The Court of Appeals last month upheld the summary disposition of an obese man's claim that he was wrongfully fired for objecting to harassment over his weight. The Court found evidence that he had made a disrespectful comment about a co-worker's girlfriend and a comment about having sex with another co-worker's mother, and that he also sprayed anti-spatter chemical on a third co-worker. On the basis of there facts, the Court held that he was fired for cause related to his own inappropriate conduct and that he hadn't raised a genuine issue of material fact with regard to illegal retaliation.
The Court concluded that although he had documented a hostile work environment with regard to his weight, the Defendant's HR representative had taken prompt and appropriate remedial action in response, and therefore he couldn't maintain a lawsuit on that theory. The case is Goodale v. Landscape Forms, Inc.
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