Justia U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Ben Lack was employed as a draftsman at Marshall Hunn's architectural design firm. After Lack resigned from his position from a project for Hunn's client, Dan Wilson Homes, Dan Wilson hired Lack to complete the project. Hunn filed suit alleging that Lack and Wilson secretly agreed to cut Hunn out of the business relationship. The district court granted summary judgment to Lack and Wilson on many claims and ruled in favor of them on the remaining claims. The court affirmed the judgment, concluding that the district court did not clearly err in finding that Lack and Wilson never made the alleged secret agreement and Hunn's legal theories lack merit. View "Hunn v. Dan Wilson Homes Inc." on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against his employer, Bell, for age discrimination after he lost his job during a reduction-in-force. After rendering a take-nothing money judgment on the verdict, the district court, acting on plaintiff’s post-trial motion, enjoined Bell from discriminating on the basis of age anywhere, anytime, “especially during reductions in force,” and awarded plaintiff attorneys’ fees. The court concluded, however, that plaintiff did not seek injunctive relief until his case was effectively concluded; this delay deprived Bell of the ability to present relevant evidence and defend itself from what turned out to be a sweeping and indeterminate injunction; and because the court vacated the only relief on which plaintiff “prevailed,” he was not entitled to recover attorneys’ fees. Accordingly, the court reversed the judgment. View "Peterson v. Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc." on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a probationary Border Patrol agent, filed suit against the Department, alleging that he had been unlawfully terminated because of his race and color. The court concluded that, even assuming that plaintiff established a prima facie case of discrimination, the government has asserted a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for plaintiff's termination, lack of candor. Plaintiff failed to show that the Department's decision was made in bad faith and there is no evidence of disparate treatment. Finally, the court rejected plaintiff's claim that he was similarly situated to permanent Border Patrol agents who were present at the Checkpoint at issue. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Department. View "Thomas v. Johnson" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed suit against defendants, alleging that they failed to compensate plaintiffs for their overtime work as required by section 207 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. 207. In Martin v. Spring Break '83 Productions, L.L.C., the court held that a private settlement reached over a bona fide dispute regarding FLSA claims was enforceable despite the general prohibition against the waiver of FLSA claims. In this case, the court declined to extend Martin and held that the generic, broad state court settlement release in this action does not bar plaintiffs’ subsequent FLSA claims. The court also held that the alternative defense of res judicata failed. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Bodle v. TXL Mortgage Corp." on Justia Law

Plaintiff, former Chief Deputy in the Sheriff's office, filed suit against the Sheriff, raising claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983, the Louisiana Constitution, and the Louisiana whistleblower statutes. The district court dismissed plaintiff's claims and granted summary judgment in favor of the Sheriff. The court concluded that plaintiff's First Amendment retaliation claim failed because plaintiff's complaints about the recordings at issue were made within the scope of his employment and, therefore, his speech was not protected by the First Amendment. The court agreed with the district court that it would have been a waste of judicial resources to decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction where plaintiff's state law claims were neither novel nor complex; the court concluded that plaintiff has not shown that the Sheriff’s Office committed an actual violation of Louisiana law and, therefore, the district court was correct to dismiss his claim under the Louisiana Whistleblower Statute, La. Rev. Stat. 23:967; and La. Rev. Stat. 42: 1169 does not provide a private right of action for plaintiff to sue in either state or federal court. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Wilson v. Tregre" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, who is white, filed suit alleging state and federal claims of workplace retaliation and discrimination. On appeal, plaintiff challenged the district court's grant of the government's motion to exclude certain testimony offered by plaintiff and a police department captain and dismissal of plaintiff's federal claims. The court agreed with the district court that the statements at issue lacked foundation and plaintiff cannot show that all reasonable persons would reject the district court's decision to strike the testimony. The court also affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's Title VII race discrimination claim, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(a)(1), where plaintiff failed to present evidence sufficient to raise a genuine issue of material fact that he was treated less favorably because of his race than were other similarly situated employees who were not white, under nearly identical circumstances. Assuming that the district court dismissed plaintiff's race retaliation claim, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-3(a), sua sponte and without notice, the court held that the dismissal was harmless and affirmed the judgment. View "Paske, Jr. v. Fitzgerald" on Justia Law

