Humans Rights Act Violation – Emotional Distress Claim

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Mary R. Richards v. U.S. Steel

Case No.: 16-2436

Officials: WILLIAMS and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges, and CHANG, District Judge

Focus: Humans Rights Act Violation – Emotional Distress Claim

Mary Richards filed this lawsuit against her employer, U.S. Steel. As the case comes to us, all that remains is an Illinois state‐law claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress. On that claim, the district court entered summary judgment against Richards on the ground that it is preempted by the Illinois Human Rights Act, 775 ILCS 5/8‐111(D). Although our analysis of the preemption issue differs from the district court’s take on it, we agree that the emotional‐distress claim fails as a matter of law. U.S. Steel can be held responsible for only a subset of the factual allegations that Richard relies on, and on that set of facts, U.S. Steel did not engage in “extreme and outrageous” behavior under Illinois common law. We thus affirm the entry of summary judgment against plaintiff on her emotional‐ distress claim.

Constrained to the alleged misconduct that could possibly be attributed to U.S. Steel, Richards has not established, independent of the Human Rights Act, that U.S. Steel engaged in “extreme and outrageous” behavior under Illinois common law. We thus AFFIRM the district court’s entry of summary judgment against the plaintiff on her emotional‐ distress claim.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.