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ARTICLE · 12 MARCH 2014

Tenth Circuit Rules On "Termination By Committee"

An appeals court addressed whether an employee terminated by group decision can be similarly situated to employees who were disciplined less severely by a different group.

United StatesEmployment and HR

On January 21, a federal appeals court addressed whether an employee terminated by group decision (six managers) can be considered "similarly situated" to employees who were disciplined less severely by a different decisional group, consisting of some but not all of the same managers. Reversing the summary judgment decision of a Wyoming trial court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit stated:

Although there is no clear legal rule as to how much overlap is needed among decision maker groups for employees to be similarly situated, requiring absolute congruence would too easily enable employers to evade liability for violation of federal employment laws. The district court erroneously... insist[ed] that the composition of the decisionmaker groups be precisely the same in every relevant disciplinary decision. We disagree because there is more than enough overlap to conclude the employees identified here were similarly situated to [employee].

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