United States First Circuit

In plaintiff's suit for retaliatory termination against his former employer, alleging violations of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and Puerto Rico law, district court's grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) district court's grant of summary judgment on plaintiff's Act 115 claim is proper as the undisputed facts demonstrate that plaintiff did not engage in protected activity under Act 115; and 2) the district court erred in granting summary judgment on plaintiff's claim that he was terminated for opposing sexual harassment in the workplace as, plaintiff has raised a genuine issue of fact as to whether his termination was motivated by retaliatory animus; and 3) a jury could reasonably conclude, based on the particularly close temporal connection between plaintiff's protected conduct and his termination and the deficiencies in defendant's articulated reorganization and performance rationales, that plaintiff was terminated because of his protected conduct.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/05/2010
• Published 08/05/2010

Judges

• LIPEZ

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• José G. Fagot Díaz, Carl Schuster