Court Opinion

ID: 9574629
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:06:36.437578+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:44:26.188481
License: Public Domain

O’Connell, J.
{dissenting). I respectfully dissent. A prima facie case of hostile-workplace sexual harassment under the Civil Rights Act, MCL 37.2101 el seq.; MSA 3.548(101) et seq., includes among its requirements that the plaintiff show that the employer bears responsibility for the alleged harassment under the doctrine of respondeat superior, which ordinarily requires a showing that either a recurring problem existed or a repetition of an offending incident was likely and that the employer failed to rectify the problem upon adequate notice. Radtke v Everett, 442 Mich 368, 382, 395; 501 NW2d 155 (1993). Plaintiff in the instant case has failed to satisfy this requirement.
An employer has a duty to investigate and take remedial action in response to a claim of sexual harassment only upon actual or constructive notice of the offensive environment. Downer v Detroit Receiving Hosp, 191 Mich App 232, 235; 477 NW2d 146 (1991). In denying the motion for a directed verdict, the trial court stated that the jury could reasonably conclude that plaintiff communicated to the regional director of operations that there was a problem and that the latter failed to respond as promised, and that those conclusions could support a finding that the employer sanctioned a continuing hostile environment. However, I conclude that plaintiff’s general indication to the regional director over the telephone that something was wrong did not sufficiently alert him to the problem as to constitute actual or con*570structive notice on defendant’s part that sexual harassment was taking place. It is not reasonable to infer from the regional director’s vague understanding that something was amiss that he had notice of sexual harassment.1 Because plaintiff presented no evidence that she complained about the problem to anyone *571with supervisory responsibility before she spoke to her normal supervisor upon the latter’s return and the offender’s departure, or that anyone with authority to act otherwise had notice that sexual harassment was taking place, the facts as plaintiff alleges them simply did not trigger defendant’s duty to take action to alleviate the problem. Further, because the offender was no longer situated at plaintiff’s work location when defendant did learn of a sexual harassment complaint, defendant breached no duty to take remedial action as regarded plaintiff once defendant had notice of a complaint.
Plaintiff likewise failed to establish a prima facie case of quid pro quo sexual harassment. The Civil Rights Act provides that discrimination on the basis of sex includes where the employee’s submission to or rejection of sexual overtures “is used as a factor in decisions affecting such individual’s employment . . . .” MCL 37.2103(i)(ii); MSA 3.548(103)(i)(ii). A party pressing a claim under this provision must establish that the party was the subject of unwanted sexual conduct or communication and that the employer used the party’s submission to or rejection of the improper conduct as a factor in a decision affecting the party’s employment. Champion v Nation Wide Security, Inc, 450 Mich 702, 708-709; 545 NW2d 596 (1996). In the instant case, plaintiff has failed to show that any terms or conditions of her employment were affected by her rejection of the temporary supervisor’s advances.2
*572Plaintiff does not allege that the temporaiy supervisor ever suggested that plaintiff’s job would be affected, for better or worse, by her response to his overtures. Instead, plaintiff argues that the supervisor’s continuing harassment was itself in response to plaintiff’s initial rejection of his advances, that continuing pattern then being a decision affecting her employment for purposes of her quid pro quo claim.
Plaintiff relies on Champion, where a security guard was raped by her supervisor. Following a pattern of unwanted sexual innuendoes, the supervisor called the guard at home and asked her to come to work for an unscheduled shift on a Saturday. Id. at 705. The supervisor had dismissed all other security personnel. Id. at 706. After business hours, with only the two of them on the premises, the supervisor ordered the guard into a remotely situated room, locked the door, demanded sex from the guard, then raped her when she refused to cooperate. Id. The guard chose never to report to work for that employer again. Our Supreme Court held that the decision to rape was, in effect, a decision to effect a constructive discharge. Id. at 711. The Court further held that such behavior, whether or not the employee resigns, constitutes a decision affecting the plaintiff’s employment in response to her refusal to submit to the supervisor’s sexual requests. Id. at 711, n 5. The Court declared, “we hold an employer strictly hable where the supervisor accomplishes the rape through *573the exercise of his supervisory power over the victim.” Id. at 713-714.
The Court tailored the above rule closely to the facts at hand. The facts of the instant case are not nearly as compelling as those in Champion. Plaintiff complained that the temporary supervisor offended her with sexual commentary and by grabbing her breasts and rubbing her buttocks, all this during the four work days of the offender’s temporary supervisory assignment. However, there is no evidence, beyond plaintiff’s assertion, that the offending supervisor continued his inappropriate behavior in response to plaintiff’s initial rejection of his advances. Although plaintiff’s allegations are serious and represent highly offensive and inappropriate conduct, the behavior alleged falls far short of the violence and outrageousness described in Champion. Plaintiff has failed to offer evidence that her circumstances of employment were affected by her response to the unwanted sexual provocation or that she endured the harassment under threat of adverse consequences.
The majority opinion emphasizes the offensive nature of the acts allegedly committed by plaintiff’s temporary supervisor. I agree with the majority opinion that the alleged misconduct is both offensive and harmful. Such behavior is always actionable against the offender, but here plaintiff has chosen instead to commence suit against the offender’s employer. Because an employer’s duty to take action exists only where the employer had actual or constructive notice of the offending behavior, Downer, supra, plaintiff has failed to set forth a prima facie case against defendant. Plaintiff provided defendant with no specific notice of the offensive conduct while it was *574occurring. The only indication a person in a position of authority received during that four-day pattern of misconduct was plaintiff’s indistinct indication to the regional manager that something was amiss when the regional manager happened to reach plaintiff on the telephone. Imputing notice of sexual harassment to an employer on the basis of such nebulous implications would have the effect of making an employer an insurer of an employee’s personal anguish of which the employer had little or no understanding. Rendering employers vulnerable to liability under such circumstances would be poor public policy. Accordingly, I do not share the majority’s eagerness to regard the regional manager’s vague understanding that plaintiff was unhappy about something as triggering defendant’s duty to take action. Nor do I join the majority in characterizing the four-day period of offensive behavior by a temporary supervisor as a pervasive condition of employment instead of an isolated set of circumstances. While the record suggests that the temporary supervisor engaged in egregious and actionable conduct, imputing liability to defendant under these facts would be contrary to both the letter of the law and the interests of justice.
For these reasons, I would remand this case to the trial court with instructions to enter judgment in favor of defendant.

