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 […]
Workers’ Compensation~Occupational Safety & Disease Boynton v. Kennecott Utah Copper, LLC (Utah, November 18, 2021) (reversing summary judgment in favor of Kennecott on Boynton’s take-home asbestos exposure claim in connection with his wife’s mesothelioma death: premises owners are liable to their employees‘ co-habitants for take-home asbestos exposure) Sysco v. Labor Commission (Utah Ct. App., November […]
Discrimination ~ Retaliation Adams v. C3 Pipeline Construction, Inc., et al. (10th Cir., November 2, 2021) (affirming summary judgment in favor of the Plains defendants (successors to a company with whom C3 was under contract) on Adams’s Title VII sexual-harassment claim: Plains did not employ Adams or any other C3 employee and therefore could not […]
Workers’ Compensation ~ Occupational Safety and Disease White v. Labor Commission (Utah Ct. App., September 11, 2020) (Declining to disturb the Commission appellate board determination that White had failed to show that his injury was legally caused by his employment: White failed to satisfy the heightened causation standard applicable because of his preexisting injury)
Workers’ Compensation ~ Occupational Safety and Disease Nielsen v. Labor Commission (Utah Ct. App., January 3, 2020) (Declining to disturb denial of claim for benefits: substantial evidence supported the Board determination that Nielsen’s back pain was not caused by his work at Walmart)
Discrimination ~ Retaliation *Lu v. University of Utah (10th Cir., October 29, 2019) (affirming dismissal of Lu’s retaliation, racial and national-origin discrimination, and ADA claims: Lu identified no cogent basis on which to reverse the district court’s dismissal) Wages Vander Veur v. Groove Entertainment Technologies (Utah, October 29, 2019)(reversing court of appeals: the covenant of […]
Discrimination/RetaliationSanchez v. US Department of Energy (10th Circuit, September 11, 2017) (vacating judgment on the pleadings as to Sanchez’s failure-to-accommodate claim, based on his dismissal because his Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder was a threat to national security. But the court affirmed the dismissal of his retaliation, disparate treatment, and procedural due process claims)Wages*Jimenez and Bustillos v. Board […]
Discrimination Coleman v. General Motors (10th Cir., April 1, 2015) (affirming summary judgement in favor of defendants on Coleman’s hostile work environment claim because Coleman’s allegation are insufficient to establish a prima facie case) Clay v. UPS (10th Cir., April 1, 2015) (affirming summary judgement in favor of UPS on Clay’s claims of hostile environment […]
On September 3, 2014, the Utah Supreme Court heard argument in the case of Ray et al. v. Wal-Mart. The plaintiffs—Ray, Dallin, Holt, Hunter, Poulsen, and Stewart—were Wal-Mart Employees terminated for, of all things, self-defense. As at-will employees, of course, plaintiffs could have been terminated at any time for any reason, or for no reason […]
The Utah Supreme Court ruled on Friday, May 14, 2010, that a workers compensation decision holding that a worker’s injuries were not caused by the operation of a machine could not be used by by the party that created or designed the machine in a later lawsuit if that party was not the worker’s employer. The […]
