It’s a perfect example of being caught between a rock and a hard place – or, in this case, jury duty and a work place. If you’re fired for a jury duty-related work absence, whether you have any recourse depends on whether you are summoned to jury duty in New York or federal court. As explained…
Read More Call of (Jury) Duty: Your Rights as an Employee-Juror in New YorkA recent case, Antolino v. Distribution Management Consolidators Worldwide, illustrates the breadth of the New York Labor Law when it comes to protecting employees who are subjected to retaliation for alleging the failure to pay wages. There, the court denied defendant’s motion to dismiss under CPLR 3211(a)(7), and held that the plaintiff (defendant’s senior vice…
Read More Plaintiff Sufficiently Alleged Retaliation For Opposing Employer’s Deprivation of WagesAn upstate trial court recently held, in King v. Cornell University, that defendant Cornell University was not entitled to summary judgment in a lawsuit brought by the parents of an intoxicated student (Khalil Jamal Godfrey King) who died after falling from a 200-foot tall cliff into the Fall Creek gorge on Cornell’s campus. The (tragic) facts,…
Read More Lawsuit Against Cornell Can Continue; Drunk Student Was Not “Hiking” When He Fell Off CliffHere and below is the letter recently filed by the attorney for plaintiffs Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera in their sexual harassment lawsuit against Vito Lopez and Sheldon Silver. It responds to Silver’s letter in which he outlines his proposed motion to dismiss the case. As to their Section 1983 claims, plaintiffs contend, in part: Silver contends that plaintiffs’…
Read More Plaintiffs Submit Further Details and Argument Supporting Claims Against Sheldon Silver in Vito Lopez Sexual Harassment CaseIn Muktadir v. Bevacco Inc., the Eastern District of New York recently denied defendants’ motion to dismiss in its entirety, holding that the plaintiff’ (who is represented by my colleague Bryan Arce) “easily satisf[ied]” the pleading standard for his race discrimination, national origin discrimination, religious discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, and individual liability claims. As to…
Read More Federal Judge Denies “Patently Meritless Motion” to Dismiss Discrimination, Hostile Work Environment, and Retaliation ClaimsLast week an upstate trial court granted petitioner’s request to undo his termination for drinking on the job. The decision is Peterson v. City of Poughkeepsie. Petitioner Carleton Peterson was employed by the City of Poughkeepsie as a Street Supervisor. On Christmas Eve 2009, while working his shift from 7:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., petitioner was…
Read More Court Rules That Termination for Drinking at Work Was Too Harsh a PenaltyThe Second Circuit, in Isabella v. Koubek, recently certified a question to the New York Court of Appeals involving an apparent conflict between two statutes: Section 29(6) of New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law, which provides that workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy of an employee injured by his co-employee’s negligence, and Section 388 of New…
Read More When Cars, and Laws, CollideIn St. Jean v. Orient-Express Hotels, decided August 7, 2013, the Southern District of New York explained when an entity that is not the plaintiff’s “direct” employer is nevertheless liable for violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court held that plaintiff adequately alleged that the defendant, while not her…
Read More Recent Decision Clarifies “Joint” and “Single” Employer LiabilityA recent SDNY decision, Stein v. Guardsmark LLC, explains how employers may comply with the “fluctuating workweek” method of paying overtime. Plaintiff Esther Stein served as the secretary to the president (defendant Ira A. Lipman) of defendant Guardsmark, which provides private security services. She claimed that she was denied overtime premiums to which she was…
Read More Court Rules That Defendant Correctly Paid Plaintiff Under the “Fluctuating Workweek” MethodBelow is the complaint recently filed by plaintiff John Gorman against Coviden Sales, LLC and Dale Kelly. Plaintiff alleges that he was treated unfairly and subjected to discrimination based on his disability, namely, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Specifically, plaintiff claims that after telling defendant Kelly that he is a Navy Veteran who served in Operation Desert Storm and…
Read More PTSD Disability Discrimination Lawsuit