 The facts of this case are as follows:
Defendant, a corporation engaged in managing food service operations for various businesses, hired plaintiff as a temporary cook in June 1995, intending to use plaintiff in various locations pending possible placement in a permanent position. Defendant initially assigned plaintiff to take the place of a cook at one location. During this assignment, while the regular on-site supervisor was on vacation, defendant assigned a temporary supervisor. According to the evidence, this temporary supervisor immediately commenced a pattern of harassing plaintiff. The temporary supervisor allegedly rubbed plaintiff’s buttocks, grabbed her breasts, and made various verbal innuendoes, including asking her to join him in a hotel room for sex. The temporary supervisor persisted in this behavior despite plaintiff’s resistance. Plaintiff complained to co-workers that she wished to quit her job, but the co-workers encouraged her to stay. During this time, plaintiff indicated on the telephone to defendant’s regional director of operations that something was wrong. However, because the offending supervisor was nearby, plaintiff did not feel at liberty to describe the problem. The regional director said he would come to the location to talk to plaintiff, but no meeting between plaintiff and the director followed. Plaintiff neither initiated that conversation nor attempted to contact the person listed in her employee handbook for fielding complaints of sexual harassment.
Plaintiff reported the pattern of harassment to her regular supervisor upon the supervisor’s return from vacation and was instructed to put her allegations in writing. Plaintiff complied, and the regional director said he would investigate the complaint. Plaintiff never saw the offending person again and the lower court record is devoid of what, if any, action defendant took against the offending temporary supervisor.
When the cook plaintiff had been replacing returned from sick leave, plaintiff was transferred to other locations that defendant served. After several weeks defendant terminated plaintiff’s employment, citing her failure to report to work. Plaintiff testified that she had stopped receiving assignments and that defendant failed to return her calls.

 The majority finds it significant that defendant eventually terminated her employment. However, because plaintiff withdrew her claim of retaliatory discharge, and does not argue on appeal that her subsequent termination by defendant was related to her allegations of harassment, defend*572ant’s termination of plaintiffs employment may not properly be regarded as evidence of a change in plaintiffs circumstances of employment for purposes of substantiating plaintiffs sexual harassment claim.