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.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
- First Circuit: In affirming $50,000 jury verdict in 4th Amendment claim arising out of warrantless entry into home, the court found that officer was not entitled to qualified immunity because she was indisputably engaged in an ongoing criminal investigation when the warrantless search occurred, and the community caretaking exception thus did not apply; and affirmed $134,642.35 attorney’s fee award despite trial court’s use of an an across-the-board hourly rate for plaintiff’s attorneys, rather than a rate that distinguished between core and non-core functions
- First Circuit: In reversing dismissal of employee’s breach of contract claim under Labor Management Relations Act, the court held that plaintiff was not required to exhaust procedures in collective bargaining agreement because he, the union, and employer had signed a memorandum of understanding (a “last chance agreement”) that waived, for a twelve-month period, use of the CBA’s grievance and arbitration procedures if he were terminated for violating employer’s generally applicable work standards
- Ninth Circuit: Following administrative law judge’s ruling that school district’s proposed IEP was inadequate because it did not provide a legally adequate way for student with disabilities to receive g-tube feedings, the court reversed and remanded trial court’s rejection of parents’ $1.4 million application for attorney’s fees, finding that the relief obtained through the ALJ’s decision was more favorable to the parents than the offer of settlement and that the parents were substantially justified in rejecting the offer (the IDEA otherwise disallows the recovery of attorney’s fees)
- HUD: proposed Gender Identity Rule would require recipients and sub-recipients of assistance from HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development, as well as owners, operators, and managers of shelters, buildings, and facilities with shared sleeping quarters or shared bathing facilities to provide transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth with access to programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity
- EEOC: Annual Performance and Accountability Report cites that 44 percent of conciliations were successfully resolved and the EEOC filed 142 lawsuits alleging discrimination during fiscal year 2015
- US DOJ: McDonald’s will pay $355,000 in civil penalties for longstanding practice of requiring lawful permanent residents to show a new permanent resident card when their original document expired when it did not make the equivalent request to its U.S. citizen employees who showed documents that later expired
- Bangor Daily: Jury awards Rockport man $155,000 in motorcycle crash
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
- First Circuit: Court granted summary judgment on Title VII disparate impact claim because defendants presented legitimate business justifications for their actions and plaintiffs did not meet their burden of showing defendants refused to adopt an available alternative employment practice that had less disparate impact and served the employer’s legitimate needs
- US District Court ME: The court dismissed equal protection complaint by charter school student who was denied participation on public middle school basketball team under Pullman abstention principles, concluding “that substantial uncertainty exists over the meaning of a state law and that settling the state law question may well obviate the need to resolve a significant federal constitutional question”
- MHRC: December 14th Commission Meeting Agenda posted
- EEOC: $45,000 settlement reached in Title VII Pregnancy Discrimination Act claim that restaurant fired pregnant employee for refusing to provide a doctor’s release indicating that her pregnancy was not “high-risk”
- Bangor Daily: Maine man says railway fired him for seeking longer cancer treatment leave
- MPBN: Maine High Court Sets New Standard for Whistleblower Cases
Saturday, November 14, 2015
- Law Court: The court eliminated the McDonnell Douglas framework from summary judgment analysis in Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act cases; and held that plaintiff had presented sufficient evidence of a WPA violation based on differential treatment, a disproportionate response, and an inference that the decisionmaker knew about plaintiff’s WPA-protected activity, even though there was no “temporal proximity” between the protected activity and the adverse job action (a nearly two-year gap)
- Law Court: The court denied Rule 60(b)(4) motion to set aside judgment as void despite argument that plaintiff had lacked standing, which is an issue of justiciability, not jurisdiction
- Law Court: The court affirmed denial of motion for new trial following jury verdict for defendant on negligence claim arising out of tree-cutting accident, finding there was sufficient evidence that plaintiff was at least as negligent as defendant
- EEOC: $206,500 settlement reached in case alleging law enforcement agency found officers unfit for duty solely because they were pregnant
- Bangor Daily: Family sues school district for denying charter student chance to play basketball
- Kennebec Journal: Winslow man says Pan Am fired him for medical leave request
- NY Times: Maine: Anti-Abortion Protester Faces Lawsuit Over Loud Protests
Friday, November 6, 2015
- Law Court: Following $50,000 jury verdict in lawsuit brought by wife against husband for injuries sustained in car accident, the court held that husband’s insurer was only entitled to deduct from judgment advance payments for wife’s medical expenses ($5,619.69) to the extent they were made based on the liability provisions of the policy, not those based on the medical payments provisions
- Law Court: Following judgment for property owner in bank’s foreclosure action in which bank failed to provide adequate notice of default, the court held that adequate notice is a substantive element of proof in a foreclosure action, the judgment was therefore a judgment on the merits, and the trial court erred by reserving the bank’s right to relitigate the same issues in a subsequent foreclosure action
- US District Court ME: The court granted homeowner’s insurer’s motion for summary judgment in declaratory judgment action alleging that insurer had no duty to defend alleged sexual abuser in state court action, finding allegations fit within exclusions for bodily injuries expected or intended by an insured (based on offensive, nonmutual collateral estoppel from prior criminal convictions), and bodily injuries arising from sexual molestation
