Case Analysis 1

Selected Court Cases

EEOC v. Target Corp and Sigal Construction v. Stanbury

Case Analyses 2

Dave Angel

Grantham University

Course: BA370 Employment Law

Introduction:

I have selected two court case studies for present discussions are Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes and Jones v. Oklahoma City Public Schools. The Wal-Mart case is about the issue related to sex discrimination by paying women less than men and Jones v. Oklahoma City Public Schools is about violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment.

Wal-Mart Stores v. Dukes

1. What was the legal issue in this case? What did the Supreme Court decide?

The legal issue in this case that a group of women who worked at Wal-Mart stores filed a lawsuit alleging that their employer engaged in companywide sex discrimination by paying women less than men, promoting fewer women to management positions, and promoting male employees more quickly.

In its decision, the Supreme Court places a high hurdle for women of Wal-Mart to overcome pay discrimination. Together with women everywhere, they will now face a far steeper road to challenge and correct pay and other forms of discrimination in the workplace (Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, 9th Cir. 2010).

2. What things must be shown in order to achieve class certification in a class action lawsuit? What did the Court say was lacking in this case?

Class certification is governed by Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 23, under rule 23(a), the party seeking certification must demonstrate first that; (1) the class is so numerous that joinder of class members is impracticable (numerosity); (2) there are questions of law or fact common to the class (commonality); (3) the claims or defenses of the class representatives are typical of those of the class (typicality); and (4) the class representatives will fairly and adequately protect the interests of the class (adequacy).

To certify a class, a court must also find that one of the following requirements, set forth in Rule 23(b), are met:...