Dittmar v. City of North Las Vegas

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nevada
DecidedFebruary 24, 2022
Docket2:17-cv-02916
StatusUnknown

This text of Dittmar v. City of North Las Vegas (Dittmar v. City of North Las Vegas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dittmar v. City of North Las Vegas, (D. Nev. 2022).

Opinion

1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 2 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 3 Pamela Dittmar, Case No.: 2:17-cv-02916-JAD-BNW 4 Plaintiff 5 Order Granting in Part and Denying in v. Part Motions for Summary Judgment 6 City of North Las Vegas, [ECF Nos. 88, 95] 7 Defendant 8

9 Plaintiff Pamela Dittmar, a 17-year former employee of defendant City of North Las 10 Vegas, sues the city for retaliatory termination and discrimination on the basis of sex. According 11 to Dittmar, following NLV Mayor John Lee’s April 2013 election, she began to face a series of 12 sexist indignities and adverse employment actions in an apparent effort to oust her from her 13 job—culminating in her August 2016 firing.1 The city contends that the action it took against 14 Dittmar had nothing to do with her sex and everything to do with her declining performance as 15 an employee in a rapidly changing environment.2 The parties now cross-move for summary 16 judgment on all claims.3 Because Dittmar provides no analysis relevant to her claims in her 17 motion, I deny it. The city has shown that Dittmar’s claims for sex discrimination; hostile work 18 environment; negligent hiring, supervision, or retention (negligence); and intentional infliction of 19 20 1 ECF No. 25 (first-amended complaint); ECF No. 104 (summary-judgment response brief). 21 2 ECF No. 88 (summary-judgment motion); ECF No. 113 (summary-judgment reply brief). 3 Dittmar’s motion is styled as a “motion for partial summary judgment.” ECF No. 95. While 22 the motion does not explicitly state that Dittmar seeks judgment as a matter of law on all five of her claims, its contents—primarily Sections IV(B)(1)–(5) of the filing—indicate that she does. 23 Id. at 9–11. I find both parties’ motions suitable for resolution without oral argument. See L.R. 78-1. 1 emotional distress (IIED) lack factual support, so I grant its motion as to those claims. But 2 because I find that a reasonable jury could decide Dittmar’s retaliation claim either way, that 3 claim must proceed to trial. First, however, I refer this case to the magistrate judge for a 4 mandatory settlement conference.

5 Discussion 6 I. Summary-judgment standard 7 Summary judgment is appropriate when the pleadings and admissible evidence “show 8 that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment 9 as a matter of law.”4 “By its very terms, this standard provides that the mere existence of some 10 alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported 11 motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material 12 fact.”5 A fact is material if it could affect the outcome of the case.6 13 On summary judgment, the court must view all facts and draw all inferences in the light 14 most favorable to the nonmoving party.7 So the parties’ burdens on an issue at trial are critical.

15 When the party moving for summary judgment would bear the burden of proof, “it must come 16 forward with evidence [that] would entitle it to a directed verdict if the evidence went 17 uncontroverted at trial.”8 If it does, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party, who “must present 18 19 4 See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322 (1986) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)). The 20 court’s ability to grant summary judgment on certain issues or elements is inherent in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure (FRCP) 56. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). 21 5 Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248–49 (1986). 22 6 Id. at 249. 7 Kaiser Cement Corp. v. Fischbach & Moore, Inc., 793 F.2d 1100, 1103 (9th Cir. 1986). 23 8 C.A.R. Transp. Brokerage Co. v. Darden Rests., Inc., 213 F.3d 474, 480 (9th Cir. 2000) (quoting Houghton v. South, 965 F.2d 1532, 1536 (9th Cir. 1992)). 1 significant probative evidence tending to support its claim or defense.”9 But when the moving 2 party does not bear the burden of proof on the dispositive issue at trial, it is not required to 3 produce evidence to negate the opponent’s claim—its burden is merely to point out the evidence 4 showing the absence of a genuine material factual issue.10 The movant need only defeat one

5 element of a claim to garner summary judgment on it because “a complete failure of proof 6 concerning an essential element of the nonmoving party’s case necessarily renders all other facts 7 immaterial.”11 “When simultaneous cross-motions for summary judgment on the same claim are 8 before the court, the court must consider the appropriate evidentiary material identified and 9 submitted in support of”—and against—“both motions before ruling on each of them.”12 10 II. Dittmar’s motion for partial summary judgment {ECF No. 95] 11 FRCP 56 requires a summary-judgment movant to “identify[] each claim or defense . . . 12 on which summary judgment is sought,” and show that no genuine disputes of material fact 13 exist.13 To show that a fact “cannot be . . . genuinely disputed,” the movant “must support the 14 assertion” by “citing to particular parts of materials in the record, including depositions,

15 documents, electronically stored information, affidavits or declarations, stipulations (including 16 those made for purposes of the motion only), admissions, interrogatory answers, or other 17 18 19 20 9 Id. 21 10 Celotex, 477 U.S. at 323. 22 11 Id. at 322. 12 Tulalip Tribes of Wash. v. Washington, 783 F.3d 1151, 1156 (9th Cir. 2015) (citing Fair Hous. 23 Council of Riverside Cnty., Inc. v. Riverside Two, 249 F.3d 1132, 1134 (9th Cir. 2001)). 13 Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). 1 materials.”14 And this district’s local rules require a “statement setting forth each fact material to 2 the disposition of the motion” with proper citation to the record evidence.15 3 Puzzlingly, Dittmar’s summary-judgment motion most heavily addresses (1) whether the 4 deposition testimony of the former NLV City Manager Dr. Qiong Liu is “binding” on the city

5 under Federal Rule of Evidence (FRE) 801(d)(2)’s opposing-party-statement hearsay exclusion 6 and (2) whether and when ex parte communications between a plaintiff’s attorney and a 7 defendant’s former employee are permitted.16 These issues are largely inapposite to the 8 questions posed by the summary-judgment analysis, which requires Dittmar to show that she is 9 entitled to judgment as a matter of law by analyzing the facts and evidence in the record. But the 10 final three pages of her motion, in which she presents the elements of each of her claims, contain 11 no analysis and no citation to evidence whatsoever.17 This submission is insufficient to meet her 12 initial burden on summary judgment on any of her claims, so I deny Dittmar’s motion in its 13 entirety. To the limited extent she raises new arguments in her reply brief,18 I decline to consider 14 them.19

15 16

17 14 Id. at 56(c)(1) (emphasis added). 18 15 L.R. 56-1.

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Dittmar v. City of North Las Vegas, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dittmar-v-city-of-north-las-vegas-nvd-2022.