Missouri Supreme Court gives employers an early Halloween scare — Cox v. Kansas City
The Missouri Supreme Court recently gutted a jury verdict in favor of the Kansas City Chiefs Football Club on a Missouri Human Rights Act age discrimination claim brought by a former employee who alleged that he was terminated based on an agenda by management to replace older workers with younger individuals.
The Supreme Court majority opinion held, among other things, that the trial court erred by excluding evidence of alleged discrimination against other, non-party older coworkers – i.e., so-called “me too” witness testimony. On retrial, it thus seems likely that a number of “me too” witnesses will be permitted to testify about their own terminations and replacement by younger individuals, even though some of these terminations were not decided by the same manager who terminated the plaintiff.
A link to the Missouri Supreme Court’s decision is found here: https://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=91953 (Cox v. Kansas City Chiefs Football Club, Inc., No. SC94462 – Sept. 22, 2015)