In a recent lawsuit captioned Ikezi v. Cipriani Club 55 LLC et al, 15-cv-06145 (SDNY filed 8/5/15), plaintiff Henry Ikezi accuses the Cipriani Club and others of discriminating against him on account of his race. Plaintiff alleges, among other things, that On or about April 2015, when Cipriani Club advised the Plaintiff that Cipriani Club…
Read More Public Accommodation Race Discrimination Lawsuit Against Cipriani ClubIn Feliciano v. City of New York, No. 14 CIV. 6751 PAE, 2015 WL 4393163 (S.D.N.Y. July 15, 2015), the Southern District of New York held that plaintiff, a Hispanic Lieutenant employed by the New York City Sheriff’s Department, sufficiently alleged a prima facie case of discriminatory failure to promote based on race and national origin…
Read More Lieutenant Sufficiently Alleges Discriminatory Failure to Promote and (Limited) Retaliation ClaimHere is the federal court complaint, captioned Quitasol v. The New York Times et al, 15-cv-04873 (SDNY filed June 23, 2015), in which plaintiff asserts claims of race, age, and gender discrimination against the New York Times and her manager:
Read More Age/Race/Gender Employment Discrimination Lawsuit Against The New York TimesIn Wynn v. New York City Hous. Auth., No. 14-CV-2818 SAS, 2015 WL 4578684 (S.D.N.Y. July 29, 2015), the court held that a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) did not foreclose plaintiffs from pressing their employment discrimination claims. In this case, plaintiffs allege that NYCHA systematically undercompensated them due to a policy of race discrimination. Defendant argued…
Read More Collective Bargaining Agreement Does Not Deprive Court of Subject Matter Jurisdiction Over Employment Discrimination ClaimsIn Burgis v. New York City Dept. of Sanitation (2d Cir. July 31, 2015), a putative class action race discrimination case brought by members of the NYC Dept. of Sanitation, the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and 42 USC 1981 and Title VII of the…
Read More Class Action Race Discrimination Case Properly Dismissed; Intent, Statistics Insufficiently AllegedIn Tolbert v. Smith et al, decided by the Second Circuit on June 24, 2015, the court vacated the district court’s judgment dismissing plaintiff’s claims of race discrimination (and affirmed it with respect to his hostile work environment and defamation claims). This case is instructive on the “prima facie case” portion of the employment discrimination analysis. Plaintiff, a…
Read More Non-Tenured, Probationary Teacher Establishes Prima Facie Case of Race DiscriminationHere is the recently-filed lawsuit, captioned Kieara Gaskin and Tenia Stuckey v. BK Venture Group LTD d/b/a Jaguars 3 and Starlets NYC, 15-cv-04190 (EDNY filed July 16, 2015), in which the plaintiffs allege that they were not paid properly under federal and state wage laws, and subjected to discrimination and a hostile work environment based…
Read More Entertainers’ FLSA, Race/Sex Hostile Work Environment Lawsuit Against Strip ClubIn Massie v. Metro. Museum of Art, No. 11-CV-9549 JPO, 2015 WL 3833839 (S.D.N.Y. June 22, 2015), the Southern District of New York reiterated that, when asserting a hostile work environment claim, [a] plaintiff need not show that the incidents rendered the work environment “unendurable” or “intolerable,” but she must, to survive a motion for summary…
Read More Court Dismisses Hostile Work Environment Claim Based on “Severe” (but “Isolated”) RemarksThe recent Southern District of New York case of Amar v. New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., 14-cv-2503 (SDNY June 15, 2015) is instructive on pleading a hostile work environment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In Amar, Judge Ramos held that the plaintiff, an African American woman employed by defendant as…
Read More Asserted Racial Epithets and Physical Threats Plausibly Allege Racially Hostile Work EnvironmentA recent decision, DeLaurencio v. Brooklyn Children’s Center, Superintendent (EDNY May 29, 2015), reiterates that Title VII is not a “general civility code” and that “[w]ork environments that are hostile for non-discriminatory reasons do not fall within the ambit of Title VII.” In this case, the court held that none of the allegations in plaintiff’s…
Read More Employment Discrimination / Hostile Work Environment Allegations Amounting to Rude Conduct Unmotivated by Discriminatory Animus Fail to State a Claim