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The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
June 23, 2006 A Supreme victory In landmark case, court sides with Memphis woman who says railroad retaliated against her -- Worker reassigned, suspended; BNSF 'disappointed' in decision By Bartholomew Sullivan WASHINGTON - A Memphis woman who sued her employer for sexual discrimination and retaliation after she was reassigned and then suspended without pay over Christmas won a 9-0 ruling in the U.S. Supreme Court Thursday. 
Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal
Sheila White celebrates with her lawyer, Donald Donati, after the announcement of a U.S. Supreme Court decision for her in her lawsuit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. |
Sheila White, 49, a former forklift operator with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co.'s Tennessee Yard at Memphis, won a case that now sets the standard for what is unlawful retaliation in a workplace setting. The ruling affirms the judgment of the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals written by Judge Julia S. Gibbons of Memphis, but does not endorse the narrow standard it used for determining whether an employer's action was retaliatory. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the opinion of the court with which seven other justices conferred. The newest justice, Samuel Alito, agreed with the outcome but not Breyer's reasoning and wrote a separate concurring opinion.
The case was argued in April by Midtown lawyer Donald A. Donati in his first appearance before the high court. Reached at his office with White Thursday afternoon, he said, "It's a fantastic decision, plus they adopted the standard that we wanted - a very broad standard. We could not have expected a better result ... I am elated." He continued, "The court said that if that action (by an employer) would deter a reasonable person from complaining about discrimination, then it's a cause of action. It doesn't make any difference if you lose money or don't lose money." Donati also predicted that the case will "lead to employers refraining from retaliating against employees who, in good faith, complain about discrimination. It's going to lead to employers not being able to subtly retaliate against employees in the hopes that they will quit." White called the victory "a great day for me and for all of us - people that have been in the situation I've been in and for anybody else who has had problems on the job, or will have problems on the job." That last point was trumpeted almost as soon as the ruling was released by critics who said the court has opened the floodgates to new Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints and lawsuits, including some based on trivial grounds. Mimi Moore, an employment law specialist and partner at the Bryan Cave law firm in New York, anticipated "that employees will allege that borderline actions (like) not being asked to lunch, not being given the best assignments, not being given the best schedule are retaliatory." "While the Supreme Court has resolved what had been a split amongst the circuit courts regarding the proper analysis for retaliation cases under Title VII, thus providing some consistency, we are now likely to see more of these lawsuits in light of the ruling today which set a new and somewhat unclear standard for analyzing these claims." She advised employers to fully investigate claims of retaliation and to make their policies against retaliation clear. BNSF took the position that neither White's transfer from operating a forklift to pulling spikes from railroad ties, nor her 37-day suspension, constituted an "adverse employment action" making the company liable to a claim of retaliation. Groups representing employers, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and others representing labor interests, like the AFL-CIO, weighed in with friend of the court briefs, and Thursday's ruling was widely anticipated. BNSF's vice president for corporate relations responded to a request for comment by e-mail Thursday, saying: "We are disappointed with court's decision." At a five-day trial before U.S. Dist. Judge Jon McCalla, a Memphis jury in 2000 found White did not prove her sex discrimination claim but had been retaliated against. It awarded her $43,500 in compensatory damages and $54,285 in attorney fees. Both sides appealed. Although White won at trial, on appeal and in the nation's highest court, the case is still not over. White will receive her judgment and Donati will receive legal fees with interest, but because the Sixth Circuit reversed McCalla on the issue of punitive damages, a Memphis trial court will hear evidence on those issues as soon as it can be scheduled. Contact Washington correspondent Bartholomew Sullivan at (202) 408-2726 Copyright (c) 2006 The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN Reprinted with permission from www.commercialappeal.com |
