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Type
Opinion
Author
Whitney Downs Hermandorfer
Filed
March 18, 2026
Case
Mark Bergens v. Diverse Concepts, LLC
Case status
Decided

Opening text

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NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 26a0143n.06 No. 25-5169 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Mar 18, 2026 ) KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk MARK F. BERGENS, ) Plaintiff-Appellant, ) ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED v. ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR ) THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF DIVERSE CONCEPTS, LLC; ISLAND ) TENNESSEE AMENITIES, LLC; SMOKY MOUNTAIN ) BLUE MOOSE, LLC, ) OPINION Defendants-Appellees. ) ) Before: DAVIS, RITZ, and HERMANDORFER, Circuit Judges. HERMANDORFER, Circuit Judge. Diverse Concepts, LLC fired Mark Bergens after he searched his co-workers’ bags for moonshine without their permission. This discrimination lawsuit followed. In challenging his firing, Bergens downplays the moonshine incident as a misunderstood prank. He says his termination in fact stemmed from Diverse Concepts’s desire to offload Bergens after he suffered a stroke. So, as Bergens tells it, Diverse Concepts seized upon the moonshine incident as a pretext to terminate him. The district court granted summary judgment to Diverse Concepts. Because Bergens failed to create a genuine dispute that his termination was pretextual, we affirm. I Diverse Concepts is a hospitality-management group …

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