Each year Gerald Skoning, a prominent employment lawyer at Chicago’s Seyfarth Shaw, assembles his pick of the ten most bizarre employment cases of the previous year, and each year the National Law Journal publishes the roundup but omits to put it online. So I’ll just quote my two personal favorites from the latest list (“Last year’s bizarre cases”, Mar. 20):
…A federal district court in Oklahoma has dismissed a 70-year-old office worker’s claim that her employer discriminated against her because she was not fired. Mary Wyatt, who had worked for Occidental Petroleum for more than 24 years, argued that she should have been fired and awarded a severance package. The court disagreed, reasoning that, “Plaintiff has not suffered an adverse employment action by the continuation of her employment.” I commend the court for its eminently sensible recognition that the continued opportunity to earn a living isn’t discrimination.
…A federal court in Pennsylvania has ruled that a weight loss center did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to hire a salesman who weighed 350 pounds because it was concerned his appearance was inconsistent with the sale of its products. The court dismissed Bob Goodman’s claim, stating: “The mere fact that Defendant was aware of Plaintiff’s weight and rejected [him] for fear that his appearance did not accord with the company image was not improper.” I salute this weighty contribution to commonsense jurisprudence.
For another you-should-have-fired-me case, see May 11, 2004. For coverage of previous Skoning roundups, see May 12, 2005 and links from there.
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