Legal Updates
John Gause monitors what’s happening in employment discrimination, civil rights, and tort law. He shares some of what he finds on this page.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
- US Supreme Court: The Court agreed with the First Circuit that, under the Federal Arbitration Act, (1) when a contract delegates questions of arbitrability to an arbitrator, a court is not required to leave disputes over the application of an FAA exception (here Section 1) for the arbitrator to resolve; and (2) the term “contracts of employment” under the Section 1 exception does not refer only to contracts between employers and employees but also reaches contracts with independent contractors
- First Circuit: In reversing dismissal of False Claims Act retaliation complaint because plaintiff had engaged in FCA-protected activity, the court described the required showing as follows: “rather than plausibly pleading the existence of a fire — the actual submission of a false claim — a plaintiff alleging FCA retaliation need only plausibly plead a reasonable amount of smoke — conduct that could reasonably lead to an FCA action based on the submission of a false claim”
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment granted for employer on Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act claim where court found that plaintiff had not engaged in WPA-protected activity of reporting what she reasonably believed was illegal activity by reporting that her employer had engaged in violations of “fair claims processing standards,” which were best practices guidelines and not an established body of law; and granted summary judgment on her disability reasonable accommodation claim because, in part, her request for a new manager was not a reasonable request
- MHRC: January 28th Meeting Agenda and Consent Agenda posted
Saturday, December 29, 2018
- Seyfarth Shaw Employment Law Lookout Blog: Infographic tracks the spread of paid sick leave and anti-local sick leave laws around the country from pre-2014 to 2018
- 5th Circuit: Where prevailing plaintiff under Fair Labor Standards Act previously rejected a more favorable Rule 68 Offer of Judgment, court should consider rejection of the Offer in setting reasonable attorney’s fee, but rejection does not preclude attorney’s fees altogether as would be the case under civil rights statutes that include attorney’s fees as a part of recoverable “costs”
- MHRC: Minutes of December 17th meeting include that Kathryn Hutchison has joined the Commission as an Investigator and that the Commission expects to be submitting a number of proposed MHRA amendments to the Maine Legislature
- MHRC: January 28, 2019, Meeting Agenda posted
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
- Ninth Circuit: First Amendment-based ministerial exception, which categorically bars an employee’s suit under otherwise generally applicable employment laws, did not apply to fifth-grade teacher at Catholic school (she brought an Americans with Disabilities Act claim)
- First Circuit: The court affirmed Title VII retaliation non-jury trial judgment for former Postal Service employee, which included award of back pay and attorney’s fees but declined front pay or reinstatement, finding the district court did not err in taking judicial notice of collective bargaining agreement (foreclosing reinstatement) submitted after trial or relying solely on plaintiff’s lack of evidentiary support at trial for front-pay award (instead of considering post-trial evidence or reopening hearing)
Thursday, December 13, 2018
- US Supreme Court: Cert granted to decide whether to overrule Auer v. Robbins, 519 U.S. 452 (1997), and Bowles Seminole Rock & Sand Co., 325 U.S. 410 (1945), which direct courts to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation
- US District Court ME: In denying summary judgment on age employment discrimination claim, court found that six-year difference in age between plaintiff and replacement (they were both in their 50s), together with age based comments by decision maker, was sufficient to support inference of age discrimination
- MHRC: December 17th Agenda and Consent Agenda posted
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
Tuesday, November 20, 2018
- Ninth Circuit: “A factor” instead of “but for” causation standard adopted for racial discrimination claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1981
- First Circuit: Denial of summary judgment qualified immunity affirmed for police officer on Fourth Amendment claim arising out of officer shooting plaintiff who began stabbing himself as he was being recommitted to psychiatric hospital where–although officer claimed that she shot hi to protect herself and others who were “within striking distance” –there was no evidence locating others “on a diagram of the room, nor even describing narratively with any precision exactly where they were at the time of the shooting”
- US District Court ME: Guidelines for Filing Confidential Information in Civil Cases published
- US District Court ME: Discovery Dispute Filing Reference Guide published
- EEOC: 2018 Performance and Accountability Report includes that 41 percent of private sector conciliations were successfully resolved
Thursday, November 8, 2018
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
