Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 857088.pdf

Citation: Wash. Court of Appeals published opinion — 857088.pdf
Jurisdiction: Washington (state)
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Original Source: https://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/857088.pdf ↗

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an employee “must resort to circumstantial evidence to demonstrate retaliatory purpose,” temporal
proximity is “[o]ne factor supporting retaliatory motivation”) (emphasis added) (quoting Vasquez v.
State, 94 Wn. App. 976, 985, 974 P.2d 348 (1999)); Ellorin v. Applied Finishing Inc., 996 F. Supp.
2d 1070, 1090-91 (W.D. Wash. 2014) (where employee seeks to establish causation “only on the
basis of ‘temporal proximity . . . the temporal proximity must be very close.’”) (quoting Clark County
Sch. Dist. v. Breeden, 532 U.S. 268, 273, 121 S. Ct. 1508, 149 L. Ed. 2d 509 (2001) (per curiam));
Macon v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., No. C12-260 RAJ, 2012 WL 5410289, at *6 (W.D. Wash. Nov.
5, 2012) (dismissing retaliation claim where employee “relie[d] entirely on temporal proximity to
establish causation”).

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For the current opinion, go to https://www.lexisnexis.com/clients/wareports/.
No. 85708-8-I

meets its sales quota for a given year (which Bittner’s team did from 2014 to 2019),

not for other qualitative achievements by the RVP.

Third, Symetra contends there is a “lack of management continuity”

because Fry, the employee who reprimanded Bittner in July 2018 for engaging in

protected activity, “had no involvement in the October 2019 decision to terminate

Bittner’s employment.” This argument ignores that Ward, who was also involved

in the decision to terminate Bittner, instructed Fry before his July 2018 meeting

with Bittner to reprimand him for telling others to seek legal advice. Additionally,

Costello, who was also involved in the decision to terminate Bittner, “told [Bittner]

pretty much [he] was going to get fired” if he told another employee to seek legal

advice. This evidence, at the very least, establishes fact issues regarding