Utah Appellate Highlights, Utah Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, December 2018

Case summaries for Appellate Highlights are authored by members of Snow Christensen & Martineau’s Appellate Practice Group.  For more information, visit our Appellate Highlights page.

Payan v. United Parcel Service,
905 F.3d 1162 (10th Cir. Oct. 4, 2018)

The plaintiff sued his former employer under Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, claiming racial discrimination and retaliation.  After the plaintiff reported the discrimination to human resources, he was placed on an employee improvement plan, among other measures.  On appeal from summary judgment in favor of the employer, the Tenth Circuit rejected the plaintiff’s argument that these measures constituted materially adverse employment actions under Title VII, joining the Seventh Circuit and four other circuit courts of appeal to hold instead that placement of an employee on an improvement plan alone does not constitute a materially adverse employment action.