Sunday, December 2, 2018
- MHRC: Minutes from November 19, 2018, Meeting reflect that (in response to a pending Law Court case) a new procedure will be implemented beginning in December 2018 in which the Executive Director will provide 5 M.R.S. § 4612(2) administrative dismissal recommendations to the Commissioners for a vote to adopt the recommended “no reasonable grounds” determination
- First Circuit: Medical evidence was unnecessary for Americans with Disabilities Act plaintiff to show that his “knee injury” was an actual protected disability–a physical impairment that substantially limited a major life activity–because it was the type of condition (like a missing arm) that is amendable to comprehension by a lay jury; but summary judgment was granted, anyway, because plaintiff failed to offer details in addition to conclusory statement that his knee injury was substantially limiting
- Fourth Circuit: Two-year statute of limitations in Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act (“MFEPA”), not three-year SOL governing general civil actions, applies to claims under federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 because MFEPA provided most analogous cause of action to Rehab Act
- First Circuit: Mandatory arbitration clause in Rhode Island-based employment agreement was enforceable despite challenge that at-will employment was inadequate consideration to form a binding contract, where Rhode Island Supreme Court has held that continued at-will employment is sufficient consideration to form a binding contract
- Maine Superior Court: Maine Health Security Act did not apply to personal injury slip and fall from medical practice’s alleged misplacement of shower mat because maintaining safe premises was incidental to but did not “arise out of the provision or failure to provide healthcare services”
- Maine Superior Court: Summary judgment granted, in part, on Whistleblowers’ Protection Act claim because approximately one-month temporal proximity between protected reporting activity and employment termination was not alone sufficient to establish causal connection where employer pointed to coworker complaints about plaintiff’s threatening and inappropriate workplace behavior as reason for termination (the court noted that even if the coworker complaints were untrue it did not support causation, only that plaintiff was terminated for untrue complaints)
- US District Court ME: Summary states that among Local Rule changes effective December 1, 2018, is an amendment to Local Rule 41.2(5) “to provide that a motion for approval of settlement actions on behalf of minor designate a depository of the funds received for the minor and subjects any withdrawals to court approval until the minor reaches majority”
- MHRC: December 17th Agenda and Consent Agenda posted
