In Simmons v. The City of New York, No. 157761/2023, 2024 WL 4467701 (N.Y. Sup Ct, New York County Oct. 08, 2024), the court, inter alia, denied defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claims of race and gender discrimination.
From the decision:
To sufficiently allege a prima facie case of employment discrimination under State HRL and City HRL, the plaintiff must demonstrate they are: (1) a member of a protected class, (2) qualified to hold their position, (3) suffered and adverse employment action, (4) the adverse employment action occurred under circumstances that give rise to an inference of discrimination. See Harrington v. City of New York, 157 A.D.3d 582 (1st Dep’t 2018); see generally Hudson v. Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., 138 A.D.3d 511 (1st Dep’t 2016).
The City argues that Plaintiff did not allege facts that give rise to an inference that The City acted with discriminatory animus by terminating her employment. Plaintiff established that she is a member of a protected class because she identifies as Black/African American and a woman, she was qualified to hold her position as a Correction Officer, she was terminated from her position and pled that she was deprived of the terms, conditions, and privileges of her employment under circumstances that inference discrimination.
Thus, the court concluded that, affording plaintiff the benefit of every favorable inference, plaintiff sufficiently pled a cause of action for race and gender discrimination under the New York State and City Human Rights Laws.