Case Analysis
Chapter 2
The Employment Law Toolkit: Resources for Understanding the Law and Recurring Legal Concepts
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Learning Objectives
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
LO1 Understand how to read and digest legal cases and citations.
LO2 Explain and distinguish the concepts of stare decisis and precedent.
LO3 Evaluate whether an employee is an at–will employee.
LO4 Determine if an at–will employee has sufficient basis for wrongful discharge.
LO5 Recite and explain at least three exceptions to employment–at–will.
LO6 Distinguish between disparate impact and disparate treatment discrimination claims.
LO7 Provide several bases for employer defenses to employment discrimination claims.
LO8 Determine if there is sufficient basis for a retaliation claim by an employee.
LO9 Identify sources for further legal information and resources.
Opening Scenarios
SCENARIO 1
Mark Richter is about to retire as head of sales for the company he has been with all his work life, starting out as a copper pot washer, when he closes on a deal his candy company has been trying to land for a long time. Just before Mark is to collect his substantial commission on the sale from his employer, he is terminated for no reason. Does Mark have a basis on which to sue for unlawful termination?
SCENARIO 2
Jenna Zitron informs her employer that she has been summoned to serve jury duty for a week. Though rescheduling her duties is not a problem for the employer, Jenna is told by her employer that if she serves jury duty rather than trying to be relieved of it, she will be terminated. Jenna refuses to lie to the court in order to be relieved of jury duty. She is terminated. Does Jenna have a basis on which to sue for unlawful termination?
SCENARIO 3
Demetria, 5 feet, 2 inches tall, 120 pounds, applies for a position with her local police department. When the department sees that she is applying for a position as a police officer, it refuses to take her application, saying that she doesn’t meet the department’s requirement of being at least 5 feet, 4 inches tall and at least 130 pounds. Is the department’s policy legal?
SCENARIO 4
Jill, an interviewer for a large business firm, receives a letter from a consulting firm inviting her to attend a seminar on Title VII issues. Jill feels she doesn’t need to go since all she does is
interview applicants, who are then hired by someone else in the firm. Is Jill correct?
Introduction
We understand that while this is a legal textbook, it is not a textbook intended to create or enlighten lawyers. In fact, some of you may never have taken a law course before. Thus, we thought it might be useful to take some time up front to introduce you to helpful information that will make your legal journey easier. Throughout the text we have taken out much of the legalese that tends to stump our target readers and have tried to make the legal concepts as accessible as we can for the non–legal audience. In this chapter, we offer several tools, both procedural and substantive, to help you navigate the text. As a procedural matter, we offer a guide to how to read cases as well as understanding what it takes to have a legally recognized cause of action. Regarding substantive issues, since several of the substantive issues you will face in the chapters ahead will use information that is based on the same legal concepts, rather than repeat the information in each chapter’s discussion, we explain the concept once in this “toolkit” chapter you can use to refer back to later if necessary. There is a corresponding toolkit icon used throughout the text. When you see the toolkit icon, know that the text is discussing information that has been covered in this toolkit chapter. If you need to, refer to this chapter to refresh your recollection.
See Chapter 2 to revisit key concepts.
Part one explains how to read the cases and a couple of important concepts to keep in mind for all legal cases. Part two provides information on the substantive concept of employment–at– will, part three discusses the theoretical bases for all substantive employment discrimination actions, and part four describes legal resources for searching for further legal information.
Guide to Reading Cases
Thank you very much to the several students who have contacted us and asked that we improve your understanding of the text by including a guide to reading and understanding the cases. We consider the cases an important and integral part of the chapters. By viewing the court decisions included in the text, you get to see for yourself what the court considers important when deciding a given issue. This in turn gives you as a decision maker insight into what you need to keep in mind when making decisions on similar issues in the workplace. The more you know about how a court thinks about issues that may end up in litigation, the better you can avoid litigation altogether. In order to tell you about how to view the cases for better understanding, we have to give you a little background on the legal system. Hopefully, it will only be a refresher of your previous law or civics courses.
Stare Decisis and Precedent
LO2 Explain and distinguish the concepts of stare decisis and precedent.
