Health Law Advisor

On April 20, 2017, in Marshall v. The Rawlings Company LLC, No. 16-5614, slip op., (6th Cir. April 20, 2017) the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers federal courts in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, for the first time adopted the cat’s paw theory of liability in the context of a retaliation claim brought under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq.  The term “cat’s paw” was coined by Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit and introduced in Shager v. Upjohn Co., 913 F.2d 398 (7th Cir. 1990) as a standard by which liability may be imputed to an ...

In employment litigation, plaintiffs often rely on the “cat’s paw” doctrine to hold their employers liable for discriminatory or retaliatory animus of a supervisory employee who influenced, but did not make, the ultimate employment decision.  On August 29, 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Vasquez v. Empress Ambulance Service, Inc., greatly extended the reach of the “cat’s paw,” holding that the doctrine could be applied to hold an employer liable for an adverse employment decision that was influenced by the discriminatory or ...