Opinion ID: 793559
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hostile Work Environment and Constructive Discharge

Text: 12 Ferraro also claims relief for a hostile work environment and constructive discharge. A claim for hostile work environment requires the plaintiff to show discriminatory conduct that was sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of [her] employment and create an abusive working environment. Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Leopold v. Baccarat, Inc. ( Leopold I ), 174 F.3d 261, 267 (2d Cir.1999). A plaintiff's further claim for constructive discharge requires the plaintiff to prove that her employer deliberately and discriminatorily created work conditions so intolerable that a reasonable person in the employee's position would have felt compelled to resign. Pa. State Police v. Suders, 542 U.S. 129, 141, 124 S.Ct. 2342, 159 L.Ed.2d 204 (2004). Upon that showing, the employee's decision to resign is assimilated to a formal discharge for remedial purposes. Id. 13 Against employee claims of hostile work environment and constructive discharge, the employer may have recourse to the so-called Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. See Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998); Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998). The defense comprises two elements: that (1) the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any [discriminatory] harassing behavior, and (2) the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise. Faragher, 524 U.S. at 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275; Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257. The employer may raise the defense, however, only if one of two further elements is met: either (1) the employee's supervisor took no tangible employment action, which involves an official company act, against the employee; or (2) any tangible employment action taken against the employee was not part of the supervisor's discriminatory harassment. See Faragher, 524 U.S. at 808, 118 S.Ct. 2275; Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257 (same). Otherwise, the employer is strictly liable for the supervisor's misconduct. 14 The Supreme Court created the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense because it saw a difference between (1) situations in which the supervisor's harassing acts plainly invoked his official powers and was therefore undoubtedly aided by the supervisor's agency relationship with the employer and (2) situations in which the use of official power in the supervisor's harassment was less clear and therefore the aided-by-the-agency relationship was insufficiently developed. Suders, 542 U.S. at 145, 124 S.Ct. 2342 (describing the genesis of the defense). In the former situation, the official power granted by the employer to the supervisor was used to harass the employee, so the employer is held strictly liable for the supervisor's misconduct and the affirmative defense may not be raised. Id. In the latter situation, it is less certain that the supervisor misused official power to further his discriminatory harassment and that the company could know of the supervisor's misconduct. Id. at 144-45, 124 S.Ct. 2342. Accordingly, the Court decided that strict employer liability was inappropriate in such a situation. Looking elsewhere for guidance, the Court fashioned an affirmative defense that provides incentives to both employees and employers in furtherance of the conciliatory and deterrent purposes of federal antidiscrimination law. Id. at 145, 124 S.Ct. 2342. The two elements of this affirmative defense encourage employees to report harassment and employers to institute and maintain effective preventive and corrective measures. Id. 15 The district court erroneously stated the test for the unavailability of the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. It wrote that to preclude the defense, there is no requirement that the [supervisor's] tangible employment action be motivated by discriminatory animus. To the contrary, the Supreme Court has held that employers are barred from raising the affirmative defense only when the supervisor's harassment culminates in a tangible employment action. Faragher, 524 U.S. at 808, 118 S.Ct. 2275; Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257 (same). The harassment spoken of is harassment with impermissible discriminatory animus, for example, the sexual harassment in Faragher, 524 U.S. at 780-82, 118 S.Ct. 2275, and Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 747-49, 118 S.Ct. 2257. The word culminate requires that the tangible employment action be linked to the supervisor's discriminatory harassment. 16 This reading comports with the purpose of the test — to determine whether the supervisor's misconduct has been aided by the agency relation. Suders, 542 U.S. at 148, 124 S.Ct. 2342. If an official action taken by a supervisor is not part of his discriminatory harassment, it provides no evidence that the supervisor used his agency relation with the employer to further his misconduct. Other circuits addressing the issue have unanimously reached the same conclusion: a supervisor's tangible employment action must be related to the alleged discriminatory harassment to preclude recourse to the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. E.g., Elvig v. Calvin Presbyterian Church, 375 F.3d 951, 962 (9th Cir.2003); Frederick v. Sprint/United Mgmt. Co., 246 F.3d 1305, 1312, 1317 (11th Cir.2001); Johnson v. West, 218 F.3d 725, 731 (7th Cir.2000); Lissau v. S. Food Serv., Inc., 159 F.3d 177, 182 (4th Cir. 1998); Newton v. Cadwell Labs., 156 F.3d 880, 883-84 (8th Cir.1998). 