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
