The wackiness of employees seems to know no bounds when it comes to their lawsuits. In this final instalment of such cases, Gerald Skoning, a lawyer who specialises in representing management in employment law matters with Chicago-based firm Seyfarth Shaw, reveals how work-related lawsuits around the world continue to provide the most remarkable variety of fascinating and bizarre cases for our entertainment
The wackiness of employees seems to know no bounds when it comes to their lawsuits. In this final instalment of such cases, Gerald Skoning, a lawyer who specialises in representing management in employment law matters with Chicago-based firm Seyfarth Shaw, reveals how work-related lawsuits around the world continue to provide the most remarkable variety of fascinating and bizarre cases for our entertainment:
5. An exorcism house call. A Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that a state agency case worker who attempted to drive Satan-inspired demons from a client having a seizure, rather than call for medical help, was not fired because of her religion but because she violated agency rules. The plaintiff, Michelle Howard, a Pentecostal Christian and missionary, was employed as a social worker in a children’s protective service for the State of Michigan. While making an unannounced visit to a client’s home, the client experienced a seizure lasting 20-25 minutes, which Ms Howard determined was “demonic in nature” rather than medically related. Instead of calling 911, Ms Howard prayed over the client, anointed her with water, and said she would return later to finish driving out the demons. The court concluded that Ms Howard “was not terminated for merely praying at the office or bringing her religion into the workplace. [She] was terminated because the practice of religion with a client caused her to violate several employment rules”.
4. German court wrestles with hooker plea. A German court has rejected an unemployed car mechanic’s claim for four government-paid brothel visits a month to insure his “health and bodily wellbeing” while his wife was abroad. Petitioner Helmut Hanf sought unemployment compensation payments of US$3,050 ($4,040) a month to fund the brothel visits, along with eight pornographic videos and transportation costs to and from a video store. He sued the state after authorities refused to pay for his Thai wife to return to Germany. The court in Ansbach, Germany, threw out the claim saying that unemployment compensation benefits already covered “every day requirements”. Hanf has vowed to appeal and, under German law, his legal expenses will be paid for by the state. One observer remarked, “With the state footing the bill for his appeal, he might as well ask for a live-in hooker.”
3. The raunchy creativity of ‘Friends’. A Court of Appeal in California has ruled that a jury should decide whether sexual talk engaged in by writers working on the network television hit show ‘Friends’ constitutes actionable hostile environment sexual harassment or is a constitutionally protected part of the creative process. Plaintiff Amaani Lyle worked as a writers’ assistant to take copious notes while a high-powered writing team brain-stormed for the show. She complained that the writers acted like “teenagers in a locker room” talking about personal sexual experiences, masturbation, the most attractive types of breasts and buttocks, and other potential themes for ‘Friends’ episodes. This classic collision between sexual harassment law and the First Amendment’s protection of free speech is now set for decision by the California Supreme Court.
2. Workplace lap invite is no high tea at the Savoy. When a male manufacturing employee with 35 years seniority was asked to relinquish his seat to a woman who came to the plant to conduct an audit, he patted his knee and offered “I have a place for you to sit right here.” When the company discharged him for violating its “zero tolerance” policy against sexual harassment, the union grieved. Arbitrator David Singer sustained the grievance and ordered the employer reinstated, reasoning that the worker’s conduct “did not by the remotest stretch of the imagination constitute sexual harassment”, pointing out that the grievant did not commit an offensive gesture such as grabbing his crotch or extending his middle finger. The Arbitrator explained that the employee’s conduct was “typical of workplace behaviour” and if she could not deal with the workplace as it is, and always shall be, she must find other means of employment. The Arbitrator went on to denounce zero tolerance policies as “an idea whose time should never have come” and “the last refuge of weak managers who abdicate their leadership responsibility”.
1. A Lotto-size indecent proposal. In a sexual harassment suit filed in Orlando, Florida, a former sales executive with Central Florida Investments claims that the owner of the company offered her one million dollars to have sex with him. Plaintiff Dawn Georgette Myers was an employee of billionaire real estate developer and resorts tycoon David Siegel and was engaged to his son when the indecent proposal was made. She claims that she considered him a mentor and close friend until he divorced his first wife, after which he wanted her to be his lover, for one million dollars, even though she was his son’s fiancéat the time. She alleges that unwanted touching and sexual propositions continued even after a second marriage, when his current wife began asking her to join them for a ménage à trois.
These wackiest employment law cases first appeared in the US-based National Law Journal.
