In Hewitt v. Stephens et al, 2:22-cv-00388, 2023 WL 4494457 (S.D.W.Va. July 12, 2023), the court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s sex-based hostile work environment claim asserted under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The court explained that, to state a hostile work environment claim for sex discrimination, a plaintiff must allege that there was (1) unwelcome conduct, (2) based on her sex, (3) of sufficient severity or pervasiveness to alter the conditions of her employment and create an abusive work environment, (4) that was imputable to the employer.
Applying the law to the facts, the court explained:
Here, the plaintiff has alleged a course of behavior in which her supervisor, defendant Stephens, made invasive and particularized speculations about her intimate involvement with a co-worker, spurring rumor and gossip about the plaintiff in her workplace of a severity that led at least one co-worker to request defendant Sims intervene and address the matter. Although the full extent of the rumor, gossip, and workplace interference stemming from the defendants’ conduct, including the Sergeant Cross incident, is not ascertainable on the face of the pleadings, the plaintiff has alleged facts to plausibly establish that it was sufficiently severe and pervasive so as to satisfy this element of a hostile work environment sex discrimination claim under Title VII.
As to the fourth element, the court explained that “the plaintiff has plausibly alleged enough to establish the fourth element of her claim on a negligence theory inasmuch as she alleges that counsel for WCC and a non-elected supervisory county employee, defendant Sims, had knowledge of the offending conduct.”