Court Opinion

ID: 9499153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:39:05.982116+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:18.745048
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Although I concur in large part with the conclusions offered by the majority, I respectfully dissent on the issue of Green’s federal retaliation and Minnesota state whistleblower claims. In addition to temporal proximity, there is further circumstantial evidence suggesting Franklin National Bank’s offered reason for Green’s termination — that she refused to work her regularly scheduled shift — is merely pre-textual.
*918Specifically, Green provided deposition testimony that on August 26, Bank Vice President Wayne Erdman informed her that her August 27 replacement from the Blaisdell branch had been cancelled. Green subsequently made repeated requests to have another bank employee from the Washington Avenue office work her previously scheduled, but since reassigned, work shift on August 27. Green claims that Erdman denied her request and told her that she was being let go, while also refusing to provide Green with a written explanation for her termination. This version of events calls into question whether Green actually refused to work on August 27, thereby undercutting the very essence of the bank’s proffered legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for Green’s termination.
Taking Green’s testimony to be true, as we must, a reasonable jury could easily infer pretext based on the fact that Green never refused to work on August 27, as the bank alleges. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.