HOUSTON (LN) — U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew M. Edison ruled Monday that plaintiff Kandice Haseloff-Bunker’s employment discrimination petition is deemed filed on September 15, 2025, the date it was transmitted to the electronic filing service provider, preserving her Title VII, ADA, and ADEA claims from being time-barred.
The dispute centered on a clerical error in the Brazoria County District Court. Haseloff-Bunker submitted her Original Petition, an affidavit of inability to pay, and a request for citation through Texas’s mandatory e-filing system on September 15, 2025. The state clerk rejected the filing due to an error request but failed to provide a deadline for correction as required by Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 21(f)(11).
Haseloff-Bunker’s paralegal did not contact the clerk’s office to check the status until December 23, 2025, when she was informed the filing had been returned. She refiled the documents that same day.
The City of Angleton argued that Haseloff-Bunker’s request to deem the petition filed on the earlier date should be denied because she lacked diligence in investigating the e-filing error, noting she waited more than three months to check on the status.
Edison acknowledged the delay but ruled that once a party puts a legal instrument of the clerk, they should not be penalized for errors made. He cited Texas precedent stating that Rule 21(f)(11) does not impose a reasonable diligence requirement when the clerk fails to state a deadline for resubmission.
"I am not going to be first judge—state or federal—to construe the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure as imposing an implied reasonable diligence requirement for correcting non-conforming documents when a state district clerk fails to provide a deadline to resubmit the corrected documents," Edison wrote.
The ruling is critical because an individual receiving a right-to-sue letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has 90 days to file a civil action under federal anti-discrimination laws. Had the court deemed the petition filed on the December 23 refiling date, Haseloff-Bunker’s federal claims would have been "unquestionably time-barred."
Edison granted Haseloff-Bunker’s request to deem the petition filed on September 15, 2025, but denied her request that he direct the state clerk to file-stamp the document with that date, noting federal courts have no power to direct state judicial officials.
The City has filed a separate motion for partial judgment on the pleadings, arguing the case should be dismissed due to a lack of diligence in service of process, which Edison said he will address after the motion is fully briefed.
Edison is a magistrate judge in the Southern District of Texas.