Huckabay v. Moore

Outcome: Summary judgment affirmed in favor of Sonya Coffman's client.

Description: White county employee sued county and county commissioner under Title VII and federal civil rights statutes, and under Texas law, alleging, inter alia, that county commissioner had instituted generally racist employment practices in attempt to force out white employees. Sonya Coffman represented the county commissioner. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered summary judgment for both defendants. Employee appealed. The Fifth Court of Appeals held that: (1) employee abandoned §1981 and §1983 claims on appeal; (2) employee's hostile environment race discrimination claim was subject to continuing violation doctrine for Title VII limitations purposes, and employee set forth sufficient evidence of specific alleged violations continuing into 300-day administrative filing period; (3) discrete adverse actions, even if racially motivated, were not part of continuing violation, thus barring recovery on otherwise untimely demotion and failure to promote claims; (4) employee's failure to make reference to specific dates and times of alleged discrimination did not defeat his hostile environment claim; (5) county commissioner could not be held individually liable under Title VII; (6) employee failed to establish state law claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress; and (7) having requested only monetary damages in complaint, employee could not maintain claim under Texas Constitution.