At least one more woman will be able to proceed with long-running employment discrimination claims against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., thanks to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. On Monday the Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court and held that Texas resident Stephanie Odle’s claims aren’t time-barred.
Despite the favorable ruling for Odle, her case serves as a stark reminder of how Wal-Mart and its lawyers at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have decimated gender discrimination claims in the wake of their June 2011 Supreme Court victory in Wal-Mart v. Dukes, which decertified a nationwide class of women. Odle was one of the original named plaintiffs in Dukes, and after the Supreme Court’s decision she joined other plaintiffs and tried to bring a more targeted class action on behalf of as many as 50,000 current and former Texas-area Wal-Mart workers. Now, following adverse rulings by a Dallas district court on the class claims, she’s one of just six women in Texas pursuing individual claims in court.
