they are entitled, no matter what was in (or missing from) the complaint. Fed. R. Civ. P. 54(c). Complaints must allege some injury (otherwise the plainti lacks standing), but they need not narrate the quantum of injury. That’s for a later stage. The second aspect of the district court’s decision—a demand that the complaint allege each element that the plainti eventually will need to prove—was contrary to law long before Muldrow. Matching facts to legal elements is the distinctive feature of code pleading, which was abrogated when the Rules of Civil Procedure introduced notice pleading. See, e.g., Bartholet v. Reishauer A.G. (Zürich), 953 F.2d 1073 (7th Cir. 1992); Chapman v. Yellow Cab Cooperative, 875 F.3d 846 (7th Cir. 2017). We explained in Chapman: Ever since their adoption in 1938, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure have required plainti s to plead claims rather than facts 4 No. 24-1404 corresponding to the elements of a legal theory. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 8. Old code-pleading and fact-pleading systems were abandoned. Because complaints need not identify the applicable law, it is manifestly inappropriate for a district court to demand that complaints contain all legal elements (or factors) plus facts corresponding to each. It is enough to plead a plausible claim, after which “a plainti ‘receives the bene t of imagination, so long as the hypotheses are consistent with the complaint’”. A full description of the facts that will prove the plainti ’s claim comes later, at the summary-judgment stage or in the pretrial order. 875 F.3d at 848 (citations omitted). “Because racial discrimination in employment is ‘a claim upon which relief can be granted’, [such a] complaint [may] not be dismissed under Rule 12(b)(6). ‘I was turned down for a job because of my race’ is all a complaint has to say.” Bennett v. Schmidt, 153 F.3d 516, 518 (7th Cir. 1998). Any doubt about this was dispelled by Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506 (2002). A court of appeals held that Title VII complaints must allege facts establishing a prima facie case of discrimination: “(1) membership in a protected group; (2) quali cation for the job in question; (3) an adverse employment action; and (4) circumstances that support an inference of discrimination”, 534 U.S. at 510—in other words, must narrate all elements of a winning claim. The Justices replied that these elements set out an evidentiary standard, not a pleading rule. Ibid. They added: “This Court has never indicated that the requirements for establishing a prima facie case … also apply to the pleading standard that plainti s must satisfy in order to survive a motion to dismiss.” Id. at 511. The Court wrapped up: “we hold that an employment discrimination plainti need not plead a prima facie case of discrimination”. Id. at 515. Later cases about Rule 8 do not cast any No. 24-1404 5 doubt on Swierkiewicz. See, e.g., Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 569–70 (2007); Luevano v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 722 F.3d 1014, 1028 (7th Cir. 2013); Swanson v. Citibank, N.A., 614 F.3d 400, 404–05 (7th Cir. 2010). Despite Swierkiewicz, the district court demanded that Thomas’s complaint narrate facts corresponding to elements. For example, Thomas maintains that the conditions he encountered add up to a hostile work environment. The judge wrote that “[t]o state a hostile work environment claim, a plainti must allege that (1) he was subject to unwelcome harassment, (2) the harassment was based on his color, (3) the harassment was severe or pervasive so as to alter the conditions of employment and create a hostile or abusive working environment, and (4) a basis exists for employer liability.” 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48841 at *8–9. The district court’s opinions contain similar lists addressing some of Thomas’s other grievances. This is the exact requirement rejected by the Supreme Court in Swierkiewicz. That something must be proved (if plainti is to win) does not imply that it must be alleged in the complaint. Thomas’s appellate brief relies on Swierkiewicz; the employer’s brief does not so much as cite the case. The omission is telling. To repeat what the Justices said: Lists of things that plainti s need to prove concern evidence (at summary judgment and trial); they must not be treated as demands for longer and more detailed pleadings. We appreciate that district judges may be impatient with suits that do not seem promising, because the judges doubt that plainti s will be able to marshal enough evidence to get to trial. But the time to demand evidence is the summary-judgment stage. All the complaint need do is state a grievance. Details and proofs come later. 6 No. 24-1404 This case must move to the summary-judgment stage and, if necessary, to trial. We have mentioned only some of Thomas’s seven principal allegations; the others do not a ect the su ciency of the complaint. If they are de cient, they can be pared o on summary judgment. All we hold today is that this complaint states a claim for relief that survives a motion under Rule 12(b)(6). REVERSED AND REMANDED

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