Texas Wal-Mart Gender Discrimination Class Action Dismissed

By Matt O'Donnell

 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has managed to win another dismissal of a gender discrimination class action lawsuit, this time filed by female employees in Texas.

The Texas Wal-Mart gender discrimination lawsuit accused the retailer of discriminating against women in pay and promotions in the company’s Texas region, which included some stores in neighboring states. The class action lawsuit was seeking permission to represent all female hourly and salaried workers, except store managers and above, employed by Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club in the region.

The case is one of four regional Wal-Mart gender discrimination class action lawsuits filed after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a nationwide gender discrimination class action lawsuit seeking to represent millions of employees. The high court ruled the women did not have enough in common to proceed as a group, but allowed them to regroup to form smaller regional class action lawsuits filed in California, Florida, Texas and Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Conner dismissed the Texas class action lawsuit on Monday after finding the lawsuit was filed too late. O’Conner said the Plaintiffs’ class claims “are barred by the statute of limitation, and should be dismissed,” but allowed the lead Plaintiff, Stephanie Odle, to move forward with other individual claims.

“We are pleased that the district court has dismissed the class action claims, recognizing the individuals must pursue their own claims,” Theodore Boutrous Jr., a lawyer for Wal-Mart, said following the ruling.

“You can’t piggyback one class action on top of another. This class action was based on the same theories that were rejected by the Supreme Court.”

Attorneys for the Plaintiffs said they plan to file an appeal.

News of the dismissal comes nearly a week after a California federal court denied Wal-Mart’s motion to dismiss the narrowed California gender discrimination class action lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart.

 

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said he would certify the case if the California Plaintiffs can prove Wal-Mart had engaged in gender discrimination across the state. Dukes is seeking to represent a proposed class of more than 100,000 current and former employees of California Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores were allegedly subject to pay and promotion discrimination at any time since December 26, 1998.

The Texas case is Odle v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Case No. 11-cv-02954, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas (Dallas).

 

Updated October 18th, 2012

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