Pending Tennessee Legislation would Overturn Summary Judgment Rulings of the Supreme Court

A bill pending in the General Assembly would effectively reverse several decisions of the Tennessee Supreme Court that have all but made it impossible for an employer to get an employment lawsuit dismissed without a jury trial.

The bill would add a new provision to the Tennessee code which would say:

In all motions for summary judgment in any civil action in Tennessee, the moving party shall prevail on its motion for summary judgment if it:
(1) Submits affirmative evidence that negates an essential element of the nonmoving party's claim; or
(2) Demonstrates to the court that the nonmoving party's evidence is insufficient to establish an essential element of the nonmoving party's claim.

One sponsor of the bill explained (in the House Judiciary Subcommittee - see video of the session from April 27, 2011, set out below) the purpose of the bill was to addresses the Supreme Court's 2008 decision in Hannan v Alltel Pub where the Tennessee Supreme Court changed how they applied rule 56 and made a wrong or incorrect decision which makes it almost impossible for a court to grant summary judgment by requiring a party to essentially prove a negative.

A prior post of mine criticized the Supreme Court's "deeply flawed" application of the Hannan decision after it issued the decision in Gossett v. Tractor Supply, which held that the method of analyzing discrimination claims adopted in the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions in McDonnell Douglas / Burdine (an explanation of what these decisions held was included in my prior post) did not apply to summary judgment motions under state law because they were inconsistent with the Hannan decision.

Not surprisingly, the Tennessee Employment Lawyers Association (a group of lawyers that represent employees) opposes the bill, saying it would let employment lawsuits be dismissed without given employees the opportunity to respond.  Their arguments (to the House Judiciary Subcommittee) were poorly founded and were sharply challenged by the bill's sponsor.  The fact that TELA spoke against this bill should tell Tennessee Employers all they need about whether to get behind this bill. Here is a video of the most recent subcommittee discussion about the proposed legislation:

Interestingly, a separate bill (House Bill 1641, by the same sponsor) would directly overturn the Supreme Court's decision in Gossett by adding a provision to the code which specifies that McDonnell Douglas / Burdine principles would apply to claims under the Tennessee Human Rights Act and claims for retaliatory discharge.  I am quite sure that TELA opposes this bill, as well.