Christine Holt Spinelli v. Michael Gaughan

Appellant Christine Holt Spinelli sued claiming she was fired in retaliation for exercising her rights under ERISA. We consider whether she was entitled to a jury trial.

I

Prior to her discharge, Spinelli served as a bartender at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. On July 19, twelve days before being fired, she wrote a letter to Michael Gaughan, the managing partner of Gold Coast. In this letter, Spinelli sought certain information about the -health plan serving Gold Coast’s employees. A return receipt shows Spinelli’s letter arrived on July 26. On July 31, she was fired. She never received a response to her letter.

In the district court, Spinelli claimed that the timing was more than a. coincidence, that she was fired for calling her employer to task about employee benefits. The employer responded that Spinelli was fired for légiti-mate reasons which we need not discuss here. Suffice it to say the record amply supports the district court’s finding that Spi-nelli was not discharged in retaliation for exercising rights under ERISA, although it would have supported a contrary finding as well. Since there was, so to speak, a horse race, it became’ significant…