Maria Escobedo v. Apple American Group

Appellant Maria Escobedo, acting pro se, submitted her complaint, charging Ap-pellee Apple Nevada with sexual harassment and discrimination, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on June 2, 2011. The complaint arrived at the clerk’s office sixty-nine days after Es-cobedo received her right-to-sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, well within the ninety-day limit set forth in 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(1).

Along with her complaint, Escobedo filed an application to proceed in forma pauperis (“IFP”). Thirty-four days later, on July 6, 2011, outside the ninety-day deadline, a magistrate judge first heard argument on the application and erroneously denied it, based upon ungrounded assumptions regarding the availability of Escobedo’s husband’s resources. During the hearing, however, the magistrate judge told Escobedo that she would have an additional thirty days to pay the $350 fee. Escobedo paid the fee on August 5, 2011, within the allotted thirty days. Despite this, the district court subsequently dismissed her complaint for violating the ninety-day limitations period.

Escobedo (represented by counsel) contends, first, that the district…