Lisoski v. King County

Opinion

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

7 JASON LISOSKI, No. 2:23-cv-00536-RSL 8 Plaintiff, STIPULATED MOTION AND 9 v. ORDER TO AMEND COMPLAINT AND EXTEND KING COUNTY’S 10 KING COUNTY, et al, DEADLINE TO ANSWER OR OTHERWISE RESPOND 11 Defendants.

12 STIPULATION 13 Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15 and Local Civil Rules 7(j), 10(g) and 15, 14 Plaintiff Jason Lisoski and Defendants King County and King County Department of Natural 15 Resources and Parks (together, “King County”) hereby agree to (a) permit Plaintiff to file a Second 16 Amended Complaint; and (b) give King County twenty-one (21) days from such filing to answer 17 or otherwise respond, and stipulate as follows: 18 1. Plaintiff filed the operative Amended Complaint in state court on March 7, 2023, 19 alleging that King County had denied his request for a religious exemption and accommodation 20 from King County Executive Order ACO-8-27-EO, which required County employees to be 21 vaccinated against COVID-19 (unless they received an exemption and accommodation), and 22 23 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO 1 terminated his 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 amendment to her Amended Complaint. Specifically, King County’s counsel noted that federal 7 courts in Washington and elsewhere have dismissed similar failure-to-accommodate claims where 8 the plaintiffs fail to allege the specific nature of their religious belief, how the belief conflicted 9 with a vaccination requirement, or how the plaintiffs provided adequate notice of this belief to

10 their employers. See, e.g., Bartholomew v. Washington, --- F. Supp. 3d ----, No. 3:23-cv-05209- 11 DGE, 2023 WL 6471627, at *3 (W.D. Wash. Sept. 21, 2023); Kiel v. Mayo Clinic Health System 12 Southeast Minnesota, No. 22-1319 (JRT/ECW), 2023 WL 5000255 (D. Minn. Aug. 4, 2023); see 13 also Leake v. Raytheon Techs. Corp., No. CV-22-00436-TUC-RM, 2023 WL 2242857, at *5 (D. 14 Ariz. Feb. 27, 2023). The Amended Complaint does not allege such facts. 15 3. In lieu of moving for judgment on the pleadings at this stage, King County’s 16 counsel suggested that Plaintiff amend his complaint a second time to add such required factual 17 allegations. Plaintiff agreed to do so. King County consents to the filing of a Second Amended

18 Complaint. In so consenting, however, King County reserves its right to move to dismiss or for 19 judgment on the pleadings in the event Plaintiff’s allegations, as amended, fail to state plausible 20 claims for relief. 21 4. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a)(2) and Local Civil Rule 7(j) the 22 Parties agree that: 23 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 b. King County’s deadline to answer or otherwise respond to the Second 4 Amended Complaint to twenty-one (21) days from the date Plaintiff files the Second Amended Complaint. 5 STIPULATED to this 19th day of December, 2023. 6 PACIFICA LAW GROUP LLP PACIFIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE 7

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

Counsel for Defendant King County Counsel for Plaintiff 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO 1 ORDER 2 IT IS SO ORDERED 3 Dated this 20th day of December, 2023. 4

5 Robert S. Lasnik United States District Judge 6

7 Presented by:

8 PACIFICA LAW GROUP LLP 9

10 s/Zachary J. Pekelis Zachary Pekelis, WSBA #44557 11 Counsel for Defendant King County 12

13 PACIFIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE

14 s/Harold H. Franklin, Jr. Harold H. Franklin, Jr., WSBA #20486 15 Counsel for Plaintiff 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 STIPULATED MOTION AND ORDER TO