U.S. Court Denies Caterpillar Summary Judgment in SOX Whistleblower Case

On July 13, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois denied a motion for summary judgment in Schlicksup v. Caterpillar, Inc., allowing a Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) whistleblower, Daniel Schlicksup, to proceed to trial. Schlicksup, a tax manager with twenty years of experience, alleges that he was involuntarily reassigned by his employer Caterpillar to a position in the Information Technology Department due to his disclosures about the company not paying U.S. taxes on one of its structures.

Judge Mihm applied the adverse employment standard for Title VII retaliation claims prescribed in Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. v. White, and concluded that the involuntary reassignment might lead to a loss of “career prospects” and therefore constitutes an actionable adverse employment action.  Click here for the court’s full opinion.

The employment lawyers at The Employment Law Group® law firm have substantial experience representing employees in Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower proceedings and have written numerous articles about the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.  For more information about TELG’s Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblower Practice, click here.

Tagged: Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), Whistleblower Laws (Federal)