- US District Court ME: The court denied defendant’s motion for attorney’s fees under Lanham Act following dismissal of complaint for lack of standing
- Press Herald: Maine activist who accused orphanage founder of molestation denied new trial
- Bangor Daily: Committee endorses Penobscot County prosecutor to be District Court judge
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
- NY Times: Illinois District Violated Transgender Student’s Rights, U.S. Says
- NY Times: Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against Disabled
- Time: I Am Proof That Bathrooms Should Be Gender-Free
- Bangor Daily: Jury finds Rumford Hospital discriminated against nurse
- US District Court ME: The court denied post-trial motions to alter $14.5 million jury verdict in defamation action, including $5 million in presumed damages; and, on plaintiff’s challenge to court’s decision to dismiss punitive damages claim with prejudice following plaintiff’s counsel informing court during trial that it was “not going to pursue punitive damages,” declined to change dismissal to without prejudice unless the verdicts are substantially revised on appeal
- First Circuit: The court held that gun shop’s imposition of storage fees and sale of firearms owned by plaintiff charged with domestic violence was not “state action” under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 despite the fact that gun shop was acting under authority of state law
Friday, October 30, 2015
- Sixth Circuit: En banc court reversed summary judgment for defendants and entered it for plaintiffs in First Amendment lawsuit brought by evangelical plaintiffs who were removed by defendant police officers from Arab Festival after crowd started hurling bottles at them for speaking, wearing t-shirts, and carrying banners highly offensive to the predominantly Muslim crowd–speech did not fit within the exceptions of “incitement” because there was no evidence plaintiffs subjectively intended to spur the audience to violence or “fighting words” because it was directed at the crowd and not any particular individual
- MHRC: According to its 2015 Annual Report, although only 15% of the cases voted on by the Maine Human Rights Commission had “reasonable grounds” to believe that unlawful discrimination occurred, 57% of the 667 cases closed had merit, including 155 pre-determination settlements (or withdrawals with benefits to the complainant), 185 right-to-sue letters, 35 reasonable-grounds case votes, eight post-reasonable grounds conciliation agreements, and six post-conciliation settlements
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment denied in defamation action where defendant published statement that plaintiff was “convicted of cheating a former partner out of $1.0 million,” but plaintiff had in fact not been charged criminally but found to have committed fraud in a civil action
- EEOC: Proposed rule, which amends the regulations implementing Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, clarifies the types of incentives an employer may offer to an employee whose spouse is covered under the employee’s health plan for providing information about his or her current or past health status
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
- Law Court: Oral arguments scheduled for November 3-5 include Yor-14-554 Bruce Plante et al. v. Ronald P. Long, a libel suit brought by a town fire chief and assistant fire chief against a resident, which will decide whether the Superior Court erred in denying defendant’s anti-SLAPP motion to dismiss because the motion was untimely and it was unclear if the plaintiffs’ claims were barred
- MHRC: November 23rd Agenda posted
- Press Herald: Maine Human Rights Commission postpones vote on BIW discrimination complaints
- Bangor Daily: Brooks woman sues trooper, alleging he kicked in her door
Friday, October 23, 2015
- HUD: Proposed rule defines “quid pro quo” and “hostile environment harassment” as prohibited under the Fair Housing Act (FHA), adds illustrations of discriminatory housing practices that constitute such harassment, and clarifies the operation of traditional principles of direct and vicarious liability under the FHA
- First Circuit: The court affirmed summary judgment for employer on Age Discrimination in Employment Act claim because, although plaintiff’s affidavit stated that “several younger directors with less experience and seniority were not fired,” she did not provide their ages or show that the retained employees were “significantly younger”
- Law Court: In affirming 12(b)(6) dismissal of Maine and federal constitutional claims arising out of “Stop Work” order issued by municipal code enforcement officer, the court held the complaint failed to allege that the CEO’s actions were taken pursuant to a municipal policy (thus there was no municipal liability), failed to pursue available administrative relief by appealing the CEO’s order to the town Board of Appeals, and failed to allege that plaintiff faced discriminatory treatment as compared with others who were similarly situated
- EEOC: Jury awards $240,000 to two Somalian-American Muslims who were fired from their jobs as truck drivers when they refused to transport alcohol because it violated their religious beliefs
- Press Herald: Maine rights panel to hear arguments on BIW workers’ bias complaints
- MPBN: Portland Settles Lawsuit Filed by Anti-Abortion Activists
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
- Maine Legislature: Effective October 15, 2015, new law, “Employee Social Media Privacy,” prohibits employers from requiring employees or applicants to disclose personal social media account information, provide passwords, otherwise allow access to, add the employer or others to contacts associated with, or change settings that affect a 3rd party’s ability to view personal social media account information
- Maine Legislature: Effective October 15, 2015, remedies are increased for violations of Maine’s law prohibiting employers from denying leave to or sanctioning victims of domestic abuse
- US District Court ME: Magistrate Judge recommended remand of removed forcible entry and detainer action brought by Florida plaintiff against Maine Defendant where plaintiff’s claim for the possession of property did not satisfy the amount in controversy requirement for diversity jurisdiction
- Press Herald: Alleging sexual harassment, Waterville woman sues T-Mobile
