Jackson v. King County

Opinion

5 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 6 WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE 7

8 TAMMY JACKSON, 9 No. 2:23-cv-00774-RSL Plaintiff, 10 STIPULATED MOTION AND 11 v. ORDER TO AMEND COMPLAINT AND EXTEND KING COUNTY’S 12 KING COUNTY, et al, DEADLINE TO ANSWER OR OTHERWISE RESPOND 13 Defendants.

15 STIPULATION 16 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 and Local Civil Rules 7(j), 10(g) and 15, 17 Plaintiff Tammy Jackson and Defendants King County and King County Metro Transit (together, 18 “King County”) hereby agree to (a) permit Plaintiff to file a Second Amended Complaint; and (b) 19 20 give King County twenty-one (21) days from such filing to answer or otherwise respond, and 21 stipulate as follows: 22 1. Plaintiff filed the operative Amended Complaint in state court on May 5, 2023, 23 alleging that King County had denied her request for a religious exemption and accommodation 24 from King County Executive Order ACO-8-27-EO, which required County employees to be 25 vaccinated against COVID-19 (unless they received an exemption and accommodation), and 26

27 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO 1 terminated her employment. Dkt. #1-1. Plaintiff brought claims under Title VII and the 2 Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD). After service of the Amended Complaint, 3 King County removed the case to this Court. Dkt. #1. 4 2. On October 6, 2023, King County’s outside counsel entered an appearance in this 5 matter. Shortly thereafter, its counsel contacted Plaintiff’s counsel regarding a potential 6 7 amendment to her Amended Complaint. Specifically, King County’s counsel noted that federal 8 courts in Washington and elsewhere have dismissed similar failure-to-accommodate claims where 9 the plaintiffs fail to allege the specific nature of their religious belief, how the belief conflicted 10 with a vaccination requirement, or how the plaintiffs provided adequate notice of this belief to 11 their employers. See, e.g., Bartholomew v. Washington, --- F. Supp. 3d ----, No. 3:23-cv-05209- 12 DGE, 2023 WL 6471627, at *3 (W.D. Wash. Sept. 21, 2023); Kiel v. Mayo Clinic Health System 13 14 Southeast Minnesota, No. 22-1319 (JRT/ECW), 2023 WL 5000255 (D. Minn. Aug. 4, 2023); see 15 also Leake v. Raytheon Techs. Corp., No. CV-22-00436-TUC-RM, 2023 WL 2242857, at *5 (D. 16 Ariz. Feb. 27, 2023). The Amended Complaint does not allege such facts. 17 3. In lieu of moving for judgment on the pleadings at this stage, King County’s 18 counsel suggested that Plaintiff amend her complaint a second time to add such required factual 19 allegations. Plaintiff agreed to do so. King County consents to the filing of a Second Amended 20 21 Complaint. In so consenting, however, King County reserves its right to move to dismiss or for 22 judgment on the pleadings in the event Plaintiff’s allegations, as amended, fail to state plausible 23 claims for relief. 24 4. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2) and Local Civil Rule 7(j) the 25 Parties agree that: 26

27 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO 1 a. Plaintiff may file a Second Amended Complaint in the form attached to the stipulation (Dkt. # 9) as Exhibit 1. Pursuant to Local Civil Rule 15, Exhibit 2 1 indicates how the Second Amended Complaint differs from the operative Amended Complaint; and 3 4 b. King County’s deadline to answer or otherwise respond to the Second Amended Complaint to twenty-one (21) days from the date Plaintiff files 5 the Second Amended Complaint. 6 STIPULATED to this 19th day of December, 2023. 7 PACIFICA LAW GROUP LLP PACIFIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE 8

9 s/Zachary J. Pekelis s/Harold H. Franklin, Jr. 10 Zachary J. Pekelis, WSBA #44557 Harold H. Franklin, Jr., WSBA #20486

11 Counsel for Defendant King County Counsel for Plaintiff

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO 1 2 ORDER 3

4 IT IS SO ORDERED 5 Dated this 20th day of December, 2023.

6 7 Robert S. Lasnik 8 United States District Judge

9 Presented by: 10

11 PACIFICA LAW GROUP LLP 12

13 s/Zachary J. Pekelis Zachary Pekelis, WSBA #44557 14

15 Counsel for Defendant King County

16 PACIFIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE 17 s/Harold H. Franklin, Jr. 18 Harold H. Franklin, Jr., WSBA #20486 19 Counsel for Plaintiff 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO