In Light v. Pepperidge Farm, Inc., 2024 WL 1703714 (N.D.Tex. April 19, 2024), the court dismissed plaintiff’s negligence claim with prejudice, holding that said claim was preempted by federal law – namely, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The court explained that “[a] state law claim is preempted by a federal statute when the gravamen of a plaintiff’s complaint is of the type of wrong that the statutory remedy was meant to cover” and that “[d]iscrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment are the type of wrong that Title VII was meant to cover, and therefore, liability for employment discrimination and retaliation is limited to the statutory scheme provided by Title VII.” [Internal quotation marks omitted.]
While the parties agreed on these points, they disagreed as to whether the negligence claim was sufficiently intertwined with plaintiff’s Title VII claims to warrant preemption.
In addressing this issue, the court cited the following allegations from plaintiff’s complaint:
17. Prior to shifting to a discriminatory and hostile work environment, Plaintiff experienced negligence on the part of Defendant. Defendants working at location, made it clear with verbal threats that they would hurt Plaintiff. Plaintiff reported these verbal threats that promised violence to Defendant. Plaintiff made Defendant aware of non-safe and dangerous work environment.
18. Defendant did nothing to correct the dangerous work environment. As a result, Plaintiff’s non-safe work environment escalated into threats, harassment, and discrimination.
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35. Defendant owed Plaintiff a legal duty to provide a safe work environment free from dangerous and threatening work environment.
36. Defendant breached this duty when it initially heard about the dangerous and non-safe work environment and verbal threats of violence towards Plaintiff. Defendant knew that Plaintiff was dealing with a dangerous and unsafe work environment but did nothing. Instead, Defendant let it occur until it rose pass common law negligence. This lack of enforcement became the proximate cause of injury to Plaintiff by paving the way for discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment.
Based on these allegations, the court held that plaintiff’s “negligence claim is inextricably linked to his discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment claims under Title VII,” warranting dismissal of that claim with prejudice.