And the official “golden rule” of summary judgment is…
…never forget to file a separate statement of facts! That’s the lesson from Batarse v. Service Employees International Union Local 1000, in which an appellate court upheld dismissal of a discrimination and retaliation case because the employee forgot to include a separate statement of facts with his opposition to the employer’s motion for summary judgment. In its ruling, the court cited both the “golden rule” of summary judgment (if evidence is not included in a separate statement then it “does not exist”), as well as a general lack of evidence of unlawful conduct by the employer, the SEIU. The SEIU purportedly fired the employee, a labor relations representative, because he had not disclosed relevant issues about his past during his job interview (mainly, that he had resigned as a lawyer with numerous complaints pending against him).