Lopez v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, No. 09-1664

In minority police officers' disparate impact race claim under Title VII against a state agency that prepares and administers promotional examinations for local police officers under the state civil service system, their employers, various cities, and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), district court's denial of Eleventh Amendment immunity for the state defendants, the state of Massachusetts and a chief human resources officers of the Human Resources Division (HRD) in his official capacity, is reversed where: 1) the state defendants do not qualify as employers as that term is used in Title VII; 2) HRD cannot be deemed plaintiffs' de facto employer as it exercised no control, direct or indirect, over the factors relevant to the common law agency test; and 3) plaintiffs' alternate theories why HRD should be considered their employer under Title VII are rejected.    

Read Lopez v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, No. 09-1664

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

Decided December 3, 2009

Judges

Before:  Lynch, Chief Judge, Torruella and Howard, Circuit Judges

Opinion by Lynch, Chief Judge

Counsel

For Appellant:   Sookyoung Shin, Assistant Attorney General, Robert L. Quinan, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Martha Coakley, Attorney General of Massachusetts

For Appellee:  Harold Lichten, Leah Berrault and Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C.