Opinion ID: 874358
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Issues of Material Fact Remain Regarding Causation

Text: As a general rule, causation is an issue of fact for the jury and only rarely can the issue be determined on a motion for summary judgment. See Curlee, 2008 Op. No. 112 at 7 (If Curlee presented a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge, the district court was not free to accept as true the employer's testimony that she was fired for some other legitimate reason.). Here, Van was fired  purportedly due to his distrust of the pilots and inability to accept solutions other than his own  after a series of complaints and reports of occurrences implicating federal law, rules, and regulations. Drawing all inferences in favor of Van, a reasonable person could conclude that Van was terminated for his insistence on reporting violations and suspected violations over a period of time. Similar to this Court's holding in Curlee, the district court erred by simply accepting PMC's proffered reasons for firing Van once he had demonstrated a prima facie case of retaliatory discharge; instead questions of material fact remained to be tried by the jury. This is true even though, as PMC points out, a number of Van's reports occurred years before his termination. The district court erred in granting summary judgment on this basis.