DISCLAIMER: Any unofficial case summaries below are prepared by the clerk's office
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182888P.pdf 01/30/2020 Dakota, MN & Eastern Railroad v. U.S. Department of Labor
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 18-2888
Petition for Review of an Order of the Department of Labor (except OSHA)
[PUBLISHED] [Loken, Author, with Shepherd and Stras, Circuit Judges]
Petition for Review - Order of the Department of Labor. The Administrative
Review Board's decision in this matter is both contrary to established
Eighth Circuit precedent and fatally flawed; with respect to Federal
Railroad Safety Act claims this court has held that the contributing
factor that an employee must prove is intentional retaliation prompted by
the employee engaging in protected activity; the court has expressly
rejected the contention that when an employer learns about an employee's
conduct warranting discipline in a protected injury report, the report and
the discipline are inextricably intertwined and this factual connection is
sufficient to establish the contributing-factor element of a prima facie
case; the employer's petition for review is granted and the matter is
remanded to the Review Board with instructions to apply the correct legal
standard to the existing administrative record.