Killgore v. SpecPro Pro. Servs., LLC

Killgore v. SpecPro Pro. Servs., LLC

Opinion

 [*978]  SANCHEZ, Circuit Judge:

Plaintiff Aaron Killgore appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment for his former employer, Defendant SpecPro Professional Services, LLC ("SpecPro"). While consulting on an environmental project for the United States Army Reserve Command, Killgore believed he was being required to prepare an environmental assessment in a manner that violated federal law. He was terminated shortly after reporting the suspected illegality to the client and his supervisor at SpecPro. He brought statutory and common law claims of retaliation and wrongful termination in a state court action that was removed to federal court.

We conclude the district court misapplied the substantive law of California. The court determined in error that Killgore's disclosures were not protected under the state whistleblower statute and therefore  [*979]  disregarded evidence material to his claims. Properly considered, the evidence raises genuine disputes of material fact as to the nature of Killgore's disclosures, whether he had reasonable cause to believe that federal [**9]  law was being violated, and whether his whistleblowing activity was a contributing factor in his termination of employment. We reverse the district court's entry of summary judgment as to claims of retaliation and wrongful termination that are based on his protected disclosures. However, we affirm as to his claim of retaliation based on the refusal to participate in illegal activity, as Killgore presented no evidence in support of that claim.

Defendant SpecPro is an environmental services firm that assists government agencies with the preparation of environmental assessments and other reports required under the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq. and federal regulations. SpecPro contracted with the United States Army Reserve Command ("Army Reserve") to provide environmental and training support services for the 63rd Regional Support Command ("63rd Command"), headquartered in Mountain View, California. One of the projects under contract involved preparing an environmental assessment for a proposed action by the 1-158th Assault Helicopter Battalion ("1-158th") to modify the use of twelve landing sites on land owned by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice near Conroe, Texas ("Conroe EA"). The 63rd Command proposed [**10]  designating the Conroe site as a staging area for Blackhawk helicopter assault training missions, which would require the aircraft to land and be supported by refueling trucks and personnel. Previously, the 1-158th performed Apache helicopter attack missions which involved hovering rather than landing maneuvers at Conroe.

Aaron Killgore was hired by SpecPro in June 2015 as a program manager and assigned to support the Conroe EA. ³ SpecPro's team included Killgore, Oskar Burger, and Killgore's supervisor, William Emerson. SpecPro also retained AGEISS, an environmental consulting company, to assist in preparing the Conroe EA, and AGEISS assigned Melissa Russ to the contract. The Army Reserve's project leader was Chief Laura Caballero, the Environmental Division Chief of the 63rd Command.

Full case includes Shepard's, Headnotes, Legal Analytics from Lex Machina, and more.