Employment — retaliation

Listen to this article

United States Court of Appeals

Civil

Employment — retaliation

Where a vice president was terminated shortly after complaining that a member of the board of directors had propositioned her, summary judgment was improperly granted to the employer on her retaliation claim.

“Only seven months after Freedom Bank recruited Belinda Egan to serve as one of its vice presidents, the bank fired her. She had no performance issues, no attendance problems, and no complaints against her. What she did have, though, was dinner shortly after she began with a member of the bank’s board of directors. The board member told her the fantasies he had about her, and she declined his advances. Egan complained to the bank’s Human Resources officer that the board member had sexually harassed her, and the board member resigned. Shortly after that, the person named as the bank’s new president told its then-president that he heard Egan had done something that she should have been fired for. And about two months after the new president assumed office, Egan was fired. A jury might credit the bank’s stance that the new president eliminated Egan’s position simply to reduce inefficiencies. Or it might agree with Egan that the bank terminated her in retaliation for her claim of sexual harassment. We conclude that the conflicting inferences that can be drawn from the record require a resolution by a jury. Therefore, we reverse the entry of summary judgment against Egan on her retaliation claim.”

Reversed and Remanded.

10-1214 Egan v. Freedom Bank

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Reinhard, J., Williams, J.