Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 948461.pdf

Citation: Wash. Supreme Court published opinion — 948461.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/948461.pdf ↗

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supervisor. Id. at 1110. Because his coworker was afraid to report the harassment,

the employee reported it to the human resources department. Id. Shortly thereafter,

the supervisor fired the employee, /c/. at 1111. After the employee sued for retaliation,

the supervisor denied that he knew which employee reported him for harassment and

stated that the employee's termination was for cause. Id. at 1113. The trial court

granted summary judgment in favor of the employer on this basis. Id.

"The "knew or suspected" standard has been applied by the United States Court of Appeals,
Ninth Circuit, as well as by other federal courts in the OSHA context. See, e.g., Hernandez v.
Spacelabs Med. Inc., 343 F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 2003); Reich, 32 F.3d 361.

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
Cornwell(Dawn) y. Microsoft Corp.
No. 94846-1

The Ninth Circuit reversed summary judgment, holding that the employee had

presented "sufficient evidence from which a reasonable jury could infer both that [the

supervisor] either knew or suspected that [the employee] had reported the alleged

harassment to [human resources], and that there was a causal connection between

this knowledge or suspicion and [the employee's]termination." Id. The court reasoned

that "[i]t is frequently impossible for a plaintiff in [the employee's] position to discover

direct evidence contradicting someone's contention that he did not know something."

Id. at 1114. Thus, "[w]hat-did-he-know-and-when-did-he-know-it questions are often

difficult to answer, and for that reason are often inappropriate for resolution on

summary judgment. . . . But [the employee] has introduced substantial circumstantial