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Thursday, August 02, 2007

Ind. Decisions - "Indianapolis firefighter's bias suit can proceed"

A brief story today in the Indianapolis Star reports:

A federal judge is allowing a sexual discrimination lawsuit filed by an Indianapolis firefighter to go to trial.

U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker says the city did not make its case to have the lawsuit filed by fire Capt. Ruth M. Morrison thrown out.

A jury trial is set for Sept. 5 in Barker's courtroom.

Morrison, who has been in the department since 1986, maintains she was the victim of sexual discrimination, failing to get promotions because of her gender. She also says she faced retaliation for complaining about discrimination.

Re the retaliation issue, see the discussion on pages 33-34 of the opinion, concluding with:
Without a doubt, Morrison has established that triable issues of fact exist which suggest a causal connection between her protected activity and the IFD’s treatment of her. The clearest example is the meeting Morrison audiotaped between herself and Chiefs Van Sant and Walker in which Van Sant and Walker allegedly threatened and intimidated her while Van Sant held a copy of Morrison’s grievance in her lap, and made statements such as “I’ve been to the EEOC before, you want to do that[,] you want to go that way[,] you go ahead and go. The best thing you could do is grit your teeth and push on and do your job and keep this house out of trouble.” Def.’s Ex. M. This evidence by itself is sufficient to survive summary judgment on the retaliation issue.
The ILB has posted the 39-page, 7/31/07 opinion here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 2, 2007 09:23 AM
Posted to Ind Fed D.Ct. Decisions