Think you should be able to sue a rapist no matter how long it takes to catch him?
Think gender based discrimination is actionable?
Think your employer has an ongoing responsibility to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace?
Not in Michigan. Not anymore.
Trentadue v Buckler Automatic Lawn Sprinkler Co 479 Mich 378, 738 NW2d 664. In November 1986, Dr. Margarette F. Eby was raped and murdered at her home in Flint. The killer was not caught until identified by DNA evidence in 2002. Ms. Eby’s family then sued. Justice Taylor’s court overruled years of established case-law and told her family- sorry you lose! Even though you didn’t know who the murderer was, it is to late to sue-the statute of limitations has run. So the moral of this sad story for rapists and murderers is-if you don’t get caught right away, your victim cannot sue for your terrible crime. Very nice!!!!! Bet you had no idea criminals had it so good in Michigan. Tell Justice Cliff Taylor thanks but no thanks for this ruling.
Gilbert v DaimlerChrysler Corp, 470 Mich 749 (2004).The court overturned a jury verdict in favor of Plaintiff, the first female millwright at Chrysler’s Jefferson Avenue Plant, who overwhelmingly proved that male employees sexually harassed her and that her employer failed to conduct a proper investigation and did very little to try to make the harassment stop. According to the dissenting justices the decision was motivated by the court’s dislike of the plaintiff’s attorney. So this woman loses because the court doesn’t like her attorney. See the dissenting opinion starting on page 57.
Garg v Macomb Mental Health, 472 Mich 263 (2005). The court reversed decades of law and overruled the continuing violations doctrine, allowing an employer to escape liability for sexual harassment because it had been going on for a long time.
Magee v DaimlerChrysler Corp, 472 Mich 108 (2005). The court found that even though the plaintiff’s claims of sexual harassment, sex and age discrimination and retaliation were filed within three years of the date she resigned, the suit was too late because none of the alleged conduct occurred within the three years before filing the complaint. More of the same.
Haynie v State, 468 Mich 302 (2003). The court’s decision causes women to lose work place protections. Harassment of female coworkers that is gender-based, but not sexual in nature, is no longer actionable in Michigan. So, as long as the harasser doesn’t demand sex, its ok to treat a woman poorly because she is a woman. Unbelievable.
Guess what each of these cases has in common? The injured worker or victim loses. The Defendant, the employer and their insurance companies win.
If you think this kind of judicial activism is wrong, vote to restore fairness by voting for Judge Hathaway for the Michigan Supreme Court on the nonpartisan section of the ballot this November. Remember, you have not cast a vote for the supreme court until you check the box next to Judge Hathaway’s name.