Saturday, March 5, 2022
- White House: President signs “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021,” which invalidates predispute arbitration agreements that preclude a party from filing a lawsuit in court involving sexual assault or sexual harassment, at the election of the party alleging such conduct
- First Circuit: Otherwise untimely § 1983 claims of racial discrimination in connection with plaintiff’s injuries and job assignments were saved by the “continuing violation theory” because timely termination claim was part of the same allegedly unlawful employment practice (but summary judgment was affirmed on other ground)
- First Circuit: Summary judgment for employer reversed on Title VII retaliation claim where jury could find that plaintiff did not resign by requesting severance package proposal and defendant pretextually terminated her employment by treating her as if she did; but summary judgment for employer affirmed on sexual harassment claim where employer conducted an adequate investigation into harassment complaint even though it did not ask plaintiff whether she provided a contemporaneous account of the harassment to anyone outside the workplace
- First Circuit: District Court judge acted within his discretion in rejecting advisory jury’s verdict that Title VII plaintiff was constructively discharged from employment
- First Circuit: “Brand Representatives” for marketing company fell within outside sales exemption in Fair Labor Standards Act
- US District Court ME: Post-discovery motion to take out-of-state witness’s trial deposition via videoconferencing from another state under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 43(a) denied where party had opportunity to depose witness during discovery and did not do so
- US District Court ME: Although physical inspection of plaintiff’s computers and servers may provide some additional benefit compared with inspection of forensic images, the benefit is outweighed by the burden such a physical inspection would impose on the plaintiffs under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(b)(1)
- US District Court ME: Plaintiff’s Maine Human Rights Act claim that he was fired because of his age under circumstances calculated to deny him a contractually-required severance was not preempted by ERISA
- US District Court ME: 2014, 2018, and 2020 incidents committed by different employees were part of the same racially “hostile work environment,” saving plaintiff’s claims related to the 2014 and 2018 incidents from dismissal for failure to exhaust administrative remedies, where plaintiff alleged that higher-ups failed to properly respond to all three
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment denied on Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act claim where alleged protected reporting may have been at least partially motivated to expose an unknown or concealed safety issue even if it may also have been both self-serving and done as part of her job duties
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment denied on disability employment discrimination claim by former scaffold employee with heart condition that could cause syncope where genuine issues of fact existed on essential job functions and feasibility of precautions to reduce safety risks
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment based on qualified immunity denied on Fourth Amendment (and Maine Tort Claims Act) claim against police officer who fatally shot man carrying a BB gun
- US District Court ME: Motion to compel arbitration of employment discrimination and ERISA claims granted
- EEOC: Report issued on workers age 40 and over in the federal workforce
- MHRC: March 14th Commission Meeting Agenda posted