The American Bar Association periodically publishes brief papers on topics of popular interest. They call the papers “Fact Check” papers. The ABA has published a Fact Check paper on whether and to what extent an employee can refuse to work at unsafe work places. See that paper here. The paper points to the general
Sexual harassment cases are complicated. The legal standard is that harassment by co-workers which is “severe or pervasive” will constitute a hostile work environment – if of course, management knows about the harassment and does nothing. But, what happens when the harasser is a customer? If an employer is aware of the harassment and does
The life experiences a judge brings to the table are important. Pres. Trump’s nomination of Neil Gorsuch illustrates that maxim. Judge Gorsuch, prior to assuming his chair at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals represented big business, often opposing attempts to seek class action certification on behalf of workers. His decision in Hwang v. Kansas
Judges matter. The life experiences they bring to the bench matter. So, when I see a concurrence like the one written by Judge Jones of the Fifth Circuit, I become concerned. In Pineda v. JTCH Apartments, LLC, No. 15-10932 (5th Cir. 12/19/2016), the employee recovered some $5,000 in damages. Santiago Pineda was a maintenance
I try to warn clients all the time that juries are fickle. A party can have the best evidence and still lose. One recent case illustrates that reality. In Alexander v. Servisair, LLC, No. H-12-817 (S.D. Tex. 2013), the plaintiff alleged that she had been terminated for pursuing her rights to sick leave under
Alan Demyanovich worked for 20 years for Cadon Plating & Coating, which applies coatings in the automobile industry. Mr. Demyanovich developed heart problems in 1999, but returned to work and worked another ten years. In 2009, his heart condition worsened. He took substantial time off. In February, 2010, he again asked for FMLA leave. His
The Eleventh Circuit helps shed some light on the effects of the ADA Amendments Act, effective in 2009. In Mazzeo v. Color Resolutions International, LLC, No. 12-10250, 2014 WL 12740470 (11th Cir. 3/31/14), Anthony Mazzeo suffered a herniated disc and torn ligaments in his back at the age of 46. He worked as a sales
The Fifth Circuit previously overturned summary judgment in Johnson v. Maestri-Murrell Property Management, LLC, (5th Cir. 2012). I wrote about that decision here. The remarkable thing about that summary judgment was the lower court ignored direct evidence of discrimination. The district court’s decision seemed to be result-oriented. See the Fifth
in a recent decision, the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans reversed summary judgment. In Johnson v. Maestri-Murrell Property Management, LLC, No. 11-30914 (5th Cir. 8/14/12), the EEOC found in favor of the employee, a very rare event. Yet, the lower court granted summary judgment in favor of the employer.
The Plaintiff had direct
Defense lawyers are welcoming the decision in Martin v. Spring Break Productions, LLC, No. 30671 (5th Cir. 6/24/12). The decision, says Mike Maslanka and Russ Cawyer, allows an individual claimant to settle his/her FLSA claim. Until this decision was issued, the most common belief that an individual employee could settle a wage claim only