Connelly v. Lane Construction — employment discrimination — vacate & remand — Jordan

Sandra Connelly was a truck driver. According the suit she later filed, her male co-workers harrassed her, and her complaints about this harassment strained her work relationships. When the company then laid off drivers, she alleged, she was let go before less-senior male drivers, and when the company recalled laid-off drivers, the company brought back less-senior men but not her. She sued under title VII and state law, but the district court dismissed based its conclusion that she failed to plead a sufficiently plausible gender-discrimination claim. Today, the Third Circuit vacated that dismissal, holding that Connelly’s claims were sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. The court reiterating that a complaint need not establish a prima facie case in order to survive dismissal, and that the test is whether the complaint is plausible on its face, a test that can be met “even if one believed it ‘unlikely that the plaintiff can prove those facts or will ultimately prevail on the merits.'”

Joining Jordan were Fisher and Chagares. Arguing counsel were Emily Town (formerly of Stember Cohn but now a WDPA clerk) for the employee, Samantha Clancy (formerly of Ogletree Deakins but now corporate counsel) for the appellant, and Christine Back for the EEOC as amicus appellant. (Neither Town nor Clancy are on their firms’ websites.)