MOOT COURT RULES & FACT PATTERN # 1 Background Moot Court day will be on April 12, 2022. Please arrive right on time. At the "Moot Court," you will be expected to take on the role of an employment lawyer. Some students will be designated "Plaintiff's Attorneys" and others will be designated as "Defense Attorneys." The "Moot Court" will be modeled after a hearing, before a Judge, regarding a summary judgment motion. On summary judgment motions, Plaintiff's Attorneys argue that the Plaintiff/employee's case involved a hotly disputed issue of material fact, and that there is enough evidence in dispute to warrant a trial. Defense Attorneys, on the other hand, want to avoid the expense and uncertainty of trial. Therefore, they argue that the case should be dismissed without a trial. Students must argue for their side before the "Judge" (i.e. the Professor). Students' argument must be like those of lawyers. That is to say, students' argument should involve applying the facts to the law. The facts are given to you below. The Judge and the Attorneys for both sides must assume that all of the facts are true. The law is the law that we have been taught in class, as set forth in the textbook and lectures. Just as with a real motion, the movant (in this case the Defense Attorney), makes an argument to the judge as to why, under the law, these facts cannot support a claim and that the Plaintiff's lawsuit must be dismissed. Then, Plaintiff's counsel has a chance to argue the opposite. Finally, the Defense Attorney is allowed to make a brief rebuttal argument

PLEASE ARGUE A CASE FOR the "attorney" representing the defendant/employer

FACT PATTERN # 1 Meredith (Plaintiff) v. Sunder Mifflin Paper Products Corporation (Defendant)

Meredith has worked at Sunder Mifflin Paper Products Corporation since 207 (and she still works there to this day). During the first year of her employment, 2017, she was an administrative assistant for Bob. Every day, for six months straight months in 2017, Bob begged Meredith to have sex with him. She refused. He would e-mail her hard-core pornographic videos, on a near-daily basis and suggest that the two of them act out the scenes in the videos. Meredith was absolutely disgusted. Worst of all, on one occasion in August 2017, Bob cornered Meredith in the hallway, made a dirty joke about her body, and even touched her breast. Meredith screamed and Bob ran away. Immediately after that incident (and due in large part to Meredith's piercing scream), Bob finally got the message and stopped bothering Meredith. He never said or did anything that Meredith found offensive ever again and they worked together well thereafter. Meredith was happy. At all times, Sunder Mifflin Paper Products Corporation had a very well-written antiharassment policy in its employee handbook. Meredith received a copy of it (and had to sign an acknowledgement of receipt of it upon her hire). She also attended annual anti-harassment training that the company held, so she knew she could report any behavior that she believed to be harassing if she wanted to do so. She admits that there was nothing standing in the way of her reporting Bob's behavior to the Human Resources Director, Tobie, in 2017. However, she did not report Bob, just because she personally felt it would be dishonorable to "rat" on someone, and she generally does not like to think of herself as a "tattle-tale." At the beginning of 2019, Meredith started working with a new employee, Dwight. Dwight was also an administrative assistant like Meredith, and sat at a desk about three feet away from Meredith. Dwight was fond of listening to the radio shock-jock Howard Steam, who is known world-wide for his use of the most extreme foul language, sexually explicit jokes, and vivid descriptions of intimate female body parts - particularly in the context of describing sexual acts. Dwight had this on loudly, for about a six months in a row. Meredith said she was horrified (as most reasonable women in that situation would be). She asked Dwight to turn it off. He refused and said "it's a free country, you dumb broad." Meredith got angry, and Dwight could see this. So as a compromise, Dwight agreed to turn the volume down so that Meredith could not hear it. After Dwight turned down the volume, Meredith could not hear the Howard Steam show any more. All was well for about nine months. Then, it got to be Summer and the weather got warm and the air conditioner was on most of the time. Dwight cranked up the volume so he could hear the Steam show. Meredith was again exposed to the sexual content (content that is clearly offensive to most reasonable women). He refused to turn it down or turn it off. Meredith therefore had to listen to it all day, every day. Meredith complained to Dwight about it, but the more she complained the more he got angry at her. He called her "stupid broad" in response to each of her complaints to him. This happened about twice a week for two months. Moreover, Dwight's resistance to Meredith's complaints intensified. In addition to making those comments, in response to Meredith's complaints, he brought in sex toys and threw them 3 of 3 at her each time she complained to him. (Again, this happened about twice a week for about two months). Finally, in January of 2020, Meredith complained about Dwight's conduct to a Human Resources Department representative. The Human Resources Director, Tobie, conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations, and after a month's investigation, the Company fired Dwight for his conduct. However, during the investigation, Tobie reviewed all of Meredith's e-mails and he discovered that she has, over the years, collected thousands of hard-core pornographic images. Some of the images are even of herself in a state of undress and in provocative poses. Moreover, she sent several hundred such images to her co-worker, Kreed. In March 2020, Meredith filed a lawsuit against Sunder Mifflin Paper Products Corporation for hostile work environment sexual harassment for both: (i) Meredith's experiences with Bob, and (ii) Meredith's more recent experiences with Dwight. Defendant Sunder Mifflin Paper Products Corporation filed a summary judgment motion aimed at dismissing Meredith's claims. That motion is now before the Judge, who will decide whether to dismiss the case, or allow it to continue to trial where a jury would decide whether the company is liable and if it must pay damages. The Judge will decide whether to dismiss the case now, or allow it to go to trial based on the weight of the arguments of the attorneys for Plaintiff and Defendant.