Porter v. City of Lake Lotawana, et al., No. 10-2928 (8th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseAppellant appealed the district court's orders granting summary judgment in favor of the City of Lake Lotawana, and its mayor, and the subsequent dismissal of her wrongful termination and retaliation claims. On appeal, appellant contended that the city breached her employment contract and that she established triable issues of fact as to her retaliation claims. The court held that the city was entitled to summary judgment on appellant's wrongful termination claim where she did not have an enforceable contract or viable tort claim. The court also held that appellant was terminated because of her inappropriate activities and therefore, the dismissal of appellant's retaliation claims was affirmed because nothing in the record indicated that her opposition to unlawful discrimination was a contributing factor to her termination. The court further held, for the same reasons, that appellant could not succeed under the more stringent standard applied in the Title VII and Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq., claims. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgement of the district court.
Court Description: Civil case - employment law. District court did not err in granting the city's motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's contract-based wrongful termination claim as Missouri law requires that all contracts with a municipality must be in writing, and there is no dispute that plaintiff did not have a written employment contact; nor did the court err in dismissing plaintiff's retaliation claims as there was no evidence indicating her opposition to unlawful discrimination was contributing factor in her termination.
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