193688P.pdf   02/04/2021  Lana Starkey  v.  Amber Enterprises, Inc.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  19-3688
                          and No:  19-3757
   U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska - Omaha   
   [PUBLISHED] [Erickson, Author, with Benton and Grasz, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Employment discrimination. Assuming plaintiff established a 
   prima facie case of age discrimination, defendant articulated a 
   legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for eliminating her position and 
   demoting her - the need to restructure the financial department she headed 
   to emphasize accounting and effectively implement a new operating system - 
   and plaintiff failed to show the stated ground was a pretext for age 
   discrimination; the court did not err in granting defendant summary 
   judgment on plaintiff's COBRA and ERISA claims; the court properly 
   exercised original jurisdiction over plaintiff's Nebraska age 
   discrimination claim and did not err, for the reasons previously stated, 
   in granting the employer summary judgment on the claim; exercise of 
   supplemental jurisdiction on plaintiff's state law intentional infliction 
   of emotional distress claim was appropriate; the district court erred in 
   splitting plaintiff's claim that her employer retaliated against her for 
   reporting Medicaid and HIPPA issues and for filing charges with the 
   Nebraska Equal Opportunity Commission; once the court decided that part of 
   the claim needed to be remanded to state court, judicial economy and 
   convenience no longer weighed in favor of the federal court reaching the 
   issue and the whole claim should have been remanded, given Nebraska's 
   strong interest in interpreting its statute and guaranteeing a 
   "surer-footed reading" of it; the district court's order regarding the 
   Nebraska Fair Employment Practices Act claim is vacated and the claim is 
   remanded in its entirety to state court.