John Adams Courthouse, home of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Photo: Swampyank via Wikipedia State High Court Reinstates Lawsuit, Ruling 'Innocent Decision Maker' Can Further Discriminatory Corporate Policy
"The Cat's Paw theory adopted by the SJC recognizes that an employer is responsible when a biased actor influences a final decision at any point in the decisionmaker process, and that the bias can come from either the highest levels or from below," one of the attorneys representing Adams, Ilir Kavaja of Kavaja Law, told Law.com about the SJC's ruling.
July 05, 2023 at 12:11 PM
5 minute read
In considering an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by an electrical engineer claiming he was laid off due to his age, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that it is possible various level managers furthered a discriminatory corporate policy without knowingly doing so.
The court considered a case involving claims brought by Mark A. Adams against his former employer, Schneider Electric, alleging that his age was a factor in a 2017 layoff and that the company allegedly had a strategy for reducing the number of older employees by replacing them with recent college graduates, among other allegations, according to the court's June 21 opinion.
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