Opinion ID: 2994717
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Analyzing the Totality of

Text: Circumstances As shown above, this case involves allegations of harassment by a supervisor. Yet in his initial appellate brief, Mason essentially argues that all evidence of harassment is always relevant, regardless of the type of claim the plaintiff is asserting, and that therefore all of Shands’ testimony was relevant and admissible. This broad assertion is not correct. Harassment by co-workers differs from harassment by supervisors. Parkins, 163 F.3d at 1032. As a result, an employer’s liability for hostile environment sexual harassment depends upon whether the harasser is the victim’s supervisor or merely a co-employee. Id. This same distinction applies in a racial harassment case when determining employer liability. If a plaintiff claims that he is suffering a hostile work environment based on the conduct of coworkers and supervisors, then under the Supreme Court’s totality of circumstances approach, Farragher, 118 S. Ct. at 2283 (citing Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 23 (1993)), all instances of harassment by all parties are relevant to proving that his environment is sufficiently severe or pervasive. See Williams v. General Motors Corp., 187 F.3d 553, 559, 562-63 & n.4 (6th Cir. 1999) (plaintiff’s claim was based on the behavior of supervisors and coworkers and conduct of both types of harassers was relevant); Silk v. City of Chicago, 194 F.3d 788, 803, 806 (7th Cir. 1999) (assuming there is an ADA hostile work environment claim, actions of both coworkers and superiors are relevant to determining whether environment was severe or pervasive). Courts should not carve up the incidents of harassment and then separately analyze each incident, by itself, to see if each rises to the level of being severe or pervasive. Williams, 187 F.3d at 561-62. That does not mean, however, that courts can automatically lump into the analysis of the behavior by one type of harasser behavior by a different type of harasser when the plaintiff is not pursuing a claim based on the latter’s conduct. Cf. id. at 562 (District courts are required to separate conduct by a supervisor from conduct by co-workers in order to apply the appropriate standards for employer liability.); Parkins, 163 F.3d at 1032 (liability depends on whether harassment is by supervisor or coworkers). If a plaintiff pursues a hostile work environment claim based on the behavior of a supervisor, evidence of harassment by a coworker logically must be tied somehow to the supervisor for it to be relevant and admissible. Otherwise, including such evidence could confuse the jury and prejudice the defendant. See Fed. R. Evid. 403./7 Thus, when considering the totality of the circumstances the district court here did not abuse its discretion when it limited Shands’ testimony to behavior and comments attributed to Kammerer, or to those attributed to coworkers while Kammerer was present.