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Harassment Summary Judgment

Foley & Lardner LLP

California Supreme Court Affirms Single Comment Can Constitute Harassment and Addresses Standard for Retaliation

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In a July 29, 2024, opinion, the California Supreme Court reaffirmed that a single use of a racial epithet can be severe enough to be actionable harassment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA)....more

Seward & Kissel LLP

Employment Litigation Roundup - May 2024

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May 2024 NJ Supreme Court holds that non-disparagement provisions cannot prohibit disclosure of details relating to claims of discrimination, retaliation, or harassment - The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously held that...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Get with the Pronoun: Eleventh Circuit Rules Pervasive Misgendering Is Harassment

If an employer or coworker persistently uses a transgender worker’s wrong name or identified pronoun, can that constitute a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII? In Copeland v. Georgia Department of Corrections,...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Failing to Cite? Say Bye to Employment Claims in the 5th Circuit

Does a plaintiff have to specify not only the facts but also the law that applies? In Bye v. MGM Resorts, Inc., the Fifth Circuit looks at a common pleading issue: What do you do when a plaintiff pleads facts that may or may...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Seventh Circuit Says Summary Judgment Stands: Evidence Does Not Support FCA Retaliation

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Yesterday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a summary judgment decision dismissing a former employee’s False Claims Act (“FCA”) retaliation suit. Lam v. Springs Window Fashions, LLC, No. 21-2665, 2022 U.S. App....more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

#MeToo and Business Divorce: The Flip Side

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Two years ago, Peter Mahler wrote about a dissolution lawsuit by a female minority shareholder alleging that her male co-shareholders condoned a pattern of sexually offensive and demeaning conduct by a senior co-worker, which...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Seasonal Employee May Pursue Disability-Based Hostile Work Environment Claim, Court Rules

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Reversing a district court’s grant of summary judgment, the Iowa Court of Appeals held an employee presented sufficient evidence for her disability-based hostile work environment claim to proceed to trial, despite the...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Eight Circuit Maintains High Bar for Hostile Work Environment Claims

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Seyfarth Synopsis: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a manager’s behavior toward an employee was “reprehensible and improper,” but did not rise to the level of a hostile work environment under Title VII, and...more

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...

Driven Fence Agrees to Pay $25,000 to Settle EEOC Race Harassment Lawsuit

Fencing Company's Mistreatment of Black Employee, Including Racial Slurs and Noose Display, Forced Him to Quit, Federal Agency Charged - CHICAGO - A Melrose Park, Ill., fencing company will pay $25,000 and furnish other...more

Cozen O'Connor

HR Investigations Pay Dividends: A Healthier Workplace and Protection in Court

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Many HR professionals spend a significant amount of time investigating employee complaints and, depending on the outcome of these investigations, implementing corrective measures to halt and prevent bad behavior in the...more

Carlton Fields

Financial Services Update: Week Ending September 6, 2019

Carlton Fields on

Financial Services Update - TCPA / ATDS: lender's dialer equipment not an ATDS because it is not capable of generating and dialing random or sequential numbers - Brown v. Ocwen Loan Serv. LLC, No. 8:18-cv-136-T-60AEP (M.D....more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Seventh Circuit Says One Use of "N-Word" Insufficient for Racial Harassment Claim

In recent years, a number of federal appellant courts, including the Fourth Circuit, have issued opinions finding that a single use of a racial slur can be enough to constitute a hostile and offensive working environment...more

Butler Snow LLP

Take This Job And Shove It – Alabama Supreme Court Elaborates On “Voluntarily” Leaving Employment

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If you quit your job because of a hostile work environment, is it still “voluntary”? According to the Alabama Supreme Court’s July 12, 2019 opinion in Arnold v. Hyundai Manuf. Ala., LLC, it is. In Arnold, Hyundai hired Arnold...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Once Is Enough: Tennessee Federal Court Rules Single Use of ‘N-Word’ By Co-Worker Sufficient to Get Hostile Work Environment Claim...

Usually, once is not enough, at least in the hostile work environment context. Unless, as the court found in Ronnie L. Outlaw v. SBH Services, Inc., it is. Typically, a single incident of harassment – especially by a...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC –What Constitutes “Severe and Pervasive” Conduct With Respect to “Third-Party Harassment”?

Employers may be liable to their employees for harassment by non-employees under Title VII. Courts have found liability for this so-called “third-party harassment” in some of the following fact-specific contexts: waitresses...more

Sherman & Howard L.L.C.

Supervisor’s Racial Epithets Are “Hellish” Enough

A defendant-employer won summary judgment on a racially hostile environment claim. The district court reached back to old cases and said the employee-plaintiff had to show the work environment was “hellish” to be actionable....more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Once Is Enough: Eleventh Circuit Allows Racial Harassment Claim Against Health Care Provider to Proceed—and Takeaways For...

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Seyfarth Synopsis: In a recent decision, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that the use of the N-Word in the workplace one time is sufficient to trigger a hostile work environment....more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Fifth Circuit Rules Employers Are Not Always Protected From Liability Resulting From Harassment by Nonemployees With Diminished...

Courts have ruled that employees who work with clients with diminished capacity present different challenges when establishing whether the nonemployee’s alleged harassment affected the terms and conditions of the employee’s...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Court Not So Hostile to Employer in Hostile Work Environment Case

Lest you think that no one can win a hostile work environment claim, we have some positive news from the Second Circuit. In Russell v. New York University, et al., the court issued a summary order (which does not have...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Failure to Investigate and Fat-Shaming Permit Employment Claims to Proceed

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Seyfarth Synopsis: Under California law, obesity can qualify as a disability if it has a physiological cause and limits a major life activity. Proving such a claim has been difficult. The First District Court of Appeal’s...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Correctional Officers FEHA Claims are Barred by Res Judicata for Already Adjudicated Workers’ Compensation Cases

The California Court of Appeal recently held that employees’ workers’ compensation decisions barred them from pursuing similar claims under the Fair Employment and Housing Act (“FEHA”) based on the doctrine of res judicata. ...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Don’t Make a Habit of it, but Sometimes, Ignorance IS Bliss

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As a general rule, of course, Human Resources Departments and company management want to be – and should be – well-informed about issues in the workplace, including employees unhappy enough to have raised claims of...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Workers’ Compensation Ruling Given Preclusive Effect In Discrimination Lawsuit

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Seyfarth Synopsis: In Ly v. County of Fresno, the Court of Appeal held that correctional officers’ claims for race, ethnicity, and national origin discrimination were barred because the claims had been previously denied in...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Fifth Circuit Warps Time In Decision On The Continuing Violation Doctrine

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Seyfarth Synopsis: The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held for the first time that the continuing violation doctrine applies even when a plaintiff was subject to harassment that was severe enough to put the...more

FordHarrison

Finally! Something That's Not "Protected Activity" in California

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It turns out that “protected activity” sufficient to make out a retaliation claim in California is not as broad as it may sometimes seem. On November 9, 2016, the Court of Appeal affirmed summary judgment for the employer in...more

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