Contract ~ Noncompete ~ Trade Secret ~ Wrongful Termination Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (U.S., June 27, 2022) (reversing summary judgment in favor of the school district on Kennedy’s first-amendment religious-freedom claim: the free-exercise and free-speech clauses of the first amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance (prayer)from government reprisal; the Constitution […]
Discrimination ~ Retaliation *Avant v. Doke (10th Cir., June 23, 2022) (recognizing a First-Amendment right against retaliation for perceived, rather than actual, speech in the context of a claim for retaliatory discharge) Workers Compensation ~ Occupational Safety and Disease U.S. v. Washington (U.S., June 21, 2022) (reversing determination that Washington State law was constitutional that […]
Discrimination ~ Retaliation *Cummings v. American Postal Worker’s Union (10th Cir., June 17, 2022) (affirming summary judgment in favor of Union on Cummings’ claims for race and age discrimination: She failed to establish that the USPS had violated the collective bargaining agreement or that it’s reasons for her termination were pretextual) *Pegler v. Doug Smith […]
DISCRIMINATION ~ RETALIATION Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, PLLC (U.S., April 28, 2022) (affirming denial of emotional distress damages in connection with Cummings’ claim of disability discrimination for Premier Rehab’s failure to provide an ASL interpreter in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Affordable Care Act: damages for emotional harm are not […]
ERISA and Employee Pension Plans Babcock v. Kijakazi (U.S., January 13, 2022) (affirming determination that Babcock’s retirement benefits should be reduced (a “windfall elimination”) to reflect his receipt of both a civil-service pension and military pension payments for his work as a dual-status National Guard technician: Civil-service pension payments based on employment as a dual-status […]
Public Employer ~ Employees Brownback v. King (U.S., February 25, 2021) (reversing the Sixth Circuit’s determination that the district court’s dismissal of King’s Federal Tort Claims Act claims did not trigger the 28 USC §1346(b) judgment bar to block his Bivens claims: The District Court’s order was a judgment on the merits of the FTCA […]
Workers’ Compensation ~ Occupational Safety and Disease *Tesone v. Empire Marketing Strategies (10th Cir., February 5, 2021) (affirming summary judgment in favor of Empire Marketing on Tesone’s disability discrimination claim: Tesone had no evidence from which to establish disability under the ADA) Salinas v. United States Railroad Retirement Board (U.S. Supreme Court, Februay 3, 2021) […]
Contract~Noncompete~Trade Secret~Wrongful Termination Alfaro-Huitron v. Cervantes Agribusiness (10th Cir., December 11, 2020) (reversing summary judgment in favor of Cervantes on Plaintiff’s claims for breach of contract and violation of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act: the evidence suffices for a finding that the hiring contractor was acting as Cervantes’s agent when it […]
Discrimination~Retaliation Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia (U.S., June 15, 2020) (reversing 11th Circuit decision that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not prohibit the termination of employees for being gay: In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee’s sex when deciding to fire […]
Contract ~ Noncompete ~ Trade Secret ~ Wrongful Termination Cook Martin Poulson v. Smith (Utah Ct. App., April 9, 2020) (affirming in part and reversing in part findings of contempt, entry of sanctions, and summary and final judgments in connection with injunction regarding noncompete agreement) Discrimination ~ Retaliation Babb v. Wilkie (U.S., April 6, 2020) […]
