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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 1-816 / 11-0170 Filed December 7, 2011

HUGO NEGRELE-PULE, MOISES ALEGRIA, and ARMONDO GONZALEZ, Plaintiffs-Appellants, vs. JAMES HARMEYER, INC., d/b/a TYLER HOMES, Defendant-Appellee. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Glen E. Pille, Judge.

Plaintiffs appeal from the district court's grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment and subsequent dismissal of their wrongful termination of employment lawsuit. REVERSED AND REMANDED.

Robert A. Wright Jr. of Wright Law Office, Des Moines, for appellants. Louis R. Hockenberg and Benjamin M. Clark of Sullivan & Ward, P.C., West Des Moines, for appellee.

Considered by Vaitheswaran, P.J., and Potterfield and Doyle, JJ.

2 DOYLE, J. Plaintiffs were employed as laborers by James Harmeyer, Inc. d/b/a Tyler Homes (Tyler Homes). After their employment was terminated on May 19, 2008, plaintiffs filed suit seeking damages and alleging Tyler Homes fired them on the basis of race or in retaliation for having made previous complaints to James Harmeyer about the racially derogatory treatment they received from their supervisor. Tyler Homes denied the allegations and later filed a motion for

summary judgment asserting plaintiffs were unable to show a causal connection between any alleged protected activity and their termination. After striking as untimely plaintiffs' statement of disputed facts, affidavits, and memorandum, the district court concluded plaintiffs' claims failed as a matter of law. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Tyler Homes and dismissed plaintiffs' lawsuit. Although we find the district court did not abuse its discretion in striking as untimely plaintiffs' statement of disputed facts, affidavits, and memorandum , we conclude the court did err in granting summary judgment to Tyler Homes. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. Plaintiffs filed their petition on July 10, 2009, claiming their discharge was retaliatory and in breach of an employment contract and therefore in violation of 42 U.S.C.

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