Discrimination~Retaliation *Rohwedder v. Rocky Mountain Pies, LLC (10th Cir., November 23, 2021) (affirming dismissal with prejudice of Rohwedder’s employment-discrimination suit: although failure to exhaust administrative remedies is no longer a jurisdictional defect, it can be and was properly raised as an affirmative defense by Rocky Mountain; Rohwedder thus failed to state a claim under 12(b)(6); […]
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 Edmonds-Radford v. Southwest Airlines Co. (10th Cir., November 8, 2021) (affirming summary judgment in favor of Southwest on Edmonds-Radford’s ADA and Rehabilitation-Act claims: the Rehabilitation Act did not apply as no federal assistance was involved; one of her ADA claims was filed after the 300-day limit; and Edmonds-Radford failed to establish a […]
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 […]
Contract ~ Noncompete ~ Trade Secret ~ Wrongful Termination Tomkins v. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (10th Cir., October 25, 2021) (affirming dismissal of Tompkins’ administrative procedures act and due process claims for lack of jurisdiction: the Veterans’ Benefit Act is Tompkins’ exclusive remedy, Tompkins failed to identify an applicable waiver of sovereign immunity, and […]
Discrimination~Retaliation *Garcia v. Wyoming Department of Health and Social Services (10th Cir., October 18, 2021) (affirming summary judgment in favor of the Department on Garcia’s claims of retaliation and discrimination based on disability and religion: The 11th Amendment barred her ADA claim, and she failed to demonstrate pretext on her Title VII discrimination and retaliation […]
Discrimination~Retaliation *Muggenborg v. Nortek Air Solutions, LLC (10th Cir., October 15, 2021) (affirming summary judgment in favor of Nortek on Muggenborg’s age-discrimination claim: despite a strong prima-facie case, Muggenborg failed to show that Nortek’s justification for terminating him were pretextual) Workers Compensation~Occupational Safety and Disease C.R. England & Indemnity Insurance Co. v. Labor Commission (Utah […]
If Utah employers can let employees go for any legal reason with or without notice, why does it matter when a person applies for unemployment compensation if he or she was let go “for cause” or not? Utah, like the many other states, is an at-will employment state—meaning that an employer may dismiss “‘employees at-will […]
Utah employers, have you ever wondered what critical mistakes you could make in responding to a charge of discrimination filed by an employee? Utah executives and professionals, have you ever wondered what you should be focusing on when preparing a complaint of discrimination against your previous employer? If so, I will be presenting at an […]
Executives and professionals, when you are negotiating your new employment agreement or your severance package, do you pay attention to the conflict resolution provisions? Many such agreements have mandatory arbitration provisions. Should you even worry about them? The answer is that you should. Although many people will sell you on the virtues of arbitration agreements, […]
