In Mira v. Harder, 2019 NY Slip Op 08131 (App. Div. 1st Dept. Nov. 12, 2019), the court affirmed the dismissal of plaintiff’s discrimination, retaliation, and “revenge porn” claims.
First, the court held that plaintiff’s discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation claims – asserted under the New York State and City Human Rights Laws – were time-barred:
Plaintiff’s allegations stem from events that occurred more than three years before she initially commenced the action in federal court in December of 2015. Moreover, the continuing violations doctrine is inapplicable to plaintiff’s claims, as she failed to show proof that the time-barred allegations constituted a pattern or practice of ongoing discriminatory or retaliatory conduct or a continuing hostile work environment[.]
Continuing, the court held that “[e]ven if plaintiff’s claims were timely, based on alleged postemployment conduct, the complaint failed to state a cause of action” under CPLR 3211(a)(7), since it “contains merely speculative and inherently incredible allegations of widespread surveillance, conspiratorial meetings, and eavesdropping involving unidentified persons … that are insufficient to state the necessary elements of a cause of action for employment discrimination, retaliation, harassment, or intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress.”
Finally, the court rejected plaintiff’s allegations under New York’s “revenge porn” law, Civil Rights Law § 52-b, “since the allegations are conclusory and inherently incredibly. She fails to allege that she had any personal knowledge of defendants disseminating intimate images of her on social media with the intent to harass or annoy her.”