Margaret MILLER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BANK OF AMERICA, a Corporation, Defendant-Appellee

Plaintiff Miller, a black woman, was an employee of defendant Bank of America. Her affidavit states that her performance has been rated “superior,” and that she had been given a raise in salary. She says that, shortly after, she was fired because she refused her supervisor’s demand for sexual favors from, in his words, a “black chick.” In this action, after she had filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and received a “right to sue” letter from the Commission, she asserts that she has been discriminated against because of her race and sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e ff. and of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 . The district court gave summary judgment for the Bank, Miller v. Bank of America, N.D. Cal., 1976, 418 F.Supp. 233 , and she appeals.

In its brief, the Bank concedes that the district judge was mistaken in saying that Miller had “conceded that the case should stand or fall on the issue of sex discrimination,” rather than race discrimination. Thus the claim for relief under § 1981 is still in the case.

At oral argument before us, counsel for the Bank made a further concession, namely, that if the Bank, rather than…