UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
)
DIOSDADO GRUSPE, )
)
Plaintiff, )
)
v. ) Civil Action No. 08-1040 (JR)
)
DONALD C. WINTER, )
Secretary of the Navy, )
)
Defendant. )
)
MEMORANDUM OPINION
This matter is before the Court on defendant’s motion to
dismiss.
Plaintiff was born in the Philippines in 1937 and was
employed by the Department of the Navy until his retirement in
1992. See Compl. at 6 & Attach. (February 27, 2008 Decision of
the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Appeal
No. 0120080796) at 1. According to plaintiff, he was an employee
of the Navy for whom “no retirement deductions were withheld” and
therefore became eligible “to make a deposit to the Civil Service
Retirement and Disability Fund . . . during its open season from
January 8, 1988 until January 8, 1990.” Id. at 1-2. Plaintiff
filed a claim in 2007 alleging that the Navy discriminated
against him on the basis of his national origin when it “failed
to inform [him]” of this opportunity to participate in the Fund.
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Id. at 2. The Navy “rejected [his] claim on the ground that [he
has] no right to come within Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, as amended, pursuant to [29 C.F.R. § 1614.103(c)(4)] which
provided that ‘[a]iens employed in positions . . . located
outside of the United States’ are not covered under Title VII.”1
Id. at 2.
Plaintiff claims that he is a dual citizen of the
Philippines and of the United States because he was born in the
Philippine Islands when the Philippine Islands were a territory
of the United States. He further contends that he thus became a
United States citizen under the Fourteenth Amendment to the
United States Constitution. Compl. at 6. He asks this Court to
confirm his status as a United States citizen “so that the
Department of the Navy allow[s] [him] to come within the meaning
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in Title VII.” Id. at 7.
In Licudine v. Winter, 603 F. Supp. 2d 129 (D.D.C. 2009),
this Court held that a person who, like plaintiff, was born in
the Philippine Islands when the Philippines was a United States
territory is neither a citizen nor a national of United States
citizen. Id. at 135-36. Such a person, then, is an alien to
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The United States Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission affirmed the Navy’s dismissal of plaintiff’s
discrimination complaint “on the grounds of untimely EEO
Counselor contact,” and Commission found it “unnecessary to
address the agency’s dismissal . . . on alternative grounds.”
Compl., Attach. (February 27, 2008 Decision, Appeal No.
0120080796) at 2.
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whom Title VII does not apply. Id.
The Court will grant defendant’s motion to dismiss. An
Order accompanies this Memorandum Opinion.
JAMES ROBERTSON
United States District Judge
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