- MHRC: Minutes of October 22nd meeting include the adoption of the Commission’s proposed amendments to its Procedural Rule with one modification; the MHR Investigator position will be submitted for reclassification, and the minimum qualifications for the position be modified to require a Juris Doctor degree along with six years of relevant experience or education; and that Jane O’Reilly, who interned with the Commission during law school, has started as an Investigator and Katherine Hutchinson will start as an Investigator in December
- MHRC: Annual Report includes that there was a 3.2% increase in filings from last year, retaliation was the leading basis (26% of complaints filed), and reasonable grounds were found in 13.2% of the cases that came before the Commissioners for decision and 3.9% of all cases processed
- Law Court: Oral arguments scheduled for November 7th include Cum-18-141 (whether Maine Human Rights Commission dismissal was pursuant 5 M.R.S. § 4622(1)(A), thereby entitling plaintiff to receive compensatory damages, punitive damages, or attorney’s fees)
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment denied on federal and state constitutional excessive force claim arising out of police officer tossing handcuffed trespass suspect to the ground, where “a reasonable jury could readily conclude that [the police officer’s] significant use of force went beyond the type of contact, such as a ‘gratuitously violent shove,’ that is within the ambit of qualified immunity”
- US District Court ME: Interpreting 26 M.R.S. § 629(1) (prohibiting an employer from failing to pay an employee for work) and 26 M.R.S. § 664(3) (requiring 1 1/2 pay for work over 40 hours in a week), the court held that defendant’s failure to pay plaintiff for 1,631 work hours (including 1,585 hours of unpaid overtime) violated both provisions but held that plaintiff could only recover liquidated damages (a multiple of the unpaid wages) under one because the liquidated damages provisions were remedial instead of punitive
- First Circuit: Pretrial detainee’s Eighth Amendment claim against prison doctor dismissed where there was insufficient evidence to permit a jury to find that doctor knew enough about plaintiff’s medical history to make it obvious that the course of treatment that doctor approved–prescribing one drug over another–would amount to a refusal to provide essential care
- Maine DOL: The Department is proposing Vocational Rehabilitation Rule Changes
- Bangor Daily: Lawsuit alleges ‘racially hostile’ environment at Maine Eddie Bauer store
Sunday, October 21, 2018
- US District Court ME: Newly appointed United States District Court Judge Lance E. Walker will serve the Court from Bangor
- Maine Supreme Judicial Court: Oral comments on the proposal to adopt civil justice reform in Maine through the implementation of Differentiated Case Management will be accepted on Wednesday, October 24, 2018, at 1:30 p.m., in the Supreme Judicial Courtroom of the Cumberland County Courthouse in Portland
- Law Court: The court affirmed dismissal of nurse practitioner’s Whistleblowers’ Protection Act, tortious interference, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress claims against former physician employer who allegedly denigrated her to prospective employer in retaliation for her prior testimony against physician during Unemployment hearing, finding physician’s conduct fell within absolute immunity provisions in Maine Health Security Act as statements about her professional background, employment qualifications or performance, and professional competence; and that bad faith in making statements does not alter immunity coverage
- First Circuit: Summary judgment based on qualified immunity affirmed in Fourth Amendment claim arising out of fatal police shooting where an objectively reasonable officer standing in defendant’s shoes “would have thought it appropriate to deploy deadly force against an armed man who, after a nearly three-and-one-half-hour standoff in which he was repeatedly warned to drop his weapon, persisted in pointing a loaded semi-automatic firearm narrowly above the heads of three officers and within easy firing range”
- US Supreme Court: Cert. granted in case to decide the following questions presented: (1) Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 2nd Circuit erred in rejecting the Supreme Court’s state actor tests and instead creating a per se rule that private operators of public access channels are state actors subject to constitutional liability; and (2) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit erred in holding—contrary to the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 6th and District of Columbia Circuits—that private entities operating public access television stations are state actors for constitutional purposes where the state has no control over the private entity’s board or operations
- MHRC: October 22, 2018, Meeting Agenda and Consent Agenda posted
- MHRC: November 19, 2018, Meeting Agenda posted
Monday, October 8, 2018
- Law Court: Oral arguments scheduled for October 11th include Pen-18-10 (challenge to jury instructions in medical malpractice claim that resulted in $2 million plaintiff’s verdict); and Was-18-28 (challenge to application of Maine Equine Activities Act resulting in summary judgment for defendant in personal injury action resulting from collision with horse)
- US DOJ: Revamped website for technical assistance materials
- MHRC: October 22nd Commission Meeting Agenda posted
