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 be liable under Title VII (the most important factor being that Plains could not fire Adams); in addition, on Adams’s state-law claims, the evidence plainly showed that C3 workers were independent contractors of C3, not employees)
Workers’ Compensation ~ Occupational Safety & Disease
Kay v. Barnes Bullets (Utah, November 4, 2021) (vacating, and remanding, the district court’s denial of Barnes Bullets’ motion for summary judgment: Kay brought his lead-poisoning claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act, but Utah law has frequently recognized lead poisoning as an occupational disease (properly brought under the Occupational Disease Act). This raises a significant question for the district court to determine on remand: is it an occupational disease? and, if so, should the intentional-injury exception be extended to cover Kay’s claim)
Christiansen v. Harrison Western Construction Corp. (Utah, November 4, 2021) (affirming dismissal of the Christiansens’ claim: the Workers’ Compensation Act bars suit against an employer for work-related injuries. The Christiansens’ reliance on the exception for an employer’s intentional acts was unavailing, since they failed to sufficiently plead that Harrison Western acted intentionally)
A1 Pioneer Moving v. Labor Commission (Utah Ct. App., November 4, 2021) (declining to disturb Commission determination that terminated employee Viliami Pulu was entitled to temporary total disability benefits: A1 was required to apply for termination of Pulu’s benefits rather than terminating them unilaterally, and Pulu’s violent behavior (the altercation which led to his termination) did not constitute refusal of available light-duty work)
*Cases marked with an asterisk are not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel.
