BNSF Railway Co. was wrongly granted dismissal of an EEOC lawsuit alleging systemic sexual harassment against female employees at a Nebraska railyard, the Eighth Circuit ruled Thursday.

A lower court mistakenly faulted the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for not alleging that all the women on whose behalf it sued experienced "precisely the same harassment" as the charging party who spurred the agency's investigation and litigation, a unanimous panel said.

EEOC "class" litigation isn't subject to the typical federal requirements for class actions, and the lower court also was wrong that the agency needed to plead enough facts for the number ...