In a recent decision, Harris, Katherine Brooks et al v. Charlie Rose et al, Sup. Ct. NY Cty. Index No. 154172/2018 (filed Oct. 10, 2019), the court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiffs’ cause of action for retaliation under the New York City Human Rights Law, N.Y.C. Admin. Code ยง 8-101 et seq.
The court explained, inter alia, that “the only retaliatory acts alleged by [plaintiffs] McNeal and Harris are that Rose once called McNeal ‘a [expletive] idiot,’ and Harris ‘a [expletive] kindergartner'” and that after a November 2017 Washington Post article describing Rose’s predation of female employees, defendant fired them. “Inasmuch as CBS fired Rose the day after that article was published,” reasoned the court,” plaintiffs “cannot show that they were fired for any reason, other than that there was no longer any work for them, or, indeed, for any of [defendant]’s other employees.”