2nd Circuit Revives NYC Hotel Employee's Hostile Work Environment Claims
Discriminatory remarks not specifically directed at an employee can help form the basis for a claim of bias based on religion and national origin.
By Tom McParland | March 06, 2020 at 02:21 PM
New York Law Journal
A Manhattan-based federal appeals court ruled Friday that discriminatory remarks not specifically directed at an employee can help form the basis for a hostile work environment claim in a decision that revived a lawsuit by a hotel worker who said he was targeted for his religion and national origin.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that Gebrial Rasmy, an Egyptian Coptic Christian and formerly a longtime former banquet server at JW Marriott Essex House on Central Park South, could proceed with claims that religious and ethnic insults by his coworkers had violated Title VII of the Civil rights Act of 1964.
Rasmy, who worked at Essex House since 1991, was fired in May 2016 after he reported instances of wage stealing by his colleagues.
Rasmy said in his June 2016 complaint that his complaints were largely ignored within the company, and his colleagues responded with a constant barrage of epithets and expletives, often referring to him among themselves as an “Egyptian rat,” “pretentious Christian” and “gypsy.”
The harassment, Rasmy said, became so bad that he would “cry regularly” and started seeing a psychiatrist who prescribed him anti-anxiety medication.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York had dismissed the case on summary judgment in 2018, finding that comments made among other employees of the luxury hotel were not expressly discriminatory and that Rasmy’s working conditions had not changed because he had not been threatened with physical violence.
In a decision that cited more than two decades of Second Circuit case law, the appeals court held that remarks not directly targeted at Rasmy could nonetheless contribute to a claim of hostile work environment.
In assessing cases under Title VII, the court said, judges must look to the “overall severity and pervasiveness of discriminatory conduct,” and Nathan’s ruling had improperly decided issues that are best left to a jury.
“Our case law is clear that when the same individuals engage in some harassment that is explicitly discriminatory and some that is not, the entire course of conduct is relevant to a hostile work environment claim,” Judge Jose A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote on behalf of the panel.
The ruling also revived Rasmy’s claims for retaliation, but declined to revisit the dismissal of his claims under New York City and state’s Humans Rights Laws. The remaining claims were remanded to the district court for trial.
Cabranes was joined in the decision by Judge Joseph F. Bianco of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss of the District of Vermont, who was sitting by designation.
Stephen Bergstein, of Bergstein & Ullrich, on Friday praised the ruling as a “comprehensive” assessment of Second Circuit case law governing hostile work environment claims.
“It takes together different principles that have been in existence for the past 20 years and applies them to this case,” Bergstein said of the court’s 28-page opinion. “It’s a nice, tidy summary of the current state of the law on hostile work environment,” he said.
Mark Saloman, co-chair of FordHarrison’s noncompete, trade secrets and business litigation practice in Manhattan who represented Marriott, declined to comment on the ruling.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said that Gebrial Rasmy, an Egyptian Coptic Christian and formerly a longtime former banquet server at JW Marriott Essex House on Central Park South, could proceed with claims that religious and ethnic insults by his coworkers had violated Title VII of the Civil rights Act of 1964.
Rasmy said in his June 2016 complaint that his complaints were largely ignored within the company, and his colleagues responded with a constant barrage of epithets and expletives, often referring to him among themselves as an “Egyptian rat,” “pretentious Christian” and “gypsy.”
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan of the Southern District of New York had dismissed the case on summary judgment in 2018, finding that comments made among other employees of the luxury hotel were not expressly discriminatory and that Rasmy’s working conditions had not changed because he had not been threatened with physical violence.
On appeal, Marriott International Inc. defended the decision and argued that Rasmy’s “relentlessly groundless” accusations of wage theft against coworkers had spurred the name-calling, not his religion or national origin.
In assessing cases under Title VII, the court said, judges must look to the “overall severity and pervasiveness of discriminatory conduct,” and Nathan’s ruling had improperly decided issues that are best left to a jury.
“Our case law is clear that when the same individuals engage in some harassment that is explicitly discriminatory and some that is not, the entire course of conduct is relevant to a hostile work environment claim,” Judge Jose A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote on behalf of the panel.
The ruling also revived Rasmy’s claims for retaliation, but declined to revisit the dismissal of his claims under New York City and state’s Humans Rights Laws. The remaining claims were remanded to the district court for trial.
Cabranes was joined in the decision by Judge Joseph F. Bianco of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and U.S. District Judge Christina Reiss of the District of Vermont, who was sitting by designation.
Stephen Bergstein, of Bergstein & Ullrich, on Friday praised the ruling as a “comprehensive” assessment of Second Circuit case law governing hostile work environment claims.
“It takes together different principles that have been in existence for the past 20 years and applies them to this case,” Bergstein said of the court’s 28-page opinion. “It’s a nice, tidy summary of the current state of the law on hostile work environment,” he said.
Mark Saloman, co-chair of FordHarrison’s noncompete, trade secrets and business litigation practice in Manhattan who represented Marriott, declined to comment on the ruling.
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