In Khurana v. City of New York, No. 152921/2024, 2025 WL 1085410 (N.Y. Sup Ct, New York County Apr. 10, 2025), the court, inter alia, denied defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claim of hostile work environment under the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL).
From the decision:
Under the NYCHRL, a plaintiff claiming a hostile work environment need only demonstrate that he or she was treated less well than other employees because of the relevant characteristic. (Bilitch v New York City Health & Hosp. Corp., 194 AD3d 999, 1003 [2d Dept 2021]). Here, plaintiff has plead that she was consistently threatened with termination because of her perceived disability (NYSCEF Doc No 1 at ¶¶ 251 — 253). While defendants are correct that a plaintiff must allege more that “petty slights and trivial inconveniences” to sustain a cause for hostile work environment, plaintiff has met that pleading standard by alleging that she was consistently treated less well, by being consistently denied benefits such as promotions and overtime which were offered to able-bodied employees, and was forced to endure threats of termination (Suri v Grey Glob. Group, Inc., 164 AD3d 108, 118 [1st Dept 2018]; see Sims v Trustees of Columbia Univ., 168 AD3d 622, 623 [1st Dept 2019] [Plaintiff properly plead hostile work environment claim by pleading that supervisor told him “he was ‘too old for the job,’ that he worked like he ‘just came back from surgery,’ and that he had ‘too many worker’s comp cases and . . . should resign’ ”]). Accordingly, plaintiff’s hostile work environment claims will not be dismissed.
[Internal quotation marks omitted.]
The court likewise denied defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claims of disability discrimination and failure to accommodate.