On January 12, 2015, in Greengrass v. International Monetary Systems Ltd., the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the employer. The Seventh Circuit held that a reasonable jury could find the employer's inclusion of the former employee's name in publicly available SEC filings to be retaliation under Title VII for the employee's prior filing of an EEOC discrimination charge. (No. 13-2901, (7th Cir. Jan. 12, 2015)).

Celia Greengrass worked as an account executive for International Monetary Systems Ltd. (IMS). In September 2007, she made a written sexual harassment complaint to her superior and later quit her job. In January 2008, Greengrass filed an EEOC charge against IMS, alleging sex discrimination, national origin discrimination and retaliation.

In March 2008, in compliance with annual SEC requirements, IMS filed documents describing any legal proceedings in which it was involved. On the advice of an outside accountant, IMS did not mention Greengrass's EEOC charge, but referred to another charge without disclosing the complainant's name. In other quarterly documents, IMS referred to litigants as "former employees," but did not identify them.

In response to a July 2008 EEOC request for information on other sexual harassment claims, IMS's counsel sent executives an email discussing Greengrass's EEOC charge, as well as the potential disclosure of information and resulting liability. In January 2009, the EEOC signaled an increased involvement in Greengrass's matter by notifying IMS of its intent to conduct interviews about her case. In its April and May 2009 SEC filings, IMS divulged that Greengrass had filed an EEOC charge, and stated that her claims were meritless. IMS also specifically identified other individuals with pending claims.

Greengrass received a reasonable cause determination from the EEOC and the matter was eventually resolved through conciliation. Greengrass argued that she encountered difficulty finding post-IMS work as a result of being named in the public SEC filings.

In September 2010, Greengrass filed an EEOC charge alleging that IMS included her name and legal matter in its SEC filings in retaliation for her filing her initial EEOC charge. The EEOC issued a reasonable cause determination in Greengrass's retaliation claim and Greengrass sued IMS for violating Title VII's retaliation provision.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of IMS, holding that Greengrass failed to show a causal link between her filing of the EEOC charge and IMS listing her name and legal matter in the SEC filings.

The Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment to IMS and held that Greengrass provided sufficient evidence to link her protected activity to IMS's adverse action.

In reaching this conclusion, the Seventh Circuit noted that:

Employers must apply a consistent policy of including or excluding the names of current or former employee litigants in SEC filings. If an employer opts to name an individual claimant, it should make sure there is a strong regulatory reason for doing so. Greengrass has set a difficult bar for employers in attempting to avoid retaliation claims when identifying specific names in regulatory filings. Employers should recall that although IMS identified other individuals with whom it was engaged in legal matters, aside from just Greengrass, the Circuit Court still found potential retaliation in Greengrass's matter.