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U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit If the District Court determines employee did not obtain a more favorable judgment in his FLSA class action, the court must award the employer post-offer costs.  A less favorable final judgment is not an ultimate bar to attorney fees under the FLSA.  It is one factor a court...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly granted summary judgment against age discrimination claim.  When substitute teacher applies for permanent teaching position, ‘failure to hire’ standard applies.  Substitute failed to make out her prima facie case by showing a younger person with similar qualifications received the position.  The employer hired teachers with advanced...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals TSA did not err in disqualifying individual from serving as flight crew based on his conviction for conspiring to launder money.  TSA reasonably concluded as a crewmember had unescorted access to secure areas of planes and airports, he had to be especially trustworthy; his guilty plea showed that for...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court improperly granted summary judgment against ADA claim.  Employer failed to present evidence it engaged with employee to "discover the precise limitations and the types of accommodations which would be most effective" given her injury, and did not show assigning employee to light duty work, as it had...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly granted summary judgment against discrimination claim.  Former employee failed to raise a triable issue of fact whether he was performing according to employer’s legitimate expectations.  Employee committed three "serious offenses" under the collective bargaining agreement in a relatively short time span—any one of which could have...

U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii District Court dismissed EEOC’s sexual harassment, constructive discharge and retaliation claims on behalf five former male employees, with leave to amend.  Events associated with first two former employees’ claims occurred more than 300 days before charging party filed his charge with the EEOC.  The first employee suffered no adverse...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Substantial evidence supported finding employer violated 29 U.S.C. § 158(a)(1) and (3) by firing an employee for his union activity.  Deviations from internal practice, disparate treatment and after the fact justification showed its reasons were pretextual.  Employer could not retroactively strip employee of NLRA protection by making him a...

District Court improperly granted summary judgment against claim plan administrator misrepresented lifetime benefit maximum.  Although ERISA (as amended by Affordable Care Act) did not ban lifetime benefit maximums retiree-only plans, the Summary Plan Description, as amended by the 2010 Summary of Modifications, violated ERISA disclosure requirements.  Whether the Summary of Modifications violated ERISA disclosure requirements...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly certified class of armed guards, and did not abuse discretion by concluding that nearly identical misrepresentations about the anticipated work schedule and common question of contract interpretation whether a 72-hour workweek was customary made common issues predominate.  Risinger v. SOC LLC, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 16907...

U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals District Court properly concluded federal law (National Labor Relations Act, Railway Labor Act and Airline Deregulation Act) did not preempt city from requiring airport service providers to enter labor peace agreement with any employer organization that requested one.  District Court improperly denied leave to amend complaint because service providers...