Court: SDNY

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In Arcos v. New School University, 2017 WL 3868495, at *7 (S.D.N.Y., 2017), the court upheld a jury verdict that plaintiff was subjected to discrimination based on his race and national origin (Cuban/Hispanic) under Title VII, § 1981, the NYSHRL, and the NYCHRL. In sum, plaintiff – a Cuban-born Hispanic man – was a faculty member at…

Read More Court Upholds Jury Verdict in Cuban Professor’s Favor on Employment Discrimination Claims
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In Allen v. A.R.E.B.A. Casriel, Inc., 2017 WL 4046127 (S.D.N.Y., 2017), the court held that plaintiff’s failure-to-accommodate-disability claim survived summary judgment.[1]The court dismissed, however, plaintiff’s claims of age and race discrimination. From the decision: Defendants concede that Plaintiff was disabled and that ACI was aware of Plaintiff’s macular degeneration. (Def. 56.1 ¶ 25). Defendants argue they…

Read More Failure to Accommodate Disability (Macular Degeneration) Claim Survives Summary Judgment
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In Butterfield-Bajinan v. City of New York, 2017 WL 4045175 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 11, 2017), the court granted defendant’s motion to dismiss plaintiff’s Title VII race discrimination claim as insufficiently alleged. The court explained what a plaintiff asserting such a claim must allege: To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint alleging employment discrimination under Title…

Read More Title VII Race Discrimination Claim Dismissed; Court Cites Lack of Alleged Racial Comments or Favorable Treatment of “Similarly Situated” Caucasian Employees
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In Percy v. The State of New York (Hudson Valley DDSO), Local 412 of the CSEA, Inc., Local 1000, AFSCME AFL-CIO, Basil Townsend, 264 F.Supp.3d 574, 585 (S.D.N.Y. 2017), the court explained: Courts are split on the question of whether rejecting unwanted sexual advances constitutes protected activity. See Little, 210 F. Supp. 2d at 385-86…

Read More Rejecting a Supervisor’s Sexual Advances is “Protected Activity” For Purposes of a Retaliation Claim, Court Holds
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From James v. NYC Health & Hospitals Corp. et al, 2017 WL 3923675 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 6, 2017): Defendants argue that Waiters’s alleged conduct was not sufficiently severe or pervasive as a matter of law. See Def. Br. at 12 (claiming conduct “lacks any semblance of concreteness, vulgarity or even obscenity”). That evidence, however, is sufficient…

Read More Sexual Harassment Hostile Work Environment Claim Survives Summary Judgment Against NYC Health & Hospitals Corp.
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In Carrington v. Mota & City of New York, 2017 WL 3835883 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 31, 2017),[1]I wrote about the court’s evaluation of plaintiff’s “disparate treatment” race discrimination claim here. the court recommended the dismissal of plaintiff’s hostile work environment claim. From the decision: Carrington’s factual allegations do not create a plausible inference that she has…

Read More Hostile Work Environment Claim Dismissed; “Nasty Tone” Was Not “Severe”, and Alleged Hostility Was Disconnected From Employee’s Race
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In Carrington v. Mota & City of New York, 2017 WL 3835883 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 31, 2017), the court recommended the dismissal of plaintiff’s race discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (but gave her an opportunity to amend her complaint). As to plaintiff’s race discrimination…

Read More Court Dismisses Race Discrimination Claim; Adverse Action, Inference of Discrimination Insufficiently Alleged
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One frequently-occurring personal injury case is the so-called “slip-and-fall” case, which in turn is a species of “premises liability” claims. One court[1]Decker v. Middletown Walmart Supercenter Store, No. 15 CIV. 2886 (JCM), 2017 WL 568761 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 10, 2017) recently summarized the law as follows: In New York, [t]o establish a prima facie case of…

Read More Surviving Summary Judgment in a Slip-and-Fall Premises Liability Case
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In a recent complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, captioned Allen v. Goldman Sachs, SDNY 17-cv-6195 (filed 8/16/17), plaintiff Rebecca Allen – a member of Goldman’s Private Wealth Management Division – alleges (inter alia) that “[a]s a result of [a] pattern and practice of discriminatory conduct, the few Black employees at the Bank are marginalized and…

Read More Race Discrimination Lawsuit Against Goldman Sachs
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In Roa v. Staples, Inc., 2017 WL 3425779 (SDNY Aug. 9, 2017), the court denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment dismissing plaintiff’s disability discrimination claim. Although it was undisputed that defendant terminated plaintiff based on the belief that plaintiff stole another employee’s bag of chips, the court held that plaintiff provided enough evidence of discriminatory…

Read More Disability Discrimination Claim Against Staples Survives Summary Judgment
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