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Hawaii Employment Law Cases December 3, 2017 to December 9, 2017

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Exhaustion and fair representation required.  District Court did not err dismissing claim for breach of the collective bargaining agreement, because former employee did not exhaust grievance procedure or claim the union breached its duty of fair representation.  Kuang v. Bel Air Mart, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 24851 (9th Cir. Dec. 8, 2017).

Adverse action began before complaint.  District Court did not err granting summary judgment against claim employee was fired in retaliation for filing discrimination charge.  Employer placed employee on performance improvement plan before employee filed charge and fired him for failing to improve five months after receiving notice of the charge.   Graham v. Mirage Casino-Hotel, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 24769 (9th Cir. Dec. 7, 2017).

U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii

Untimely claims.  District Court dismissed claims for disparate treatment and retaliation based on discrete actions occurring more than 300 days before employee filed charge of discrimination as time barred.  Employee failed to state timely discrimination, retaliation or hostile work environment claims.  Dixon v. Hawaii, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200175 (D. Haw. Dec. 5, 2017).

Note: We analyze cases to learn rules courts will follow or disappoint us if they do not. Rules courts follow allow us to behave and provide explanations they accept. Competent advocates may limit the rules to the facts of the case that discuss them, or expand the rules by showing differences in other cases are irrelevant.