Randy Jenkins, a 51-year-old African-American man, served in the San Antonio Fire Department since 1986. The Fire Department was headed by the Fire Chief, Charles Hood, who managed a deputy chief, assistant chiefs, district chiefs, captains, lieutenants, engineers, and firefighters. In 2008, Jenkins was appointed as one of two district chiefs of Fire Prevention, reporting directly to Assistant Chief Earl Crayton. In this capacity, Jenkins was responsible for oversight of Community Safety & Education ("CS&E"). When the other district chief in the Fire Prevention Division left, Jenkins temporarily assumed his responsibilities. Eventually, a new district chief was assigned to the Fire Prevention Division and given responsibility for CS&E while Jenkins retained oversight of Special Events, Inspections, and Administration. After the recently appointed district chief left in 2009, Captain Christopher Monestier was hired as his replacement and assigned oversight of CS&E and Special Events. In 2011, Assistant Chief Crayton "realigned" Jenkins and Monestier’s duties. Jenkins did not suffer a reduction in rank or benefits but perceived the realignment as discrimination based on his race, color, or age as well as retaliation for giving a statement supporting an EEOC charge against Crayton. Jenkins filed an EEOC charge to this effect, and the EEOC issued a right-to-sue letter on May 16, 2012. Several other actions would lead Jenkins to amend his EEOC complaint to include several other "realignments." He ultimately sued, taking his right-to-sue letter to district court. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Fire Department. It held that Jenkins’s discrimination and retaliation claims stemming from the 2011 reassignment of duties were not timely filed. Even assuming his suit was timely, the district court found that Jenkins’s discrimination and retaliation claims stemming from both the 2011 reassignment and Jenkins’s non-selection as District Chief of Inspections in 2012 failed because he was unable to establish a prima facie case. Jenkins timely appealed. But finding no reversible error, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision. View "Jenkins v. City of San Antonio Fire Dept" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs Frederick Morton and Walter Powers, Jr., individually and in his capacity as President of the Fraternal Order of Police, and cross-claimant the New Orleans Civil Service Commission (“CSC”) appealed the district court’s judgment upholding certain ordinances passed by the City of New Orleans related to paid detail for officers of the New Orleans Police Department (“NOPD”). The Fifth Circuit approved a Consent Decree entered into by agreement between the United States and the City of New Orleans; the Consent Decree was the product of a nearly year-long United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) investigation into the NOPD which “revealed longstanding patterns of unconstitutional conduct and bad practices and policies within the department.” As relevant here, the DOJ found that the structure of NOPD’s system of paid detail undermined the quality of NOPD policing and facilitated abuse and corruption by officers. To fix the problems associated with paid details, the Consent Decree required the City to “completely restructure” the existing system in which NOPD officers negotiated details and received payment directly from private employers. Morton and Powers alleged in their petition that the paid detail ordinances violated the federal and state Constitutions, and sought declaratory and injunctive relief. The district court held a hearing on plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, in which the CSC participated. The court denied plaintiffs’ motion, finding that the CSC lacked jurisdiction over NOPD officers’ paid detail work; the ordinances did not violate the state or federal Contract Clauses because, even if contracts between the officers and private employers existed, they were subject to approval by the Superintendent and the ordinances were a legitimate exercise of the City’s police power; and the ordinances did not violate Louisiana’s Anti-Expropriation Clause because NOPD officers working paid details were not a “business enterprise,” and, in any case, the OPSE, a non-profit entity, did not compete with any paid detail business. All parties proceeded to a three-day bench trial. Following the trial, the district court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law and dismissed plaintiffs’ claims and the CSC’s cross-claim. Plaintiffs and the CSC appealed the district court’s rulings on all claims and further alleged that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the case. Finding no reversible error in the district court's decision, the Fifth Circuit affirmed. View "Powers v. City of New Orleans" on Justia Law

M. Kathleen McKinney, the National Labor Relations Board’s regional director, sought and obtained a temporary injunction requiring Creative Vision Resources, L.L.C., to negotiate and bargain in good faith with a labor union. Creative Vision appealed the district court’s grant of injunctive relief, arguing that such relief was not equitably necessary under the circumstances of this case. After review, the Fifth Circuit concluded that the district court abused its discretion because it ordered injunctive relief supported only by general findings of harm that did not evince exceptional or egregious conduct or harms in the context of the NLRA. Nor did the district court address adequately the effect of the excessive passage of time between the onset of the alleged wrongful activities and the issuance of the injunction. The district court’s order enjoined conduct in 2014 in an attempt to preserve a status quo as it existed in 2011. Accordingly, the Court vacated the district court's grant of injunctive relief, and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "McKinney v. Creative Vision Resources, LLC" on Justia Law

In this appeal of the grant of summary judgment dismissing a complaint in a Title VII race-discrimination case, plaintiff Lieutenant Gayle McMullin, presented evidence, which, if believed by a jury, would have shown "a fumbling, bumbling case of determined efforts" to deny a promotion to McMullin. Lieutenant McMullin alleged that the Mississippi Department of Public Safety failed to promote her to the position of Training Director and instead promoted a less-qualified officer of lower rank to fill the position, based on race. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Department, finding that Lieutenant McMullin failed to establish a prima facie case of race-based discrimination. Because the district court erred in granting summary judgment, the Fifth Circuit vacated the judgment, and remanded the case for trial or other proceedings. View "McMullin v. MS Dept of Public Safety" on Justia Law