Recent Employment Law Decisions

In an action raising claims of retaliation and a hostile work environment, summary judgment in favor of plaintiff's former employer is affirmed where: 1) the company did not retaliate against plaintiff for filing the discrimination charge when it eliminated her position as it was eliminated by a company-wide restructuring; 2) although plaintiff claims that the company also retaliated against her when it did not hire her for one of the open positions after the restructuring, it hired the person who had previously held the position; and 3) the relatively isolated gender-based comments and remarks plaintiff's supervisor directed toward her were not sufficiently severe or pervasive to rise to the level of a hostile work environment.     

Scruggs v. Garst Seed Co., No. 07-2266

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division

Decided November 20, 2009

Judges

Before:  Bauer, Wood, and Williams, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Williams, Circuit Judge

District court's judgment in favor of plaintiff in his ERISA suit against his former employer's retirement plan is affirmed as defendant's rejection of plaintiff's claim was not substantially justified in reducing his benefits under the 1997 amendment after he transferred from the United Kingdom to the US affiliate.   

Read Bandak v. Eli Lilly, No. 09-1620

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division

Decided November 18, 2009

Judges

Before:  Posner, Rovner, and Williams, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Posner, Circuit Judge

In plaintiff's second employment discrimination suit against the Chicago Police Department (CPD) claiming retaliation and sex discrimination, summary judgment in favor of CPD is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff provided insufficient evidence that she suffered an adverse employment action because she engaged in statutorily protected activity by direct method of proof that either of her two actionable transfers occurred because of her prior lawsuit or her 2006 grievance; 2) plaintiff did not provide sufficient evidence to establish a causal connection under the indirect method of proof; and 3) plaintiff failed on her sex discrimination claim for the same reason as her retaliation claim, as she failed to adduce any evidence indicating that her actionable transfers were because of her sex.     

Read O'Neal v. City of Chicago, No. 09-1716

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Decided November 17, 2009

Judges

Before:   Bauer, Wood, and Williams, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Bauer, Circuit Judge

In plaintiff's ERISA suit against the Illinois CPA Society & Foundation Retirement Income Plan (Plan) for denying his request for a lump-sum distribution, district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants is affirmed where: 1) the district court applied the correct standard of review to both the administrator's interpretation of the terms of the Plan and the legal determination of whether the plan violated the anti-cutback provisions of ERISA; 2) administrator's interpretation of the plan such that a lump-sum benefits was not available to plaintiff prior to Amendment One is well-reasoned and not arbitrary and capricious; 3) Amendment One did not eliminate an "optional form of benefit" and does not violate ERISA's anti-cutback provision because the plan participants were not entitled, under the Plan, to a lump-sum distribution; and 4) administrator's decision to deny a lump-sum distribution to plaintiff was not arbitrary and capricious as it would have put the Plan in deficit and would have violated the Internal Revenue Code, thus risking the tax status of the plan for all of its participants.     

Read Wetzler v. Illinois CPA Soc'y & Found., No. 08-2923

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois

Decided November 10, 2009

Judges

Before:  Kanne and Manion, Circuit Judges, and Kendall, District Judge

Opinion by Manion, Circuit Judge

In plaintiff's breach of employment contract case against his former employer over stock option purchase dispute, district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff is affirmed as the employment contract unambiguously allows plaintiff to exercise all of the shares he accumulated during his 25-month tenure with the company, and as such, he is entitled to exercise option to purchase 138,900 shares of the company stock, not 34,722 shares.   

Read Lewitton v. ITA Software, Inc., No. 08-3725

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Decided October 28, 2009

Judges

Before: Bauer, Kanne, and Evans, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Evans, Circuit Judge

In plaintiff-police officer's ADA claim against defendant-village, dismissal of his case on the ground of judicial estoppel is affirmed where: 1) to succeed on an ADA claim, a plaintiff must show that with or without reasonable accommodations, he can perform the essential functions of his job; and 2) here, accepting plaintiff's sworn testimony before the pension board as true, the court could not see how he could perform essential police functions with or without accommodations. 

Read Butler v. Village of Round Lake Police Dep't, No. 08-3856

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Decided October 27, 2009

Judges

Before:  Posner, Manion, and Evans, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Evans, Circuit Judge

In plaintiffs' ERISA action against the Pension Fund claiming that they should have received pension credit for the time they spent as instructors at a Chicago trade school, district court's grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment is affirmed as the plan language provides for pension credit only if an employer has made contributions to the fund on an employee's behalf.     

Read Perry v. Sheet Metal Worker's Local No. 73 Pension Fund, No. 08-2024

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division

Decided October 27, 2009

Judges

Before:  Easterbrook, Chief Judge, and Williams and Sykes, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Williams, Circuit Judge

In plaintiff's employment discrimination and retaliation action against her former employer, summary judgment in favor of defendant is affirmed where, because plaintiff failed to present evidence that defendant acted with retaliatory intent when it fired her, a jury could not infer that defendant fired her because she took FMLA leave.  

Read Long v. Teachers' Ret. Sys. of State of Illinois, No. 10/23/09

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois

Decided October 23, 2009

Judges

Before:  Easterbrook, Chief Judge, and Sykes, Circuit Judge, and Kendall, District Judge

Opinion by Kendall, District Judge

In plaintiff's disability discrimination action against his former employer, district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant-employer is affirmed in part, reversed and vacated in part, and remanded where: 1) the disability-discrimination claim is remanded as although, plaintiff's impairments are not sufficient to show that he is disabled, the record contains adequate evidence to support a theory that defendant regarded him as being disabled in the major life activities of walking, caring for himself, and speaking; 2) district court's summary judgment on the reasonable-accommodation claim is affirmed; 3) district court's denial of plaintiff's motion to compel discovery on certain issues is reversed; and 4) award of sanctions are vacated because the magistrate judge unreasonably imposed them in response to plaintiff's discovery requests.   

Read Brunker v. Schwan's Home Serv., Inc., No. 07-3183

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division

Argued September 16, 2009
Decided October 22, 2009

Judges

Before:  Cudahy, Flaum, and Rovner, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Rovner, Circuit Judge

In plaintiffs' lawsuit against various Illinois state officials arising from termination of their employment with the Illinois Department of Corrections after a change in the governing party, district court's summary judgment in favor of the defendants is affirmed where: 1) summary judgment on the First Amendment claims was appropriate as the witness's statement that voting records were accessed and used in certain personnel decision is inadmissible hearsay; and 2) due process claims were properly rejected as plaintiffs have no evidence of improper motive in interpreting personnel rules to support their claim that only they or only Republican employees were singled out for the new personnel policy. 

Read Gunville v. Walker, No. 08-1035

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois

Argued January 9, 2009
Decided October 9, 2009

Judges

Before:  Manion, Rovner, and Sykes, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Rovner, Circuit Judge