Tamosaitis v. URS Inc., No. 12-35924 (9th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseThe U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) led the effort to clean up nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state. URS Energy & Construction, Inc. (“URS Energy”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of URS Corporation, worked as a subcontractor on the project. An employee of URS Energy brought this action alleging violations of the Energy Reorganization Act (“ERA”) whistleblower protection provision concerning the cleanup efforts. The district court dismissed the DOE from the suit and granted summary judgment in favor of URS Corp. and URS Energy. The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part, holding (1) the DOE and URS Corp. were correctly dismissed for lack of administrative exhaustion, but administrative exhaustion was sufficient as to URS Energy; and (2) the employee introduced sufficient evidence to create a triable issue as to whether his whistleblowing activity was a contributing factor in the adverse employment action URS Energy took against him, and there were other existing genuine issues of fact that precluded summary judgment to URS Energy. Remanded.
Court Description: Whistleblower / Energy Reorganization Act. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the U.S. Department of Energy from the suit, affirmed the grant of summary judgment in URS Corp.’s favor, and reversed the grant of summary judgment for URS Energy & Construction, Inc. in an action brought by a URS Energy employee alleging violations of the Energy Reorganization Act whistleblower protection provision, concerning cleanup efforts of nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state. The “opt-out” provision of the Energy Reorganization Act (“ERA”), 42 U.S.C. § 5851(b)(4), empowers whistleblowing employees at nuclear energy sites to bring anti-retaliation claims to federal court after one year of agency inaction. The Department of Energy (“DOE”) led the effort to clean up the pollution at Hanford, which included construction and management of a Waste Treatment Plant. The Department contracted with Bechtel National, Inc., which subcontracted with URS Energy & Construction, Inc. (“URS Energy”) for work on the project. URS Energy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of URS Corporation. Addressing the issue of administrative exhaustion, the panel held that before an employee may opt out of the agency process and bring a retaliation suit against a respondent in federal court, the respondent must have had notice of, and an opportunity to participate in, the agency action for one year. TAMOSAITIS V. URS, INC. 3 The panel affirmed the dismissal of DOE because there was no administrative complaint pending against DOE for one year before the employee filed suit against DOE in federal court, and § 5851(b)(4)’s administrative exhaustion requirement was not satisfied as against DOE. The panel held that administrative exhaustion was sufficient as to URS Energy where the employee gave adequate notice to URS Energy that it was the named respondent to his complaint. Finally, the panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of URS Corp. for lack of administrative exhaustion where URS Corp. was not adequately named in the employee’s original administrative complaint. The panel held that the employee introduced sufficient evidence to create a triable issue as to whether his whistleblowing activity was a contributing factor in the adverse employment action URS Energy took against him. The panel also held that there was a genuine issue of fact as to whether the employee’s compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment were affected by his transfer to another position. Accordingly, the panel reversed the grant of summary judgment to URS Energy for ERA whistleblower retaliation. The panel held that the employee did not have a statutory jury trial right for his ERA whistleblower suit. The panel held that the employee did have a constitutional right to a jury trial for his claims seeking money damages under § 5851(b)(4), and reversed. The panel remanded for further proceedings. 4 TAMOSAITIS V. URS, INC.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on November 7, 2014.
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