Holmes v. Trinity Health, No. 12-3129 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CasePlaintiff filed suit against Trinity alleging wrongful termination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq.; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-1 et seq.; the North Dakota whistleblower statute, N.D. Cent. Code 34-01-20(1); and N.D. Cent. Code 34-01-04 (the intimidation statute). On appeal, plaintiff challenged the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Trinity and the denial of her motion for a default judgment. The court found no abuse of discretion in the district court's denial of plaintiff's motion for summary judgment or default judgment, which asked the court to grant a dispositive discovery sanction against Trinity for its willful pattern of action in failing to comply with the scheduling order. Plaintiff failed to advance any evidence indicating that Trinity did in fact replace plaintiff with someone substantially younger, that she was treated differently than any other similarly situated male employee, that plaintiff engaged in a protected activity under the whistleblower statute, and that there was a private right of action under the intimidation statute. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Civil case - Employment Discrimination. District court did not abuse its discretion by denying plaintiff's motion for discovery sanctions in the absence of plaintiff moving for, or the district court issuing, a Rule 37 discovery order; district court did not err in granting defendant summary judgment on plaintiff's age and sex discrimination claims as plaintiff failed to provide direct evidence of discrimination and, under the McDonnell Douglas analysis, plaintiff failed to show defendant replaced her with a younger employer and failed to show she was treated differently than similarly-situated males; plaintiff did not engage in a protected activity under North Dakota's whistleblower statute; there is not private right of action under North Dakota's intimidation statute, which makes some forms of workplace intimidation a class B misdemeanor (North Dakota Century Code section 34-01-04).
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