Jerry Maatman Quoted in Business Insurance "Subordinate bias case pulled from high court: BCI withdraws appeal, but court likely to revisit liability question soon, legal experts say"
04/17/2007
The article "Subordinate bias case pulled from high court: BCI withdraws appeal, but court likely to revisit liability question soon, legal experts say" in the April 16, 2007 issue of Business Insurance reports: "The U.S. Supreme Court's dismissal of an employment discrimination case that asked when an employer can be held liable for a subordinate manager's alleged racial bias in firing an employee almost guarantees the high court will revisit the issue soon, say employment law experts. The April 12 dismissal of BCI Coca-Cola Bottling Co. of Los Angeles vs. the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission came less than a week before the high court was scheduled to hear oral arguments. BCI requested the dismissal, according to the EEOC. The case involved Stephen Peters, a black employee of BCI who had refused to work overtime when ill (BI, Jan. 15). His immediate supervisor, who allegedly had made racially disparaging remarks, asked a human resources manager hundreds of miles away how to resolve the situation. The HR manager, who had never met Mr. Peters and did not know his race, approved the termination without investigating the situation on her own, relying instead on the immediate supervisor's comments, according to court records. Mr. Peters filed a complaint under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A district court dismissed the case, but it was reinstated by a three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year, whose decision hinted that employers could protect themselves by vigorously investigating such situations. Gerald L. Maatman Jr., a partner at Seyfarth Shaw L.L.P. in Chicago, noted that courts have split over the issue of liability for subordinate bias—or so-called "cat's paw liability"—and that other cases involving the issue are working their way through the legal system. "It is highly likely that the issue of cat's paw liability will be decided soon by Supreme Court. It seems to me if they took it up in BCI Coca-Cola, it's more than likely they're going to take it up in one of these cases due to the split in the circuits," he said.
