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U.S. District Court District of Hawaii District Court denied motion to dismiss aiding and abetting claim against individual defendant, because complaint easily met requirement of alleging aiding-and-abetting individual defendant was person who incited, compelled, or coerced discriminatory actions against former employee and another, different defendant or employee was person who was incited, compelled, or coerced...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly denied employer’s motion for judgment as a matter of law. Although District Court improperly conflated elements of the former employee’s disparate treatment and failure to accommodate claims, error was harmless.  Since employer knew of former employee’s physical limitations and request for accommodation, it had duty to...

Hawaii Employment Law Cases December 17, 2017 to December 23, 2017 – Jeffrey S. Harris U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Workweek starts any day and hour.  District Court properly granted summary judgment against overtime pay claim, because a workweek may begin on any day and at any hour of the day.  District Court properly...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Details on jury instructions.  Any error by the District Court giving the jury a "Limitation on Remedies - Same Decision" instruction was more probable than not harmless, because the jury decided the former employee’s disability or medical leave was not a substantial motivating reason for his discharge. The District...

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....

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals When no ERISA fees for arbitration.  ERISA fee award provisions do not cover success on the merits in arbitration unless the court first orders parties to arbitrate.  De Leon v. Int’l Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 23918 (9th Cir. Nov. 27, 2017). U.S. District Court for...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Gross income includes settlement payments not based on physical injury or physical sickness.  Tax Court properly concluded the settlement was not excludable from taxpayers’ gross income because neither the settlement agreement nor the facts and circumstances of the case demonstrated that the settlement was based on taxpayer’s physical injury...

Minimum wage requirement applies to workweek as a whole. District Court properly concluded employer complied with federal minimum wage requirement by paying minimum wage for workweek as a whole.  Fair Labor Standards Act allows employers to pay less than the minimum wage for some hours during a workweek, so long as they pay more than...

U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit Identification of Glassdoor.com reviewers.  District Court properly denied Glassdoor, Inc.’s, motion to quash grand jury subpoena requiring identification of eight users who posted anonymous reviews on Glassdoor.com about a company being investigated for fraud, waste and abuse of federal funds.  The reviews supported an inference the reviewers observed...

U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit District Court properly concluded company must pay returning service member higher collective bargaining signing bonus based on larger plane he would have been flying if he had not departed for military service.  Huhmann v. Fed. Express Corp., 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21955 (9th Cir. Nov. 2, 2017). NLRB...