Title VII Claim

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Vicki Barbera v. Pearson Education, Inc.

Case No.: 18-1085

Officials: MANION and BARRETT, Circuit Judges, and GETTLEMAN, District Judge.

Focus: Title VII Claim

Vicki Barbera claims she did not get the same chance to resign with severance pay that three men got. She sued her former employer, Pearson Education, Inc. (“Pearson”) for Title VII sex discrimination and other claims. She also says Pearson lost a key email exchange. The magistrate judge cured this by barring Pearson from disputing her description of it, but declined to grant further sanctions. The district court overruled Barbera’s objection. Accepting her version of the missing emails, the district court granted summary judgment to Pearson because the proposed comparators were not similarly situated. They sought resignation with severance pay before circumstances materially changed, but Barbera sought resignation with severance pay after they changed. Barbera appeals the district court’s overruling her objection about the emails and granting Pearson summary judgment on the severance-pay discrimination claim. We affirm the district court.

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.