Corporate, Litigation, and Labor & Employment Lawyers

Honolulu and Hilo, HI

Hawaii Employment Law Cases June 25, 2017 to July 1, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Employee who does not consent to arbitration policy by continuing employment has no claim for injunction, monetary relief or declaration arbitration is unlawful, but may have claim for nominal damages.  Bayer v. Neiman Marcus Group, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 11294 (9th Cir. June 26, 2017).

District Court improperly granted summary judgment against ADEA constructive discharge claim, because former employee offered evidence: (1) he was subjected to years of age-related harassment by supervisor; (2) management did not act upon employee’s regular complaints about harassment; (3) supervisor violated a directive not to communicate with employees like him by yelling age-related comments and striking a coworker in front of him; (4) employer did not terminate the supervisor after incident, even though a manager's comments acknowledged supervisor might act violently again; and (5) employee resigned one month after reporting the incident, and four days after he learned supervisor would still work near employee and in a similar position to one the supervisor held when he began harassing employee.  Sorenson v. City of Caldwell, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 11324 (9th Cir. June 26, 2017).

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