The American legal system is based on stare decisis, a system of using legal precedent from prior cases to determine what happens in the case now before the court. Once a judge renders a decision in a case, the decision is generally written and placed in a law reporter and must be followed in that jurisdiction when other similar cases arise. Through the process of stare decisis, the case thus becomes precedent found in a court reporter when future cases arise involving that issue. It is court reporters that you usually see as the matching sets of books in law offices on TV shows and in movies. Now you know why you see them there. They are where lawyers go to find the precedent for the cases they are involved in. stare decisis Latin for “to stand by a decision.” Process of a court using prior decisions to determine the decision for the case before it.
legal precedent
Court opinions from cases that have already been decided that are used to determine similar cases later.
law reporter
Book in which court opinions are placed.
Our court systems are either state or federal. State courts hear violations of state laws, which vary from state to state, while federal courts generally hear cases based on federal laws, which apply to all states. Most of the cases in our chapters are from federal courts since most of the topics we discuss are based on federal law. Federal courts consist of trial courts (called the U.S. District Court for a particular district), courts of appeal (called the U.S. Circuit Court for a particular circuit), and the U.S. Supreme Court. Trial courts have one judge and, if the parties request, a jury. The court and jury hear the witnesses testify and evaluate the evidence allowed by the judge to be presented. The jury decides facts based on the witnesses and evidence, and the judge determines the law and procedural matters. Once the decision is made, the judge writes the decision, which then becomes precedent for later cases in that jurisdiction. The circuit courts of appeal cases are appeals from the district court when one or both of the parties allege that legal error was committed by the trial court. Circuit court appeals are generally heard by three–judge panels, with one judge writing the decision for the majority of the court. If a judge wishes to do so, he or she may write a concurring opinion to go along with the majority, or, if the judge disagrees, he or she may write a dissenting opinion. These majority decisions are then precedent for all courts in that circuit, including the district courts within the circuit. If a circuit court case is particularly novel and a party disagrees with the court’s decision, the party can request a rehearing en banc, in which all of the circuit court page 54judges for a jurisdiction rehear the case and make a decision, rather than simply a three–judge panel. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over certain types of cases, most of its decisions are generally appeals from the circuit court alleging legal error committed by the circuit court and are heard by all (usually nine) justices of the court. Supreme Court decisions are written by one judge, with other judges either joining in the opinion if they concur or dissenting if they do not. U.S. Supreme Court decisions apply to all courts in the country. When lower courts are faced with a novel issue they have not decided before, they can look to other jurisdictions to see how the issue was handled. If such a court likes the other jurisdiction’s decision, it can use the approach taken by that jurisdiction’s court. However, it is not bound to follow the other court’s decision since that court is not in its jurisdiction. States have court systems parallel to the federal court system. They vary from state to state, but generally there is also a trial court level, an intermediate court of appeals, and a state supreme court. For our purposes, the state court system works very much like the federal system in terms of appeals moving up through the appellate system, though some states have more levels. Once the case is decided by the state supreme court, it can be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court if there is a basis for appealing it to that court. Once a case is heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, there is no other court to which it can be appealed. Under our country’s constitutionally based system of checks and balances, if Congress, who passed the law the Court interpreted, believes the Court’s interpretation is not in keeping with the law’s intended purpose, Congress can pass a law that reflects that determination. This has been done many times. For instance, in General Electric v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125 (1976) when the U.S. Supreme Court held that it was not gender discrimination for an employer to not recognize differences based on pregnancy as a type of gender discrimination, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act specifically including pregnancy in the definitions in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
LO1 Understand how to read and digest legal cases and citations.
Understanding the Case Information
With this in mind, let’s take a look at a typical case included in this textbook. Each of the cases is an actual law case written by a judge. Choose any case to go through this exercise. The first thing you will see is the case name. This is derived from the parties involved—the first name is the party suing (called plaintiff at the district court level), and the second name is the party being sued (called defendant at the district court level). At the court of appeals and Supreme Court level, the first name reflects who appealed the case to that court. It may or may not be the party who initially brought the case. This means that the name of the case may be different at different levels of its history. At the court of appeals level, the person who appealed the case to the court of appeals is known as the appellant, and their name would be first. The other party responding to the appeal is known as the appellee. At the Supreme Court level, they are known as the petitioner and the respondent.
