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Cat's Paw Adverse Employment Action

Fisher Phillips

Just (Don’t) Do It: Oregon Supreme Court Warns Against Cat’s Paw Retaliation

Fisher Phillips on

The Oregon Supreme Court just revived a whistleblower retaliation claim filed against sportswear giant Nike by adopting for the first time a novel legal concept known as the “cat’s paw” theory. The July 18 opinion opens new...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Multilayer Performance Review Can Help Avoid 'Cat's Paw' Claims

In order to prove disparate treatment discrimination under federal employment laws, plaintiffs must demonstrate that the decision-maker in an adverse action was at least partially motivated by discriminatory intent. Federal...more

Orrick - Employment Law and Litigation

Cat’s Paw Making New Tracks: Second Circuit Extends Cat’s Paw Principle to Retaliation Claims and to Low-Level Employees

The “cat’s paw” doctrine, a concept first coined by Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner in 1990 and adopted by the Supreme Court in 2011, applies when an employee is subjected to an adverse employment action by a decision...more

Baker Donelson

Employers Beware of the Cat's Paw

Baker Donelson on

The cat scratches again! Five years ago, the United States Supreme Court handed down Staub v. Proctor Hospital, wherein it held that an employer may be liable for a supervisor's discriminatory animus when the independent...more

Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Ambulance Service Liable for Sexting Monkey?

An ambulance service may be liable for damages arising from sexting by a monkey it employed, the Second Circuit ruled on August 29. Actually, the monkey was a man, but the court sided with a female employee who sued the...more

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

The Cat Is Out of the Bag: Second Circuit Rules Cat’s Paw Theory Applies to Nonmanagerial Coworkers

Rarely has the maxim “hard cases make bad law” found greater application than in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision to expand the “cat’s paw” doctrine adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States in...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Second Circuit Holds That Non-Supervisory Employee’s Retaliatory Intent May Be Imputed to an Employer Under Title VII

In Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, Inc., the Second Circuit adopted the “cat’s paw” theory of liability under Title VII and held that the retaliatory intent of a low-level, non-supervisory employee may be imputed to an...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Cat’s Paw, Part II: “Termination Review” by Independent Decision Makers Can Break the Causal Chain

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Last week, we wrote about the “Cat’s Paw” theory of liability —where a person is used unwittingly to accomplish another person’s discriminatory purpose in the workplace. A common example would be when a racist employee...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

“Cat’s Paw” – Or Perhaps “Tiger’s Paw” Theory Now

Foley & Lardner LLP on

For those interested in the origin, the term “cat’s paw” derives from a fable of a monkey who employs flattery to convince a cat to pull chestnuts out of a fire. Today the term commonly refers to a person used unwittingly or...more

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