If you're a manager and one of your employees says something particularly foolish about another, don't panic: Not every stray comment will be grounds for a successful lawsuit. That's especially true if the comments didn't come from a decision-maker or happened well before a discharge or disciplinary decision.
Recent case: Rickey, a Minneapolis police officer, was older than 40 when he was terminated. He sued, alleging he had been fired because of his age.
The Minneapolis Police Department claimed that wasn't the case. It explained that Rickey had violated department policy when he went to a call, discovered three guns and took them home. After more than 40 days, he apparently returned them to the owner. However, he did so without running a background check to determine whether the weapons should be returned.
Department policy requires inventorying all confiscated weapons, checking them against a stolen weapons database and otherwise securing them in custody. Officers aren't allowed to simply take guns home.
Rickey argued that the department's investigation was just a smokescreen to cover up age discrimination. He told the court that on several occasions, he had been called a "dinosaur," been asked about his retirement plans and otherwise singled out because he was older than many other officers.
But the department argued that none of the stray comments had been made by anyone involved in his discharge. Therefore they couldn't be used as age discrimination evidence. The court agreed and dismissed Rickey's lawsuit.
