Messer Caparello’s employment defense team of Bob Harris, Jim Dean, and Cameron Carstens recently made new law in winning an appeal for a School District in an employment retaliation case under the Florida Civil Rights Act.
The Plaintiff in this case had sued two School Districts for employment discrimination and had settled those claims out of court. The Plaintiff then started applying for jobs at a third School District. The third School District selected other applicants for the job positions. The Plaintiff then sued the first two School Districts again, and he also sued the third School District, claiming all three School Districts retaliated against him. The Plaintiff alleged that the first two School Districts gave negative employment references and that the third School District had not hired him because he had sued the other two Districts for discrimination in the past.
Messer Caparello’s employment defense team obtained a summary judgment for the first two School Districts by showing that they had not given any negative job references and had done nothing to retaliate against the Plaintiff when he applied for jobs at the third School District.
The Firm’s defense team also filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiff’s claim against the third School District because Plaintiff had failed to comply with certain procedural requirements of the Florida Civil Rights Act prior to filing suit in court. Under the Act, a plaintiff must file an administrative complaint with the Florida Commission on Human Relations within 1 year of the employment decision prior to filing a lawsuit in court. In this case, the Plaintiff had filed his administrative complaint too late. The trial court judge denied the motion to dismiss the claims against the third School District, and the case was set for trial. However, the Firm’s employment defense team filed a motion to stay the case, and we also filed an immediate appeal (called a petition for certiorari) to the First District Court of Appeal. It is unusual to file an immediate appeal prior to trial. However, the appellate court agreed with our argument that the trial judge’s order denying the motion to dismiss caused irreparable harm to the third School District, and the appellate court agreed to hear the appeal prior to trial. The appellate court also agreed that the claims should be dismissed because the administrative complaint was filed too late.
This is the first time that a Florida appellate court has accepted an immediate appeal of an order denying a motion to dismiss an employment claim for failing to comply with the Florida Civil Rights Act’s procedural requirements.
One lesson from this case for School Districts relates to the hiring process that should be followed. In order to win this appeal, it was necessary to show the date that the Plaintiff was notified that he was not selected for the job positions at issue. In this case, our School District client had a general practice of notifying job applicants when they were not selected for a position. Because statutes of limitations often start running from the date a plaintiff learns of the employment decision, it is a good practice to give prompt written notice to job applicants when they are not selected for a position. This may help win an employment case.