In Martino v. Chenel Capital, LLC et al, No. 2023–04316, 3710, 2025 WL 516143 (N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept., Feb. 18, 2025), the Appellate Division, First Department unanimously reversed a lower court’s decision that the plaintiff failed to establish defendants’ liability for hostile work environment, sex discrimination, and retaliation under the New York State and City Human Rights laws.
From the decision:
[B]y defaulting, a defendant admits all traversable allegations contained in the complaint, and thus concedes liability, although not damages. Some proof of liability against defaulting defendants is required to satisfy the court as to the prima facie validity of the uncontested cause of action, but the standard of proof is minimal, not stringent.
Assuming the court, in its prior order ruling on plaintiff’s motion for a default judgment, properly ordered an inquest on liability as well as damages, plaintiff testified at inquest that her supervisor routinely asked her invasive questions about her love life, pressured her to work from his apartment and use his pool, showed her footage of other women being videotaped in his home, regularly touched her lower back and shoulders, and after she rebuffed his advances, deprived her of promised benefits and terminated her employment. This testimony was sufficient to support a viable claim that plaintiff was “subjected to inferior terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on the basis of her gender” in violation of the State HRL (Crawford v American Broadcasting Co., Inc., 216 AD3d 507, 508 [1st Dept 2023] ) and was treated “less well than other employees” on the basis of gender in violation of the City HRL (O’Rourke v National Foreign Trade Council, Inc., 176 AD3d 517, 517 [1st Dept 2019] ). The remarks and circumstances to which plaintiff was subjected “rise above the level of nonactionable petty slights or inconveniences” (id.). Plaintiff’s testimony also established a viable claim for retaliation under the HRLs (see Harrington v. City of New York, 157 AD3d 582, 585 [1st Dept 2018]; Ananiadis v Mediterranean Gyros Prods., Inc., 151 AD3d 915, 920 [2d Dept 2017] ).
Because plaintiff made a prima facie showing of liability at inquest, the court should not have dismissed the complaint (see Petty, 200 AD3d at 621).
Furthermore, on damages, plaintiff’s uncontroverted testimony that defendants’ actions caused her to experience emotional distress, sleepless nights, anxiety, relationship strain, and weight gain established that she was entitled to at least some compensatory damages, notwithstanding her failure to submit corroborating evidence of mental anguish (see e.g. Matter of City of New York v New York State Div. of Human Rights, 283 A.D.2d 215, 215 [1st Dept 2001] ).
[Internal quotation marks and citations omitted]
Based on the foregoing, the court remanded for a new inquest on the issue of plaintiff’s damages, noting that the inquest should address, among other things, plaintiff’s requests for emotional distress and punitive damages and attorneys’ fees, which the lower court did not address at the inquest.