Gene D. CURRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, Defendant-Appellee

Before CARTER and WRIGHT, Circuit Judges, and EAST, District Judge.

Appellant Gene D. Curry brought this suit against Continental Airlines, claiming that he had been denied employment as a flight crew member at Continental for the sole reason that he was forty-one years old, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, 29 U.S.C. § 633 . After serveral amended complaints were filed, the district court dismissed the suit for lack of jurisdiction and this appeal ensued. We reverse.

The primary issue in the case is whether the district court lacked jurisdiction of the suit due to appellant’s failure to defer his complaint to a state agency as required by 29 U.S.C. § 633 (b). Section 633(b) requires that a plaintiff defer to the State if (1) the State has a law prohibiting discrimination in employment due to age, and (2) the State has established or authorized a state agency to grant or seek relief from such discrimination. The parties agree that at all relevant times California has had a law making age discrimination in employment unlawful, but they disagree as to whether California has established or authorized a State authority to grant or seek relief…