Applicants who were not hired because the employer allegedly gave preferential treatment to Asian and Filipino workers from 1999 through 2000, but didn’t learn of it until years later, cannot proceed on their discrimination claim, according to a recent Ninth Circuit decision.

The plaintiffs in the case argued that statute of limitations on their claim did not begin until they not only knew that they weren’t getting hired, but also when they learned of the alleged discriminatory intent of the employer. The Ninth Circuit says although it has never expressly addressed the question, it notes that other circuits “have concluded that the claim accrues upon awareness of the actual injury, i.e., the adverse employment action, and not when the plaintiff suspects a legal wrong.” Thus, the statute of limitations started for the applicants’ claim at the time they received notice they would not be hired “or when a reasonable person would have realized he had not been hired,” the Court says. Zolotarev v. San Francisco