Title VII Violation – Wrongful Termination

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Jamie Owens v. Old Wisconsin Sausage Company Inc.

Case No.: 16-3875

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and RIPPLE and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Title VII Violation – Wrongful Termination

Owens argues that Old Wisconsin terminated her for asserting a claim of sexual harassment under Title VII. The basis for her claim is that when she was questioned as to her relationship with Kobussen, she refused to answer and responded that she believed the questions to be “borderline sexual harassment.”

The only arguable evidence that the FLSA reports played a role in the termination is in the employer’s termination memo. That memo from her employer reciting the basis for the termination includes allegations that Owens failed to support company policies and commented on such to other employees, that she frequently commented about employee issues before all facts were known, and that she often made statements of fact with inadequate information leading to additional work to confirm actual facts. Owens argues that those grounds encompass her claims to Old Wisconsin of FLSA violations, but does not dispute Old Wisconsin’s contention that she failed to offer solutions to those FLSA problems that she identified. Moreover, those statements in the memo relate to the manner in which she communicated and analyzed issues, and her professionalism with management and other employees, which are distinct from any FLSA reports to her employer.

But regardless of that evidence, the deeper and insurmountable problem is that Owens repeatedly and consistently, in this court and in the district court, argued that the reason for her termination was her failure to answer the questions posed to her regarding her relationship with Kobussen. In fact, she argues that the memo provided by her employer with the reasons for her termination was an after-the-fact attempt at obfuscation of the actual reason, which was the questioning about her relationship. Accordingly, under her own argument, there was no causal link between her FLSA allegations and her termination, and the district court properly granted summary judgment.

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.