Opinion ID: 44149
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Appropriate Person

Text: We first conclude that Hall was an appropriate “person” for Olson to report sexual harassment. Lowe’s Open Door Program states: “If the employee would rather talk to someone other than his or her supervisor, the Open Door Program enables the employee to speak with any other member of management.” Lowe’s does not dispute that Hall is a member of management. Further, both Olson and Hall testified that Hall was an appropriate person under the Open Door Program. See Breda, 222 F.3d at 889 (“When an employer has a policy for reporting harassment that is clear and published to its employees, and an employee follows that policy, the employer’s notice of the harassment is established by the terms of the policy. Through its policy, the employer has given the designated person explicit actual authority to handle the complaints.”); Coates, 164 F.3d at 1364 (noting that by its sexual-harassment policy the employer “itself answered the 19 question of when it would be deemed to have notice of the harassment sufficient to obligate it or its agents to take prompt and appropriate remedial action”).19