Coach Fouls Out On Retaliation Claim

Retaliation claims are very dangerous for Texas employers. This is why any advantage is very welcome. So, a case that came out in September from the federal appeals court covering Texas is welcome news.

Coach Complains; Coach Removed

Charles Julien worked as a teacher and basketball coach for a high school. Following a losing season in the rough and tumble world of high school sports, he was dismissed as coach on October 26, 2018. And on October 29, he filed a complaint with the school board alleging the principal who made the decision to dismiss him had also sexually harassed him. The complaint was investigated and found to be without merit.

Apparently high school basketball coaches are hard to come by. The school board superintendent reinstated Julien as the coach on November 26 so the team could compete in the upcoming season. Beginning in April 2019 and extending through September 2019, Julien claimed retaliation by the principal for filing the sexual harassment complaint consisting of:

• Locking the team out of gym facilities;
• Requiring Julien to obtain addition insurance for use of the facilities; and
• Ultimately removing him again as the coach in September 2019 after yet another losing season.

Julien filed a retaliation lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in June 2021.

Slow Play Results in Dismissal

“Revenge is a dish best served cold,” or so goes conventional wisdom. And candidly, human nature, when you think about it.

But the courts don’t see it that way. For a retaliation claim, they require an employee to show a connection between the complaint and the adverse actions. This can be done by establishing a short time frame between the two. The $400-an-hour term for this $25 concept is ”temporal proximity.” Put differently, there is a short time span between the complaint and the bad stuff happening to the employee. If temporal proximity is absent, there is no retaliation claim. Here, the time span, at the earliest, is six months. That’s too long, and so the coach fouled out. Case dismissed. Julien v. St. John The Baptist Parish School System (5th Cir., September 9, 2024).

Buzzer Beater

The best estimate for a time frame satisfying the temporal proximity element is a month or so. So, the best advice on a retaliation claim is creating a timeline, noting the dates of the complaint and the adverse employment action, and going from there.

Michael P. Maslanka is a professor at the UNT-Dallas College of Law. You can reach him at michael.maslanka@untdallas.edu.

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