Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

CourtDistrict Court, D. Nebraska
DecidedNovember 5, 2025
Docket8:23-cv-00356
StatusUnknown

This text of Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company (Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Nebraska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company, (D. Neb. 2025).

Opinion

To: carson@ned.uscourts.gov Cc: Corey Stull; spmoore_bairdholm.com; Casey Ochs; Danielle Rowley; Caitlin Wain Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] 8:23cv356 Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company Date: Thursday, October 30, 2025 10:03:45 AM CAUTION - EXTERNAL: Judge Carson—Following our September 5 conference with you, plaintiff’s counsel served narrowed discovery requests on September 15, 2025. As you may recall, plaintiff’s goal in these discovery requests was to uncover other UP employees with mental health disabilities—particularly those who had taken short-term disability (STD) leave because of such disabilities—to show that UP has regularly discriminated and retaliated against employees with mental health disabilities and/or those who have taken STD. To that end and per your instructions in the conference, we narrowed our requests to certain managers (GMs, STOs, MTOs, and MYOs) within the Transportation Department of UP’s Northern Region, which is the department and region in which Plaintiff worked when he was terminated. We limited the timeframe of our request to January 2020 through April 2024.

We received responses from defendant on October 15, 2025, which Ms. Rowley attached to her submission earlier today. These responses reiterated essentially the same objections raise by defendant to the original requests. Ms. Rowley and I had a telephone meet-and-confer conference on October 22, 2025. We made no progress in my estimation. Ms. Rowley informed me that UP would only provide responses related to employees/managers who UP alleges were fired for a reason they deemed sufficiently similar to the reason why Plaintiff was fired. Ms. Rowley asserted that the reason UP fired Plaintiff was because he contacted members of his team while on STD, and that nobody else has been fired for the same reason. Of note, the reason for Plaintiff’s termination is not so clear—at least in our estimation—from the evidence that currently exists. But regardless, that is not the type of evidence we are asking for. With the exception of the three individuals who have already been addressed through the in camera review process, we are not asking for evidence of similarly-situated employees who were purportedly fired for a same or similar reason as Plaintiff. Rather, we are asking for evidence of what we believe to be UP’s widespread practice of disciplining or terminating similarly-situated managers who have the same type of disability as our client or who were accommodated through STD, just as our client was.

We would suggest another discovery conference be scheduled to discuss this matter further with you, but are, of course, willing to proceed however you suggest. Thank you.

Jeanette Stull

From: Danielle Rowley Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2025 8:59 AM To: carson@ned.uscourts.gov Cc: Corey Stull ; Scott P. Moore ; Casey Ochs ; Jeanette Stull Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] 8:23cv356 Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

Judge Carson:

Attached please find the discovery at issue. Ms. Stull and I met and conferred on October 22nd. The only agreement we reached is that the records Plaintiff is seeking are not traditional comparator records. In other words, Plaintiff is not seeking disciplinary records of similarly situated individuals who engaged in the same conduct as him. Instead, Plaintiff is seeking the disciplinary and investigative records of (1) every manager who was disciplined while on short-term disability and (2) every manager who reported discriminatory or retaliatory conduct based on a mental health disorder. Union Pacific maintains that these requests are still too broad as comparators must engage in the same conduct, as defined by the Eighth Circuit.

Please let me know if you need any additional information. Thanks! Danielle L. Rowley Baird Holm LLP 1700 Farnam Street Suite 1500 440022..633464..80355858 DFairxe ct Dial Phone drowley@bairdholm.com Baird Holm LLP

This communication, along with any attachments, is covered by federal and state law governing electronic communications and may contain confidential and legally privileged information. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, use or copying of this message is strictly prohibited. If you have received this in error, please reply immediately to the sender and delete this message. Thank you.

From: Caitlin Wain Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 2:15 PM To: Jeanette Stull Cc: Corey Stull ; Scott P. Moore ; Danielle Rowley ; Casey Ochs ; carson@ned.uscourts.gov Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] 8:23cv356 Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

Counsel, thank you for asking. Judge Carson will require the updated requests and responses, and a summary of detailing the parties’ conferrals and any progress made. The judge will then determine the best path to resolving the dispute. The updated submission can be made jointly or separately to carson@ned.uscourts.gov and should be sent no later than 2:00 p.m. on Thursday October 30.

Caitlin E. Wain Law Clerk to United States Magistrate Judge Ryan C. Carson U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska caitlin_wain@ned.uscourts.gov Telephone: (402) 661-7342

From: Jeanette Stull Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2025 1:51 PM To: Caitlin Wain Cc: Corey Stull ; spmoore_bairdholm.com ; Danielle Rowley ; Casey Ochs Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] 8:23cv356 Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

CAUTION - EXTERNAL:

Caitlin—As you may recall, we had a discovery dispute conference with Judge Carson on September 5. Since then, plaintiff served narrowed discovery requests and defendant responded with continued objections to each of those requests. Danielle Rowley and I had a meet-and-confer telephone call last week on these. We continue to be at an impasse and need another discovery conference with Judge Carson. Would you like us to review the judge’s online calendar and find a date and time that works for counsel or are there other next steps? Thanks and be in touch.

Jeanette Stull To: Danielle Rowley ; Jeanette Stull Cc: Kayla Hathcote ; Emily Newcomb ; Corey Stull ; spmoore_bairdholm.com ; Casey Ochs ; carson@ned.uscourts.gov Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] 8:23cv356 Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

Counsel,

The call will be continued to September 5, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. Have a great holiday weekend.

Caitlin

From: Danielle Rowley Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2025 3:23 PM To: Caitlin Wain ; Jeanette Stull Cc: Kayla Hathcote ; Emily Newcomb ; Corey Stull ; spmoore_bairdholm.com ; Casey Ochs ; carson@ned.uscourts.gov Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL] 8:23cv356 Griffin v. Union Pacific Railroad Company

Hi Caitlin:

I talked to Sean Lynch. It sounds like these hearings may take a while so we’d like to reschedule to the afternoon of September 5th.

Thanks! Danielle L.

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