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 15, 2014
- First Circuit: In dismissing medical malpractice action as untimely under two-year limitations period under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the court held that “due diligence” (necessary for equitable tolling) by attorneys bringing medical malpractice cases requires that they investigate whether doctors who work at facilities that appear to be nongovernmental are nevertheless deemed federal employees (here pursuant to the Federally Supported Health Centers Assistance Act of 1992), which may include searching the DHHS database, bphc.hrsa.gov/ftca/healthcenters/ftcahcdeemedentitysearch.html
- Law Court: Opinion holds that email may satisfy the signed writing requirement of the statute of frauds
- Seventh Circuit: In reversing summary judgment, court held that there was sufficient evidence that employer failed to properly engage in the interactive process as required by the ADA, and terminated employee because of disability, when it fired night-shift employee, who had been falling asleep on the job, after receiving a form from her doctor marked “yes” by the box asking if she had a mental or physical disability covered under the ADA, recommended periods of scheduled rest, and wrote “add’n medical work up in progress” at the bottom of the form (employer argued that the form was insufficient to establish that employee had a disability)
- Sixth Circuit: In reversing summary judgment for employer on §1983, Title VII, and ADEA claim, court found sufficient level of “objective intolerability” to constitute “adverse employment action” when employee was transferred without loss of pay or demotion to position in which the air quality was likened to “sticking your head in an exhaust pipe” and that the transfer was “adverse” despite employee applying for it
Monday, January 13, 2014
- US Supreme Court: SCOTUSblog summarizes eight cases in which certiorari was granted Friday, including one addressing an individual’s or company’s right to bring a private lawsuit challenging misleading food or beverage labels and one on patent infringement inducement liability
- Maine Legislature: Public hearing scheduled for Tuesday, January 21, 2014, 1:00 PM, Labor, Commerce, Research and Economic Development Committee, Cross Building Room 208, on LD 1659, An Act To Amend the Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, which would prohibit a person from posting online reviews that disparage or praise goods, services or a business if that person is paid or contracted to disparage or praise the goods, services or business and by prohibiting a person from paying for such reviews
- HUD: Press release announces consent order in which landlord agrees to pay $20,000 to resolve Fair Housing Act complaint alleging failure to accommodate tenant’s disability by refusing to waive a policy requiring that the tenant live in her apartment for six months before she could add someone to the lease, when tenant needed live-in caretaker for her disability
Friday, January 10, 2014
- Maine Legislature: Public hearing scheduled for Thursday, January 16, 2014, 1:00 PM, Judiciary Committee, State House, Room 438, on proposed Committee amendment to LD 1428, An Act to Protect Religious Freedom, which would provide a defense (allowing recovery of compensatory damages and attorney’s fees) to any claim brought under any state or local law (including the Maine Human Rights Act) that burdens a person’s exercise of religion or proposes to burden a person’s exercise of religion unless the person bringing the claim that burdens religion can prove the state law is “essential to further a compelling governmental interest” and is “the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest”
- US District Court ME: Magistrate Judge recommends dismissal without prejudice of prisoner/in forma pauperis plaintiff’s equal protection selective prosecution claim (alleging probation officers charged prisoner with probation violation on the basis of race) because, under the rationale of Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994), prisoner/in forma pauperis plaintiff must obtain relief from the sentencing court before proceeding with his civil action
Thursday, January 9, 2014
- Seventh Circuit: In reversing summary judgment for employer on Title VII race discrimination and retaliation claims, the court held that waitress floor assignments in less advantageous tip areas constitute “adverse employment actions” and that explanation for the assignments was potentially an after-the-fact justification that could be a pretext for discrimination because plaintiffs had not heard the explanation prior to the lawsuit
- Press Herald: Maine town answers lawsuit over police shooting death
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
- Second Circuit: In affirming jury verdict under §1983 for white employee against municipality for harassment and termination because of his romantic relationship with African-American woman, court of appeals breaks from First Circuit and holds that engagement to marry is entitled to protections similar to those that marital relationships enjoy under the constitutional right to intimate association
- US Dept of Justice: ADA Mediation Program issues two guidance documents describing free mediations by trained professional mediators in ADA disputes under title II (state and local government services) and title III (public accommodations)
- NLRB: The National Labor Relations Board issues notice of decision not to seek Supreme Court review of two U.S. Court of Appeals decisions invalidating the NLRB’s Notice Posting Rule, which would have required most private sector employers to post a notice of employee rights in the workplace
Friday, January 3, 2014
- 10th Circuit: opinion reverses summary judgment for defendants on First Amendment and Equal Protection claims arising out of sexual harassment allegation against judge
- US Dept of Labor: biweekly newsletter includes link to the Department’s top 10 most popular blog posts of 2013
- Maine Women’s Lobby: posts December news
Thursday, January 2, 2014
- US District Court ME: Magistrate Judge recommends Social Security Disability decision be vacated because administrative law judge improperly discounted effects of fibromyalgia
- US District Court ME: Magistrate Judge recommends Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income decision be vacated because administrative law judge impermissibly determined restrictions stemming from fibromyalgia based on her own assessment of the raw medical evidence
- US District Court ME: Magistrate Judge grants motion to amend complaint two weeks after amendment deadline to include claim under 26 MRSA §811, finding the state statute prohibits an employer from denying a promotion to an employee because the employee took a military leave of absence
