Rivkin Team Scores Victory for GEICO in Second Circuit
June 17, 2014 | |Barry I. Levy, Cheryl Korman and Merril Biscone successfully convinced the Second Circuit to affirm the dismissal of a former employee’s retaliation claim against GEICO.
The plaintiff, a former New York based auto damage supervisor, asserted Federal and New York State claims against GEICO, alleging that the company had retaliated against him by terminating his employment in response to objections he had made about how GEICO had treated older employees. The District Court concluded on summary judgment that GEICO had established that the plaintiff’s claim that his termination was retaliatory was unsupported, and that he was in fact terminated because of repeated violations of GEICO’s Code of Conduct when he interjected himself into the insurance claim that his sister submitted to GEICO following an automobile accident. On appeal, the Second Circuit unanimously agreed with GEICO’s position that the plaintiff had failed to meet its burden of establishing that the reasons GEICO offered for plaintiff’s termination were merely a pretext for the termination. The Court specifically found that the evidence upon which plaintiff relied to support his claim of pretext was insufficient in light of the evidence that GEICO presented concerning plaintiff’s violations of GEICO’s code of conduct.
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