Date: March 18, 2022
Law360 reported a recent Texas federal court decision that plaintiff Keishonna Harper's Title VII retaliation claim against Lockheed should proceed to trial. Ms. Harper is represented by TELG principal Kellee Boulais Kruse.
Quoteworthy:
"We're delighted to be moving forward on the retaliation claim and happy that Ms. Harper is going to have her day in court."
Kellee Boulais Kruse
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[EXCERPT]
Lockheed Can’t Evade All Of Black Ex-Exec’s Bias Suit
A Texas federal court held that Lockheed Martin Corp. must face part of a Black former manager’s suit alleging she’d been demoted and suspended as punishment for speaking up about a supervisor’s request that she keep quiet about workplace discrimination, determining that a jury might find Lockheed’s explanation was false.
In Thursday’s memorandum opinion, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor partially granted Lockheed Martin’s bid for summary judgment of Keishonna Harper’s amended complaint against the aerospace company. The judge allowed her Title VII retaliation claim to proceed to trial, but tossed her federal race discrimination claims and Family and Medical Leave Act retaliation claim.
[….]
In determining that Harper’s Title VII retaliation claim should proceed to trial, the court found Thursday that Lockheed Martin didn’t sufficiently rebut the former employee’s argument that the explanation the company gave for getting rid of her supervisory duties and temporarily suspending her was pretext for discrimination.
Harper plausibly connected her demotion and suspension to her protected human resources complaints, the court found. The company’s adverse actions occurred four months after her complaint, Judge O’Connor pointed out, and she’d shown that the company had previously treated her differently from white colleagues.
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