In Smith v. Louis DeJoy, 2024 WL 5145956 (N.D.Ala. Dec. 17, 2024), the court, inter alia, granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim.
From the decision:
Plaintiff’s termination was a single discrete event. So, in the absence of pervasiveness, the only way for her hostile work environment claim to survive on this basis is for her to show that a reasonable jury could consider her termination to be severe enough to constitute a hostile work environment. This is a high bar, as a single incident of alleged harassment is typically not enough. See Clark Cnty. School Dist. v. Breeden, 532 U.S. 268, 270-71 (2001). Without more, a termination is a common event in the workplace and is not objectively severe. Cf. Uppal v. Hospital Corp. of America, 482 Fed. App’x 394, 397 (11th Cir. 2012) (holding insufficiently severe an incident where a supervisor put his arm around an employee “in an unwelcomed sexual manner”); Breeden, 532 U.S. at 271 (holding insufficiently severe a single incident of a supervisor making a suggestive comment while reviewing with an employee survey responses).
The court concluded that there was nothing in the record “that distinguishes Plaintiff’s termination from a typical discharge” and therefore that summary judgment on this claim was warranted.