Case Name: Eloisa O. Ferrer, Appellant, v. New York State Division of Human Rights, Defendant, and Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 2011-03-03
Citations: 82 A.D.3d 431
Docket Number: 
Parties: Eloisa O. Ferrer, Appellant, v New York State Division of Human Rights, Defendant, and Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 82
Pages: 431–431

Head Matter:
Eloisa O. Ferrer, Appellant, v New York State Division of Human Rights, Defendant, and Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, Respondent.
[918 NYS2d 405]

Opinion:
Petitioner contends that DHR's determination was arbitrary and capricious in that DHR failed to investigate and consider petitioner's claim that she was subjected to a hostile work environment by the law firm. However, this claim was not reasonably discernable from the complaint petitioner filed with DHR. A claim not raised before an administrative agency may not be raised for the first time in a CPLR article 78 proceeding (see Matter of Johnson v New York State Tax Commn., 117 AD2d 867, 868 [1986]; Matter of Seitelman v Lavine, 36 NY2d 165, 170 [1975]).
Moreover, the specific conduct alleged by petitioner in the complaint and petition, if true, is legally insufficient to establish that the workplace was "permeated with 'discriminatory intimidation, ridicule and insult' that [was] 'sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of [her] employment' " (see Harris v Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 US 17, 21 [1993] [citation omitted]). "[I]solated remarks or occasional episodes of harassment will not support a finding of a hostile or abusive work environment" (see Matter of Father Belle Community Ctr. v New York State Div. of Human Rights, 221 AD2d 44, 51 [1996], lv denied 89 NY2d 809 [1997] [citations omitted]). There was no evidence of record which established that the specific incidents described in the petition were anything more than isolated, occasional or benign. Concur — Saxe, J.P., Sweeny, Catterson, Freedman and Román, JJ.