In James v. Denis McDonough in his official capacity as Secretary, United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Case No. 2:23-cv-02386-SHL-cgc, 2024 WL 5147647 (W.D.Tenn. Dec. 17, 2024), the court, inter alia, denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s hostile work environment sexual harassment claim.
From the decision:
Here, James alleges that Strawder, who is much taller than her, cornered her in a small walk-in freezer, grabbed her by the arm, stuck his tongue out and tried to kiss her, while peppering her with sexually suggestive comments. There is no dispute that James reported the incident to management immediately after it happened. Strawder’s actions are of the physically invasive sort that, though isolated, support a claim of hostile work environment. Because there is a question of material fact as to the fourth element of James’s claim, summary judgment would be inappropriate on these grounds.
The court further held that there was a question of material fact as to whether the defendant “failed to take reasonable care to prevent and correct any sexually harassing behavior.”
Among other things, the court held that in light of previous incidents in which the alleged harasser was accused of harassment, there was “a question of material fact as to whether merely assigning Strawder to another area of the VA facility while an investigation was conducted was an appropriate corrective action.”