By: Derek Hawkins//October 3, 2018//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Bogustawa Frey v. Hotel Coleman, et al.
Case No.: 17-2267
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BAUER and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Employment Discrimination – Retaliation Claim
Before we can attend to any other issues in an employment discrimination case, we must first determine who, in fact, employed the plaintiff. This question, which seems as though it ought to be simple on its face, continues to confound litigants and courts. This case presents issues regarding the employer/employee relationship that arise in the not‐so‐uncommon scenario where one employer hires another entity to manage the day‐to‐day operations of an enterprise. In such a case, one entity provides the paycheck but another entity does all of the other tasks one ordinarily associates with an employer—hiring, firing, training, supervising, evaluating, assigning, et cetera.
In sum, we VACATE the district court’s grant of summary judgment for Vaughn Hospitality on the issue of employer liability, its order on the amount of back pay for Frey’s successful state retaliation claim, and its ruling on the prejudgment interest. We remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. Costs of the appeal are awarded to the plaintiff.
Vacated and Remanded