Court Opinion

ID: 9490514
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:45:30.661359+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:08.485722
License: Public Domain

ESCHBACH, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
I concur with the majority’s result. I do not join the opinion, however, because I do not believe that this was the easy, almost frivolous case that the majority makes it out to be. Because this ease was presented at the summary judgment stage, I saw it as a difficult case, even though in the end I agree that Ms. Brill did not present sufficient evidence to create any genuine issues of fact that merit a trial. I am also concerned that the majority’s discussion (actually dicta) dismisses the possibility that certain circumstances could ever amount to discrimination or sexual harassment, when the only conclusion necessary to the disposition of the appeal is that the facts in this case did not present a genuine question for trial. One example, although not the only one, is the majority’s suggestion that because an alleged harasser’s remarks are addressed to someone else, although made in the plaintiffs presence and within her hearing, they cannot be considered sexual harassment of the plaintiff. Supra at 1274. It seems clear to me that sexual remarks, even though addressed to another, potentially could create a hostile work environment for those who hear them. In my view, the incidents described by Ms. Brill did not amount to sexual harassment, not because the remarks were addressed to someone else in Ms. Brill’s presence and within her hearing, but because they were not sufficiently severe or pervasive to amount to sexual harassment under the law of this circuit.