Litigation pitfalls and pratfalls

No Title VII Suit After Bankruptcy Nondisclosure

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Mark Davis, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A plaintiff has no standing to pursue her Title VII suit alleging a sexually hostile work environment at her workplace because she did not disclose her Title VII claims during her Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding; the Newport News U.S. District Court accepts the magistrate judge’s recommendation to dismiss plaintiff’s suit against the Peninsula Airport Commission. [...]

Claim May Be Timely After All

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge John A. Gibney Jr., U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A woman who claims she was fired from her job at a 7-Eleven store due to race and age discrimination gets another chance to pursue her case, as the Richmond U.S. District Court grants her Rule 59 motion because it finds a sufficient question of fact as to whether plaintiff filed her EEOC charge within [...]

No Claim from Ban on Postal Worker’s Book Ad

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 29, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge James C. Cacheris, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An employee of the U.S. Postal Service can’t recover for Title VII religious discrimination based on postal officials’ removal from post office bulletin board advertisements about the employee’s religious and genetic research and theories and a book he published to advance those theories; the Alexandria U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to defendant, as plaintiff [...]

No Pregnancy Discrimination in UPS Driver Policy

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 17, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Employment Discrimination, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Although plaintiff UPS driver alleges the company was liable for pregnancy discrimination because it had a policy that accommodated some disabled employees but not similarly situated pregnant workers, the 4th Circuit upholds summary judgment for UPS, based on its pregnancy-neutral policy. Under UPS policy and the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a pregnant employee can continue [...]

State Employee Layoff Not Discriminatory

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 11, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A native East Indian and naturalized citizen who worked for over 25 years for the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation has failed to state claims for national origin employment discrimination in violation of Title VII based on allegations that the DCR retaliated against him, refused to interview or select him for certain positions and [...]

Isolated Comments Not Hostile Environment

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 7, 2013
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A supermarket wins summary judgment in this hostile environment race discrimination suit filed by an African-American male who was terminated as a grocery department manager after the first assistant manager asked plaintiff to help out at the cash registers and the two had a “heated” exchange. After an investigation of the incident, a human resources [...]

Employee Fired for Lie on Job Application

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 18, 2012
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge James P. Jones, U.S. District Court - Western District

Although a female construction site “helper” claims her marriage to a coworker was annulled before she applied to work for the construction firm, the firm nevertheless could conclude she still was “related to” him under the company’s broad rules about “relatives,” where she and he provided the same home phone numbers and he listed her [...]

Deli Manager Can’t Show Bias in Discharge

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 18, 2012
Tags: Employment Discrimination, Judge Norman K. Moon, U.S. District Court - Western District

A Charlottesville U.S. District Court grants summary judgment to employer, a Kroger store, in this suit alleging race discrimination filed by an African-American employee who was deli manager when the company terminated his 29-year career based on its discovery that plaintiff had given and received unauthorized price reductions on deli department merchandise. Plaintiff has not [...]

No ADA Claim from Back Pain, Lifting Limits

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 11, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Employment Discrimination, Judge Stephanie Dawn Thacker

A former employee of an American Red Cross Chapter has no grounds for his suit alleging disability discrimination based on his allegations that he was expected to exceed a 15-pound limit on lifting due to his back pain and was fired after he complained about his pain and inquired about filing for workers’ compensation; the [...]