In Gahfi v. New York City Department of Education & Shenean Lindsay, No. 23-CV-1782 (BMC), 2026 WL 141907 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 20, 2026), the court, inter alia, denied defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s hostile work environment claims under the New York State and City Human Rights Laws.
From the decision:
To survive a motion for summary judgment, a plaintiff alleging a hostile work environment must bring forth more than a mere scintilla of evidence. To prevail under the NYSHRL and the NYCHRL’s lower standard for showing hostile work environment plaintiff need only show differential treatment, i.e., being treated less well because of a discriminatory intent. Under the NYSHRL, a plaintiff must establish that she was subjected to inferior terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of her membership in one or more protected categories.
Plaintiff contends that all of defendants’ actions, described above, contributed to a hostile work environment. Plaintiff further points to defendants’ denial of her LODI leave request. According to Lindsay, plaintiff’s LODI leave was denied because a timely report of the at-work incident must be reported … within 24 hours of the alleged injury and plaintiff’s failure to do so was dispositive. But such a strict application of the policy is inconsistent with the policy itself, which provides that the 24-hour rule does not apply when reasonable grounds exist for a delay. Moreover, it was over a month after plaintiff’s injury when DOE’s HR office emailed plaintiff with instructions and directions to apply for LODI leave. Nonetheless, Lindsay denied the leave, citing the 24-hour rule, forcing plaintiff to instead use her vacation days, accumulated over her entire career, to receive pay while taking the necessary time off.
Plaintiff further points to Lindsay’s offensive comments and unwarranted negative remarks on her performance evaluations. If plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim was predicated only on these actions, her claims might not survive summary judgment. … But here, a reasonable jury could find that Lindsay’s comments, unwarranted negative feedback, and seemingly arbitrary denial of plaintiff’s LODI leave, compounded the negative effects of the conduct that underlies plaintiff’s other claims. In other words, a reasonable jury could find that the totality of the circumstances established an unlawful hostile work environment under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL.
(Cleaned up.)
Based on this, the court held that denial of defendants’ motion for summary judgment on plaintiff’s hostile work environment claims under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL was warranted.