High court lightens burden on employment discrimination plaintiffs.

In a decision that makes it easier for employment discrimination plaintiffs to survive motions to dismiss, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that complaints in these suits must contain only a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. (Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A., 122 S. Ct. 992 (2002).)

"The case strongly reaffirms that the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure is a system of notice pleading," said Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

The decision resolved a split among the courts of appeals. While most circuits share the Court's position, others have held that employment discrimination plaintiffs must include in their complaints facts that establish a prima facie case of discrimination under the framework laid out in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green. (411 U.S. 792 (1973).) In that ruling, the Court set forth four elements of a prima facie discrimination case: membership in a protected group, qualification for the job in question, an adverse employment action, and circumstances that support an inference of discrimination.

Akos Swierkiewicz, a 53-year-old Hungarian native who was fired by a reinsurance company, sued under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Title VII, claiming the firm had let him go because of his age and national origin.

The trial court dismissed the case on the ground that the allegations in his complaint did not raise an inference of discrimination and therefore did not include all the elements of a prima facie case. The Second Circuit affirmed.

Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Clarence Thomas said, "The prima facie case under McDonnell Douglas ... is an evidentiary standard, not a pleading requirement." As such, it "relates to the employee's burden of presenting evidence that raises an inference of discrimination," not to the pleading standard plaintiffs must satisfy to survive a motion to dismiss.

That standard is set forth in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 8(a)(2), which provides that a complaint must include only "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief." Citing Court precedent, Thomas wrote, "Such a statement must simply 'give the defendant fair notice of what the plaintiffs claim is and the grounds upon which it rests.'" This is the appropriate standard in all civil actions, with limited exceptions such as fraud and mistake, he said.

Chemerinsky said that because the court's ruling affirms the practice in most circuits, it won't increase employment discrimination cases. But "if the Court had ruled otherwise, it would have created a major obstacle for many plaintiffs who need discovery and could not plead with particularity without it," he added.