SOX Whistleblower Decisions

On September 28, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California issued two separate orders in a long-running SOX whistleblower lawsuit.  Following a jury trial, the court upheld the jury’s $1.5 million damages award and awarded the plaintiff $2.4 million in attorneys’ fees.  Erhart v. BofI

On September 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the Department of Labor’s Administrative Review Board’s rejection of an employee’s Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) retaliation claim, holding the employee did not engage in protected activity because he failed to establish that he had an objective, reasonable

A recent California district court addressed the question of whether, for insurance coverage purposes, a SOX whistleblower claim is a “securities claim,” and answered that question in the affirmative.   Skye Bioscience v. PartnerRe Ireland Insurance DAC, No. 23-cv-01218.

Section 1514A of SOX provides a cause of action for employees

On May 5, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on whistleblower retaliation claims, holding that the company demonstrated that it would have terminated Plaintiff’s employment even in the absence of any alleged protected activity due to his refusal

On April 19, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey granted the defendant-employer’s motion to dismiss a complaint seeking court enforcement of a preliminary reinstatement order after determining that the court lacked jurisdiction to enforce such orders.  Gulden v. Exxon Mobil Corp., No. 22-cv-7418.

Background

On February 28, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois granted a defendant-employer’s motion to dismiss a SOX whistleblower retaliation claim, holding that the plaintiff failed to adequately plead that he engaged in protected activity because his alleged attempt to raise safety concerns did not plausibly

On February 15, 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on SOX whistleblower retaliation claims, holding that the plaintiff failed to establish the elements of a SOX claim, and that the company demonstrated that it would have discharged her

On January 4, the Third Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a former bank executive’s whistleblower retaliation claims, holding that two procedural errors doomed his case: he sued before exhausting his administrative remedies; and then he belatedly filed an administrative complaint after the statute of limitations had run.  Jaludi v. Citigroup

As we previously reported, on February 13, 2020, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) of the Department of Labor (DOL) dismissed a former in-house attorney’s whistleblower claims because he worked entirely outside of the United States.  On December 23, 2022, the D.C. Circuit unanimously affirmed, holding that SOX’s anti-retaliation provision

On December 6, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted a defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment on whistleblower retaliation claims brought under SOX and the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (“CFPA”).  It held that the plaintiff could not prove that her alleged complaints of