Tagged: New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD)
Though the decision has received a great deal of attention because of the controversy, as played out in the separate opinions of Chief Justice Rabner and Associate Justices Rivera-Soto and Hoens, over whether the temporary appointment to the New Jersey Supreme Court of Judge Stern of the Appellate Division is constitutional, the recently decided case of Henry v. New Jersey Department of Human Services, is of special interest to employers, as it appears to expand the circumstances under which a plaintiff can invoke the equitable device known as the “discovery rule” to toll the 2-year statute of limitations applicable to claims under the Law Against Discrimination (LAD) In Henry, the Court, by a vote of 5-1 with one abstention, affirmed the Appellate Division’s holding dismissing plaintiff’s retaliation claim but reversed the Appellate Division’s dismissal of plaintiff’s discrimination claim. The Court remanded the discrimination claim for the trial court to conduct a hearing to ascertain whether plaintiff could not have reasonably discovered she had claim within 2 years of the accrual of her cause of action.
The New Jersey Supreme Court has just announced a new test under which an employer may be held liable for unlawful retaliation when taking action against an employee who misappropriates and uses confidential company documents against the employer in support of a discrimination claim. Those who believe that simplicity is a virtue will not have their minds changed by the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Quinlan v. Curtiss-Wright Corporation, in which the Court, by a 5-2 majority, established a complex and confusing seven-part “balancing test” for determining whether an employee’s wrongful taking of company documents nevertheless constitutes “protected activity” under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (the “LAD”). Applying this test, the Court held that the plaintiff in Quinlan could have been terminated for the wrongful taking of documents, but should not have been terminated for her attorney’s use of one of the documents at a deposition.
Peace of mind. That is what the two-year statute of limitations period applicable to claims filed under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”) afforded employers. With respect to discriminatory compensation claims, however, the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision in Alexander v. Seton Hall University has destroyed that peace of mind, holding that each individual paycheck effecting a discriminatory compensation decision constitutes an actionable unlawful employment practice. No longer is the two-year statute of limitations measured from the date of the compensation decision.
On an issue of first impression in the Third Circuit whether “a failure-to-promote claim” constitutes “discrimination in compensation” as prohibited by the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (“FPA”) the Court of Appeals recently held that a failure to promote claim is not the same as a discrimination in compensation claim. Consequently, the Plaintiff in Noel v. The Boeing Company could not avail himself of the FPA’s more flexible statute of limitations period.
