Opinion ID: 201453
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Liability Standard.

Text: 70 This conclusion takes us to the liability standard. In importing the hostile work environment doctrine into the anti-retaliation context, courts are left to draw the standards for employer liability from the case law involving hostile work environments in the anti-discrimination context. The Supreme Court has divided the universe of employer liability along a line that separates supervisors from non-supervisors. When a supervisor creates a hostile work environment, the employer is vicariously liable for it, subject, however, to a possible affirmative defense. See Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998); Faragher, 524 U.S. at 807-08, 118 S.Ct. 2275. 71 This defense, familiarly known as the Faragher/Ellerth defense, consists of two elements which, if proven, permit the employer to avoid liability. First, the employer must show that it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly the harassment. Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 765, 118 S.Ct. 2257. Second, the employer must show that the employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise. Id. 72 As with Title VII, chapter 151B makes employers vicariously liable for hostile work environments created by supervisors. College-Town, 508 N.E.2d at 592. Unlike Title VII, however, chapter 151B does not afford employers any affirmative defenses to liability. Based on the legislative mandate that chapter 151B must be construed liberally to effectuate its purposes, see Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 151B, § 9, the SJC has endorsed a rule that holds employers strictly liable for supervisory harassment. See College-Town, 508 N.E.2d at 591-94 (rejecting a reasonable care standard as a defense to a hostile work environment claim); see also Blockel v. J.C. Penney Co., 337 F.3d 17, 28 n. 3 (1st Cir.2003) (noting that the Faragher/ Ellerth defense does not apply to chapter 151B actions). Because the reasoning of College-Town belies any meaningful distinction between discriminatory harassment and retaliatory harassment where supervisors are concerned, we conclude that no Faragher/Ellerth type of affirmative defense is available under chapter 151B to an employer whose supervisors create a retaliatory hostile work environment. 73 When coworkers, rather than supervisors, are responsible for the creation and perpetuation of a hostile work environment, Title VII and chapter 151B seem essentially coterminous as they relate to employer liability. Notwithstanding the absence of a controlling Supreme Court precedent, several federal courts, including this court, have held that, in such situations, an employer can only be liable if the harassment is causally connected to some negligence on the employer's part. See, e.g., Wyninger v. New Venture Gear, Inc., 361 F.3d 965, 976 (7th Cir.2004); Ocheltree v. Scollon Prods., Inc., 335 F.3d 325, 333-34 (4th Cir.2003); Crowley v. L.L. Bean, Inc., 303 F.3d 387, 401 (1st Cir.2002). Typically, this involves a showing that the employer knew or should have known about the harassment, yet failed to take prompt action to stop it. See Crowley, 303 F.3d at 401. Similarly, under chapter 151B, employer liability for coworker harassment requires a showing that the employer knew or should have known about the harassment, yet failed to halt it. Messina v. Araserve, Inc., 906 F.Supp. 34, 37-38 (D.Mass.1995) (discussing Massachusetts law); College-Town, 508 N.E.2d at 593. 74 At the summary judgment stage, these determinations are complicated. The question of whether an employee is a supervisor in the relevant sense is itself factual in nature. Hrobowski v. Worthington Steel Co., 358 F.3d 473, 478 (7th Cir.2004). Here, the lower court found only coworker harassment; it declared that the evidence showed that the retaliation had been undertaken by subordinate officials, none of whom had control over terms and conditions of [the plaintiff's] employment. 75 The district court's skepticism about the claimed supervisory status of some of the harassers seems well-founded. The key to determining supervisory status is the degree of authority possessed by the putative supervisor. Joens v. John Morrell & Co., 354 F.3d 938, 940 (8th Cir.2004); Parkins v. Civil Constructors of Ill., Inc., 163 F.3d 1027, 1033 (7th Cir.1998). Thus, courts must distinguish employees who are supervisors merely as a function of nomenclature from those who are entrusted with actual supervisory powers. Parkins, 163 F.3d at 1033; accord Mikels v. City of Durham, 183 F.3d 323, 334 (4th Cir.1999). Having in mind both common law agency principles and the purposes of the anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation laws, we agree with the Seventh Circuit that the essence of supervisory status is the authority to affect the terms and conditions of the victim's employment. Parkins, 163 F.3d at 1034. This authority primarily consists of the power to hire, fire, demote, promote, transfer, or discipline an employee. Id. at 1034. Without some modicum of this authority, a harasser cannot qualify as a supervisor for purposes of imputing vicarious liability to the employer in a Title VII case, but, rather, should be regarded as an ordinary coworker. 5 See id. at 1033-34. We think that the same standard applies under chapter 151B. See College-Town, 508 N.E.2d at 593 (observing that the power wielded by a harassing supervisor may range from discharge to assignment of work, particularly exacting scrutiny, or refusal to protect the employee from coworker harassment). 76 In this case, the plaintiff has not presented facts sufficient to show that she was harassed at the hands of persons who qualify as supervisors. The deposition of Irene Landry provides the clearest evidence of the organizational structure of the workplace. The parking enforcement officers are on the lowest rung of the ladder. On the next rung are the shift supervisors, who drive the parking enforcement officers to their assigned routes and pick them up. The third rung is occupied by more senior supervisors, (each of whom holds the title senior supervisor II). The functions of these individuals include dealing with personnel problems. During the time in question, Landry held the position of senior supervisor II. She reported to Moccia, a higher-level official who held the title of senior supervisor of parking enforcement. Moccia had authority to handle a wide variety of employee issues and complaints. 77 The plaintiff uses the word supervisor indiscriminately, referring to people on the second, third, and fourth rungs as supervisors and making no distinctions among them. That approach elevates nomenclature over actual authority. When we shift the focus to those persons whose actual authority made them supervisors in the relevant sense, a different picture emerges. 78 Landry and Moccia each appear to have possessed the requisite authority, but neither of them were guilty of any retaliatory harassment. The only two supervisors whose actions rationally can be said to have contributed to the hostile work environment are Gilardi and DiGirolamo. Gilardi was a second-rung shift supervisor, and DiGirolamo's level of authority seems no greater (the record only permits us to speculate on this point, and the lack of proof counts against the plaintiff). The plaintiff has presented us with no evidence that either woman had the power to terminate, discipline, or otherwise affect the terms and conditions of her employment. In the absence of such evidence, the city cannot be held vicariously responsible for their harassment. 79 The plaintiff's claim thus reduces to one of coworker harassment. The viability of that claim depends on whether there is sufficient evidence to permit a finding that the employer knew or should have known about the hostile work environment, yet failed to stop it. We conclude that sufficient evidence exists. Plaintiff complained of the harassment to two senior supervisors (Landry and Moccia). Landry did not deal with the plaintiff's complaints at all and Moccia, rather than rectifying the situation, speculated that the harassment would likely become ten times worse with the plaintiff's recent shift change. Moreover, the deputy commissioner was aware of the harassment, but did nothing to dispel it. Since Landry, Moccia, and the deputy commissioner were appropriate recipients of the plaintiff's complaints, there is enough evidence to allow a finding of actual notice on the city's part. See Crowley, 303 F.3d at 403; Breda v. Wolf Camera & Video, 222 F.3d 886, 889 (11th Cir.2000). 80 The city's only rejoinder is that the supervisors responded to the plaintiff's allegations in an appropriate manner. At best, this presents a factual dispute that is not amenable to resolution on summary judgment. Consequently, there is a trialworthy issue as to whether the city was negligent in not putting a stop to the harassment.