EEOC nailed with $4.5 Million in attorney’s fees, out-of-pocket expense and court costs following dismissal of sexual harassment suit.
Editor’s comment: Human resources and benefits managers across the U.S. are smiling to hear a federal judge in Iowa ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay $4.56 million in attorney fees and expenses to a Cedar Rapids trucking business after dismissing the agency’s sexual harassment lawsuit. A team of attorneys successfully defended CRST Van Expedited in the lawsuit, which was filed in 2007.
The fee award against the EEOC by a federal judge is unusual and may be among the largest imposed by a federal court. They are appealing. The agency alleged CRST’s lead drivers or team drivers subjected approximately 270 female drivers to sexual harassment and a sexually hostile work environment and the company had failed to correct and protect them.
In a series of rulings, Chief Judge Linda Reade of the Northern District of Iowa dismissed the agency’s claims. She previously granted summary judgment on the claim CRST tolerated a “pattern and practice” of sexual harassment against female drivers. The EEOC presented the court with what was felt to be solely anecdotal evidence to show some members of CRST’s management may have occasionally violated CRST’s anti-sexual harassment policy by failing to respond appropriately to sexual harassment in the workplace.
The EEOC did not present the failings of CRST’s managers in any meaningful way to show CRST had a defined pattern or practice of tolerating sexual harassment in its workplace. This summary judgment ruling effectively left 200 or so EEOC claims with nothing in common.
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