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Hostile Environment Retaliation Appeals

Payne & Fears

July 2024 Case Summaries

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Summary: Courts must consider allegations of a racially hostile workplace “from the perspective of a reasonable person belonging to the racial or ethnic group of the plaintiff.” Under this framework, “a single racial epithet...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Get with the Pronoun: Eleventh Circuit Rules Pervasive Misgendering Is Harassment

If an employer or coworker persistently uses a transgender worker’s wrong name or identified pronoun, can that constitute a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII? In Copeland v. Georgia Department of Corrections,...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Claims of Hostile Work Environment Happened Over Too Long a Period, Court Rules

Last week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected claims from a university professor that she had been subjected to a series of retaliatory acts in the two- and one-half year period following her filing an Equal...more

Miles & Stockbridge P.C.

Fourth Circuit Holds ‘Series of Hateful Workplace Encounters’ Based on Race Can Create Hostile Working Environment Under Title VII

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has expanded its view of what a hostile work environment looks like and lowered the bar in terms of what a plaintiff must show to sufficiently allege a race-based hostile work...more

Genova Burns LLC

NJ Supreme Court Issues A Grim Prognosis For Employers Facing Hostile Work Environment Claims

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After losing in both the trial and appellate courts, Armando Rios, Jr., an ex-Pharmaceutical Executive, managed to sway the minds of the Justices on the State’s highest court to revive his hostile work environment claim. Rios...more

Genova Burns LLC

NJ Appellate Narrows the Road in Auto Dealership’s Sexual Harassment Case

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On May 18, 2021, in McBride v. Atlantic Chrysler Jeep, the New Jersey Appellate Division revived a Sales Consultant’s hostile work environment case against a car dealership after the Law Division previously dismissed it in...more

Genova Burns LLC

Cause & Effect: NJ Appellate Division Rules Correlation Does Not Imply Causation in Disability Discrimination Suit

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On March 4, 2021, the New Jersey Appellate Division in Kalim v. Urban Outfitters, Inc. affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of a former employee’s wrongful termination, hostile work environment, and retaliation claims under...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Ask, Or You Shall Not Receive: 5th Circuit Nixes Accommodation Claim for Employee’s Failure to Ask for an Accommodation

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Seyfarth Synopsis: Recently, when affirming summary judgment to the employer in a disability discrimination case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued two welcome reminders. First, to pursue a disability accommodation,...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Eleventh Circuit Holds Alleged ‘Unsavory and Unpleasant’ Behavior Not Legally ‘Pervasive’ for Purposes of Title VII Harassment...

In Allen v. Ambu-Stat, LLC, No. 18-10640 (January 16, 2020), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a Georgia district court’s dismissal of a former employee’s sexual harassment claim and delivered a...more

Lewitt Hackman

Unlawful, or Just Mean? California Appellate Court Decides Discrimination Case

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People with disabilities have legal protections under both federal and state law. California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibits an employer from taking adverse actions against a person because of a person’s...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Says Rumors About Sex for Promotions Constitute Actionable Sexual Harassment

Successful women have long been the subject of rumors that promotions or other career advancements were the result of their “sleeping their way to the top.” Earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which...more

Payne & Fears

Key California Employment Law Cases: March 2019

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This month’s key employment law cases address the religious organization exemption under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and arbitration agreements....more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC –What Constitutes “Severe and Pervasive” Conduct With Respect to “Third-Party Harassment”?

Employers may be liable to their employees for harassment by non-employees under Title VII. Courts have found liability for this so-called “third-party harassment” in some of the following fact-specific contexts: waitresses...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Just What Does A Racially Hostile Environment Look Like? The Eleventh Circuit Provides Some Guidance

What constitutes a racially hostile work environment? Is one really bad comment specifically aimed at the plaintiff sufficient or do you need a sustained series of racial comments? What if you have both but no evidence that...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Don’t Ignore the Kissing Supervisor—Court Rules that Employer’s Knowledge of Past Behavior Negates Faragher-Ellerth Defense

Employment lawyers and most HR professionals are familiar with the Faragher-Ellerth defense to a claim of sexual harassment. In short, if an employer can show that (1) it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct...more

Genova Burns LLC

#MeToo Movement Insufficient to Revive Dismissed Case

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The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey denied an employee’s request to reopen her case based on alleged changed attitudes “post-Weinstein.” The Court also denied the employer’s request for sanctions but...more

Poyner Spruill LLP

Fourth Circuit Addresses Question of Employer Knowledge in Title VII Retaliation Suit

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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits not only discrimination in employment on the basis of certain protected categories such as race, but also retaliation against an employee who opposes such discrimination....more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Fourth Circuit Raises Bar for Dismissal of Sexual Harassment Claims

Through the 2000s, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) had the reputation as one of the most employer-friendly U.S. appellate courts. As new judges took to the bench over the...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Third Circuit Finds Title IX Provides a Remedy for Sex Discrimination in Fully Funded Educational Institutions

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has again created a circuit split by disagreeing with decisions from the Fifth and Seventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, which have held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Medical Residents Can Sue Under Title IX, Third Circuit Holds

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently revived a medical resident's harassment and retaliation claims against Mercy Catholic Medical Center, finding that the hospital is subject to Title IX. The Third...more

Proskauer - California Employment Law

California Employment Law Notes - March 2017

Victoria Zetwick, a county correctional officer, alleged that the county sheriff created a sexually hostile environment in violation of Title VII and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act by, among other things,...more

Proskauer - California Employment Law

California Employment Law Notes - January 2017

$90 Million Judgment Reinstated: Employers Must Relieve Employees Of All Duties During Their Rest Periods - Augustus v. ABM Sec. Servs., Inc., 2016 WL 7407328 (Cal. S. Ct. 2016) - Jennifer Augustus filed this...more

Fisher Phillips

New Jersey Court Ruling Raises Price Of Employment Discrimination

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Supreme Court Decision Impacts Potential Emotional Distress Damages - On September 19, 2016, the New Jersey Supreme Court upheld a jury’s award of $1.4 million in emotional distress damages to two Hispanic brothers who...more

McAfee & Taft

Court rules unauthorized absence justifies firing

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The federal appeals court that covers Oklahoma recently ruled in favor of Dillon Companies, Inc., a Kansas corporation that does business as King Soopers, in a lawsuit filed by a former grocery store employee who claimed he...more

McAfee & Taft

Resignation triggers clock start for filing constructive discharge claims

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Federal law requires a governmental employee to file a constructive discharge claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 45 days of the “matter alleged to be discriminatory.” The vagueness of that phrase...more

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