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In Doe v. Hagenbeck et al., No. 13 CIV. 2802 AKH, 2015 WL 1611153 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2015), the Southern District of New York held that plaintiff, a West Point cadet, sufficiently alleged gender discrimination under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The court cited numerous instances of inappropriate…

Read More West Point Cadet Sufficiently Alleges Equal Protection Gender Discrimination Claim
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In Suarez v. City of New York (EDNY 11-cv-5812 March 31, 2015), the Eastern District of New York dismissed the claims by plaintiff, a deckhand on the Staten Island Ferry (and employed by the NYC Department of Transportation), that she was sexually harassed by Warren, an AlliedBarton security guard, under the NYC Human Rights Law (NYCHRL). Addressing…

Read More Staten Island Ferry Security Company Not Liable For Sexual Harassment Perpetrated by its Employee Against Non-Employee Deckhand
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Employment discrimination and hostile work environment claims are often difficult to prove, and frequently fail at the summary judgment stage. That is, there are many decisions in which a judge rules that there simply isn’t enough evidence to get to a jury on these issues. In that instance, the court is not taking on the…

Read More Plaintiff Gets to Jury on Race Discrimination and Hostile Work Environment Claims Against Contractor
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Last year, a Times Square Spiderman, Junior Bishop, was criminally charged with punching a police officer. Following the dismissal of his criminal case, he has taken steps to sue the City for, among other things, his alleged false arrest. Here are the petition in support of his request to file a late “notice of claim” and…

Read More Spiderman, Plaintiff
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In Vangas v. Montefiore Medical Center, 11-cv-6722 (SDNY 4/3/15), the Southern District of New York (among other rulings) upheld a jury verdict that the defendant failed to accommodate the plaintiff’s disability (cancer) in violation of the New York State Human Rights Law. In this disability discrimination case, defendant terminated plaintiff from her position as an analyst…

Read More Court Upholds Jury Verdict That Failure to Allow Work From Home Amounted to Denial of Reasonable Accommodation for Disability
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In a Manhattan federal lawsuit filed on April 8, 2015 and captioned Alexander v. Freelancers Health Service Corporation, SDNY 15-cv-02710, plaintiff alleges that she was subjected to gender discrimination, sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, and retaliation. Specifically, plaintiff alleges (among other things) that her supervisor made sexual comments about plaintiff’s breasts (referring to them as “them double…

Read More Lawsuit Alleges “Musical” Sexual Harassment Resulting in Two Heart Attacks
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In Bednark v. City of New York (decided April 2, 2015), a bus-related personal injury case, the Appellate Division, First Department modified a lower court’s order granting summary judgment to the the defendant City of New York to deny that motion. The facts: Plaintiff was injured when, while disembarking from the rear doors of a…

Read More “Bus Stop” Includes Sidewalk; Summary Judgment to City Denied
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Generally, the purpose New York’s “scaffold law” (New York Labor Law § 240(1)) is to protect construction workers from the pronounced risks arising from construction work site elevation differentials. A recent First Department case, Jordan v. City of New York (decided March 26, 2015), illustrates that what might seem like relatively small elevation differentials can nevertheless implicate…

Read More Force, Not Height, Is Key In a Labor Law 240(1) Construction Accident Case
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The Southern District recently reiterated, in Bermudez v. City of New York, that a plaintiff asserting a hostile work environment claim must show, among other things, “that she found the environment offensive, and that a reasonable person also would have found the environment to be hostile or abusive.” The test, as such, has both subjective and…

Read More Court Explains Why Female NYPD Plaintiff Presented Sufficient Evidence as to the “Subjective” Prong of Her Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Claim
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