Summary Judgement in Employment & Wrongful Termination Cases
In many employment and wrongful termination cases that don't settle shortly after the lawsuit is filed, the employer files a motion for summary judgment with the court, where the case is filed. This is usually done after the parties completed written discovery (exchanging information and documents through form interrogatories and requests for production of documents) and after the employer takes Plaintiff's depoisition or after more deposition of parties and/or witnesses in the case are completed.
Summary Judgment Motion is a tool that allows the employer to get the entire case dismissed or at least parts of the case dismissed before it ever gets to trial. Even though such a motion is usually a large document, consisting of many pages of arguments and supporting caselaw, along with declarations, and exhibits containing parts of discovery responses and deposition testimony, the basic legal message that such a motion is trying to convey is this: even if everything that the Plaintiff says is true, he does not have a case as a matter of law, or at least some of the claims that are contained in the Plaintiff's lawsuit should be dimissed for the same reason. As an illustration and for the sake of simplicity - suppose that a terminated employees files a disability discrimination lawsuit, alleging that the employer failed to accommodate her and terminated her because of her disability. During her deposition, the following exchange between the plaintiff and the defense attorney takes place:
- Why do you think you were terminated?
- Because my boss did not like me and wanted to get rid of me.
- Are there any other reasons why you think you have been terminated?
- No, that's the only reason I can think of.
- Do you believe that your disability played any role in your termination?
- No, I don't think so.
This kind of testimony is very harmful or even fatal to the wrongful termination case, because the defense attorney is going to take that testimony, attach it to his motion for summary judgment and argue to the court that since Plaintiff herself admitted that she was not terminated because of her disabiltiy, the disability discrimination allegations should be dismissed.
Plaintiff's goal in opposing such a motion is not to prove her case, as she would have to do during trial, but to only demonstrate through similar evidence and arguments that there is a "disputed or triable issues of fact with regard to each claim or at least some of the claims." One of the advantages that Plaintiff has in opposing this motion is that generally, the court must construe all inferences from the evidence in Plaintiff's favor. Thus, at least for the purposes of opposing summary judgment, the "he said/she said" situation is generally favorable to the Plaintiff becaues it creates exactly that - a disputed issue of fact. This is especially true in harassment cases where the plaintiff and her witnesses' version of the events is often inopposite to the harasser or manager's version.
Summary Judgment Motion is a tool that allows the employer to get the entire case dismissed or at least parts of the case dismissed before it ever gets to trial. Even though such a motion is usually a large document, consisting of many pages of arguments and supporting caselaw, along with declarations, and exhibits containing parts of discovery responses and deposition testimony, the basic legal message that such a motion is trying to convey is this: even if everything that the Plaintiff says is true, he does not have a case as a matter of law, or at least some of the claims that are contained in the Plaintiff's lawsuit should be dimissed for the same reason. As an illustration and for the sake of simplicity - suppose that a terminated employees files a disability discrimination lawsuit, alleging that the employer failed to accommodate her and terminated her because of her disability. During her deposition, the following exchange between the plaintiff and the defense attorney takes place:
- Why do you think you were terminated?
- Because my boss did not like me and wanted to get rid of me.
- Are there any other reasons why you think you have been terminated?
- No, that's the only reason I can think of.
- Do you believe that your disability played any role in your termination?
- No, I don't think so.
This kind of testimony is very harmful or even fatal to the wrongful termination case, because the defense attorney is going to take that testimony, attach it to his motion for summary judgment and argue to the court that since Plaintiff herself admitted that she was not terminated because of her disabiltiy, the disability discrimination allegations should be dismissed.
Plaintiff's goal in opposing such a motion is not to prove her case, as she would have to do during trial, but to only demonstrate through similar evidence and arguments that there is a "disputed or triable issues of fact with regard to each claim or at least some of the claims." One of the advantages that Plaintiff has in opposing this motion is that generally, the court must construe all inferences from the evidence in Plaintiff's favor. Thus, at least for the purposes of opposing summary judgment, the "he said/she said" situation is generally favorable to the Plaintiff becaues it creates exactly that - a disputed issue of fact. This is especially true in harassment cases where the plaintiff and her witnesses' version of the events is often inopposite to the harasser or manager's version.
