Opinion ID: 780416
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Timing of Claims

Text: 24 The district court also misunderstood the timing of Jensen's hostile work environment claim. In her complaint, Jensen alleged that the Postal Service subjected her to a hostile work environment and failed to take adequate measures to ensure that she could work in an environment free of co-worker sexual harassment. Jensen maintains that a pervasive system of discrimination exists at the Prairiewood Station until the Postal Service takes appropriate corrective action to remove the harassment from her workplace. 25 The Second Circuit has recognized that sexual harassment can be a continuing violation even though the employee is not working. See Cornwell v. Robinson, 23 F.3d 694 (2d Cir.1994). Cornwell, a female, worked at a residential facility for male juvenile offenders. Id. at 697. Cornwell alleged that she was subjected to a hostile work environment by her male co-workers and supervisors. Id. The incidents of harassment culminated when a male co-worker hit Cornwell in the chest with a basketball. Id. at 699. The blow badly bruised Cornwell's chest and she took a week off of work. Id. Between 1983 and 1986, Cornwell was absent from work due to the injury, or from sick leave, and received workers' compensation. After having been on workers' compensation for almost two years, the facility terminated Cornwell. Approximately a year later, Cornwell resumed her employment at the facility. Id. at 699. Cornwell worked for approximately a month before she left the facility after being cornered by the same supervisor she previously accused of harassment. Id. at 700. 26 On appeal, the defendants challenged the timeliness of Cornwell's complaints. Id. at 703. The Cornwell court upheld the district court's holding that Cornwell's complaint was timely because: 27 the only reason the harassment had not continued in the interim between February 1983 and March 1986 was Cornwell's absence on account of the illness precipitated by the first set of incidents.... [T]he court properly concluded that the acts of discrimination and harassment by the individual defendants constituted a continuing wrong that did not end until April 1986, when Cornwell was finally driven from MacCormick for good. 28 Id. at 704. 29 Jensen's claim is similar to that in Cornwell. Jensen's inability to return to work resulted from the Postal Service's ill treatment of her. Her absence is due to the physically and psychologically damaging harassment she experienced at her worksite. Jensen has alleged that as a result of the sexual harassment she received in her workplace, she became clinically depressed. 30 Jensen's claims may be stronger than in Cornwell because she has not quit her job. On the contrary, she is still employed by the Postal Service but allegedly has been unable to return to work and she has received no indication that the environment of harassment has changed at the Prairiewood Station. The hostile work environment at the Prairiewood Station still exists and the Postal Service has refused to ameliorate the environment so that she can return to work. Employees are entitled to a workplace free from harassment motivated by the employee's membership in a protected class. Here, the Postal Service's failure to take action to stop the conduct, to discipline the perpetrators, and to protect Jensen may bring her actions within forty-five days of Jensen's formalization of her EEO complaint on January 20, 2000. 12 31 With the recent pronouncement in Morgan and a thorough examination of the nature of Jensen's claims, we reverse the district court's summary judgment and remand for further proceedings. Under Morgan and its progeny, and cases cited herein, we remand to the district court to determine whether Jensen has brought her sexual harassment claims on a timely basis.