17 Because the district court erroneously held that the tangible employment action need not be part of the supervisor's discriminatory harassment to foreclose an employer's recourse to the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense, it wrongly precluded Kellwood from raising the defense. To be sure, Gordon's demotion of Ferraro and reduction of her salary were tangible employment actions, but Kellwood has established that these actions were independent of Gordon's discriminatory harassment of Ferraro. See Part I, supra. We therefore find that Kellwood may make recourse to the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. We note that on appeal Ferraro does not dispute the availability of the defense. 18 Having determined its availability, we now turn to the applicability of the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. As noted earlier, the defense has two elements: (1) the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any [discriminatory] harassing behavior, and (2) the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise. Faragher, 524 U.S. at 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275; Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257. An employer may demonstrate the exercise of reasonable care, required by the first element, by showing the existence of an antiharassment policy during the period of the plaintiff's employment, although that fact alone is not always dispositive. Mack v. Otis Elevator Co., 326 F.3d 116, 128 (2d Cir.2003); Caridad v. Metro-N. Commuter R.R., 191 F.3d 283, 295 (2d Cir.1999). And under the second element, proof that an employee has unreasonably failed to use the employer's complaint procedure normally suffices to satisfy the employer's burden. Faragher, 524 U.S. at 807, 118 S.Ct. 2275; Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257. 19 During Ferraro's term of employment, Kellwood had an antiharassment policy in effect that prohibited harassment on account of disability or medical condition, promised that complaints would be handled promptly and confidentially, and contained an anti-retaliation provision. It provided a procedure for employees to complain about prohibited conduct to a supervisor, an HR representative, the Kellwood Corporate Vice President of Human Resources, or the Kellwood telephone hotline. Ferraro does not dispute the reasonableness of Kellwood's antiharassment policy or its complaint procedures. We therefore find that Kellwood has satisfied the first element of the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. 20 Ferraro does contend, however, that Kellwood failed to carry its burden on the second element of the affirmative defense — whether Ferraro unreasonably failed to use the complaint procedure provided by Kellwood. The defendant bears the ultimate burden of persuasion on this element, but it may carry that burden by first introducing evidence that the plaintiff failed to avail herself of the defendant's complaint procedure and then relying on the absence or inadequacy of the plaintiff's justification for that failure. Leopold v. Baccarat, Inc. ( Leopold II ), 239 F.3d 243, 246 (2d Cir.2001). 21 Ferraro contends that her forbearance was reasonable because Kellwood ignored or resisted a previous similar complaint by another employee about Gordon. That complaint was made by Gordon's assistant, Mary Pinterelli, who complained to Kellwood HR representative Sue Hammond that Gordon had angrily told her to get out of my f'ing office and that she was behaving like an unwanted mother. Hammond listened to Pinterelli's description of the incident and decided that Pinterelli had intruded into Gordon's personal affairs. Hammond told Pinterelli to change this aspect of her interaction with Gordon, allowed Pinterelli to go home for the day, and told Gordon that Pinterelli was upset about Gordon's outburst. This complaint comports with the view of Gordon, undisputed by Kellwood, as a short-tempered and foul-mouthed supervisor, but there is no evidence in the record that Pinterelli indicated to the HR department that Gordon's outburst was motivated by any prohibited discriminatory animus. Further, there is no record evidence of any other complaints against Gordon under the complaint procedure. Finally, though Ferraro asserts that Pinterelli was punished by the HR department, Ferraro provides no argument that HR's response to the complaint was inappropriate. In sum, the Pinterelli complaint is not adequate evidence to show that Kellwood ignored or resisted complaints against Gordon similar to the one now pressed by Ferraro, nor does it provide a basis to justify Ferraro's failure to avail herself of Kellwood's complaint procedure. 22 We therefore find that there is no evidence from which a reasonable jury could conclude that Kellwood failed to carry its burden of persuasion on the second element of the Faragher/Ellerth affirmative defense. Because no genuine issue of fact precludes Kellwood from successfully asserting the affirmative defense, Kellwood is entitled as a matter of law to judgment on Ferraro's claims of hostile work environment and constructive discharge.