Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I
In February 2008, Tera Knoll filed suit against the City of
Allentown in the Court of Common Pleas of Lehigh County,
Pennsylvania following her termination from the Citys Parks
Department. Knoll alleged claims of gender discrimination,
harassment, and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq., and the
Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, 43 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann.
951 et seq. Allentown removed the case to the United States
District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
After the District Court granted in part and denied in part
Allentowns motion for summary judgment, a jury trial on the
remaining claims commenced in June 2010. At the close of
Knolls case, the District Court granted in part Allentowns
motion for judgment as a matter of law and dismissed Knolls
gender discrimination claim. The jury later returned a verdict in
favor of Allentown on the harassment and retaliation claims.
On July 21, 2010, Knoll filed a motion for a new trial.
On August 4, 2010, Allentown filed a response, arguing that the
motion was meritless and also noting that Knoll had failed to
comply with Eastern District of Pennsylvania Local Rule of
Civil Procedure 7.1(e), which requires a litigant either to order a
trial transcript or to file a verified motion showing good cause to
be excused from that requirement within fourteen days of filing
a post-trial motion. On September 9, 2010, the District Court
dismissed Knolls motion for a new trial for lack of prosecution,
citing Knolls noncompliance with Local Rule 7.1(e), as well as
Knolls failure to correct that noncompliance even after
Allentown raised the issue in its response to the motion for a
new trial. Knoll then filed a motion for reconsideration on
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