In a recent case, Watson v. The Richmond University Medical Center et al, 14-cv-1033, 2019 WL 5087062 (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 10, 2019), the court, inter alia, denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff’s Title VII race discrimination claim.
From the decision (some citations omitted):
[C]onstruing the facts in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, a reasonable jury could conclude that two categories of conduct were both objectively and subjectively hostile, and occurred because Plaintiff is African American. It is undisputed that: (1) Dr. Arsura’s administrative assistant would sometimes call Plaintiff Michelle instead of Dr. Watson; and (2) Plaintiff was directed to perform menial tasks, such as taking out the garbage, and teaching African American students. With respect to these facts, the Court finds Plaintiff’s claims not unlike those in Patterson v. County of Oneida, 375 F.3d 206 (2d Cir. 2004). In Patterson, the court found a triable issue on a § 1981 hostile-work-environment claim where the plaintiff, an African American corrections officer, claimed that a white lieutenant “subjected [the plaintiff] to constant humiliation by refusing to speak to him and by always saluting White officers in [the plaintiff’s] presence and never returning a salute from [plaintiff].” Id. at 229; see also Whidbee v. Garzarelli Food Specialties, Inc., 223 F.3d 62, 69 (2d Cir. 2000) (holding that the same standard applies to hostile-work-environment claims under both Title VII and § 1981). Being made to perform janitorial services and denied recognition for an earned medical degree could be deemed as constantly humiliating as not being returned a salute. Whether such conduct amounts to a hostile work environment is a triable issue of fact.