A Manhattan Appeals Court reversed the
dismissal of a sexual harassment claim under the New York City Human
Rights Law, leaving it to a jury to decide whether the employee was
“treated less well than other employees because of her gender.” Rachana
Suri, a woman of South Asian descent, brought gender and national origin
discrimination claims against her former employer, alleging that her
supervisor became “distant and less communicative” when she rejected his
advances and that she was denied a promotion and fired because she is an Indian
woman. The trial court granted the Employer’s
motion for summary judgment, finding that Suri had no evidence to show she had
not been fired because of a reduction in force or that she had been
discriminated against based on her gender.
The court also dismissed the sole statement supporting her national
origin claim, that she had “dark” skin, as a “stray remark” that cannot alone
demonstrate discrimination.
The Appellate Division for the
First Department upheld these conclusions, with the exception of Suri’s harassment
claim. The majority confirmed that,
unlike federal and state law, which limits actionable sexual harassment to
“severe or pervasive” conduct, City law instead requires the employer to show
that the conduct was nothing more than what a reasonable person would consider “petty
slights and trivial inconveniences.” If
that defense is not raised, the employee only needs to show that she was
treated less well because of her gender.
The appellate court held that the
more protective City law also required the court to consider Suri’s allegations
that her boss had given her two compliments and squeezed her bare thigh together
with her allegations that, after rebuking his advance, he mistreated her for
the next 18 months. A jury, the majority
said, could find that this behavior was not “petty or trivial” and that it
constituted gender-based and unequal treatment, which is enough to survive
summary judgment.
The New
York City Human Rights Law is considered to be one of the strongest
anti-discrimination laws in the US.
