Does an employee ever have standing to claim that another employee's termination was really an act of retaliation against her? A federal court sitting in Pennsylvania recently reviewed such a novel claim.

What happened. A female worker was a loan officer at Becker Subaru of Allentown. Her live-in partner, worked as a salesman at the dealership. As part of her duties, she funneled sales leads from the Internet to the salesmen. Employees began to complain to management that she gave all the best leads to her boyfriend. When the owner of the company found out that she was involved in a relationship with a co-worker, he insisted that his managers counsel her and her boyfriend to keep their personal and professional lives separate. (It's not clear whether managers followed up on this request at that time.)

One day in January 2006, her boss told her that the rest of the sales force thought she continued to favor her boyfriend with sales leads. After the issue re-surfaced the next morning, she allegedly walked onto the showroom floor in the presence of potential customers and yelled "all you salesmen are [expletive] stupid."  She was fired on the spot, and the boyfriend was fired in September 2006.

She sued Becker on a number of bases, including retaliation based on Becker's termination of her boyfriend. In her view, in firing her boyfriend, Becker knew that its actions would financially burden them both. Becker asked the court to dismiss that claim because it was based on a wrong for which there was clearly no remedy, and/or which she had no right or power to assert.

What the court said. The court questioned whether she had legal standing to bring a retaliation claim based on the adverse employment action taken against a third party. The court pointed out that the U.S. Constitution requires the party who invokes the court's authority to show that she personally has suffered from actual or threatened injury as a result of the defendant's illegal conduct.

Applying that principle to these facts, the court said that the alleged adverse employment action was taken against the boyfriend almost 9 months after she was fired. He is the alleged injured party under those circumstances, the court said, not her. And, he filed a separate complaint against the dealership alleging retaliation. She does not have individual standing to assert that her former employer retaliated against her by firing her boyfriend. The court dismissed the claim for lack of jurisdiction. Roberti v. Becker Subaru, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Civil Action No. 07-1740 (11/28/07).

Point to remember: The concept of legal standing ensures that courts will give their time only to plaintiffs who have themselves been injured.