Summary judgment is the employer’s go-to defense to a discrimination lawsuit. For a few decades now, many Federal judges have used summary judgment as a tool for clearing his/her docket. But, in Dabassi v. Motiva Enterprises, No. 23-20166 (5th Cir. 7/16/2024), the court of appeals reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment. In
There are many things an interviewer can ask a job applicant. But, you do need to be careful about some questions. Here are some things to consider.
1. How old are you? Be very careful about asking this question. There are very few jobs where someone can ask you your age and the question itself
We all know that age discrimination is an issue when an older worker is replaced by a younger worker. But, can we still show age discrimination when an older worker is replaced by someone who is also older? The Firth Circuit says yes, sometimes. In the case of Alaniz v. U.S. Renal Care, Inc.,
Those of us who work with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission know how difficult it is for folks to convey to the EEOC their complaints. The EEOC is always in a hurry. They do not always take the time necessary to understand an employee’s complaint. So, it is not surprising that in Apache Corp. v.
In a recent case, the Ft. Worth Court of Appeals addressed the question, does the Texas age discrimination statute require that the plaintiff be over 40 years old during the discrimination? The court said no. In Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. v. Burnett, 552 S.W.3d 901 (2018), the employee was harassed due to his age.
Luis Cristain sustained an injury at work. His employer, Hunter Buildings and Manufacturing, fired him soon after he fell from scaffolding. Eight days later and a few days after filing a claim for worker’s compensation benefits, the employer moved him to a position where he would be supervised by Kevin Edmonds. Mr. Edmonds had already
An engineer worked for Texas Commission on Environmental Quality or 23 years. Shiyan Jiang was never in any trouble until in 2014, he was assigned a new boss, Kim Wilson. The new boss believed Mr. Jiang placed some papers in a permit folder that did not belong there. The plaintiff then filed a complaint alleging
One would expect that a case involving direct evidence of age bias would not be granted summary judgment. Yet, that is what happened in Lopez v. Exxon Mobil Development Co., No. 14-16-00826, 2017 WL 4018359 (Tex.App. Houston 9/12/2017). Plaintiff David Lopez worked for Exxon for over ten years when he was terminated in 2014.
There are various constructs which serve to limit access to juries for discrimination victims. One of those constructs is the so-called “same actor inference.” The same actor inference provides that if the same manager who hired an employee later fires that same employee, then it is unlikely that that manager was motived by discriminatory animus.
More and more employers are relying on staffing agencies to fill certain jobs. But, many employers retain so much control that they remain the employers in all but name. So, if the client employer is the employer in fact, what would be the status of the staffing agency? The Fifth Circuit addresses that issue in