LITIGATIONRESULTS - Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek SC

WHD Wins Summary Judgment
for its Client – Twice!
mcintyre
godar
In December 2006, WHD client Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Corp.
(Saint-Gobain) terminated an employee, Kevin Kasten, under the company’s
progressive discipline policy for time clock violations. Nearly a year later,
Mr. Kasten filed a retaliation complaint under the Fair Labor Standards Act
(FLSA), asserting he was fired for his complaints about alleged underpayment
of wages due to time clock locations. The district court dismissed Kasten’s
complaint on Saint-Gobain’s motion for summary judgment, holding an
employee’s oral complaint was not protected conduct under the FLSA.
Mr. Kasten appealed. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed
Judge Barbara Crabb’s ruling that the anti-retaliation provision of the FLSA was
not triggered by the oral complaint of an employee and that the FLSA required
a written complaint. Mr. Kasten petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court and asked
the court to consider the issue of whether a wage-related oral complaint by an
employee is sufficient to trigger the anti-retaliation provision of the FLSA. The
U.S. Supreme Court, by a 6-2 vote, reversed the Seventh Circuit and held that
a reasonably clear oral complaint is sufficient to give an employer notice of a
wage-related grievance and trigger the anti-retaliation provision of the FLSA.
The case was then remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Western District
of Wisconsin. WHD again filed a motion for summary judgment on a new
issue created by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, and re-asserted the “no
retaliation as a matter of law” argument since Mr. Kasten was terminated for
policy violations, not his alleged wage-related complaints. Judge Crabb granted
WHD’s second motion for summary judgment and held that the plaintiff failed to
make a prima facie case of retaliation and dismissed the case.
The victory nullified the risk of a potential $1 million verdict at trial, much of
which would have been the plaintiff’s attorney fees had WHD lost on liability.
Litigation Type: Employment litigation
Court: U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin (remanded
by U.S. Supreme Court)
Lead WHD Counsel: Jeffrey McIntyre and Thomas Godar
Principal WHD Team Members: Jeffrey McIntyre, Thomas Godar,
Barbara Zabawa, Erin Keesecker, Cindi Wittlinger (paralegal – litigation
support specialist), Cheryl Louis (paralegal)
Practice Area Involved: Labor & Employment, Litigation
LITIGATION RESULTS 21