By Anthony Rice
In Salvato v. Smith, the court denied the City’s motion to dismiss a female police officer’s harassment claim. The court found the Officer successfully alleged her superior officers’ behavior was “sufficiently severe or pervasive” enough to alter the conditions of her employment. The court found the Officer’s Complaint was brimming with allegations regarding the hostile conduct she suffered, including:
(1) being called names like “gabbygail” and “spankasauras” and being constantly questioned as to her whereabouts; (2) denial of training opportunities, (3) refusal to let Plaintiff take a personal phone call, (4) documenting Plaintiff’s log-in times, but not doing it for other officers; (5) denial of Plaintiff’s request for a steady shift despite being aware of her child care issues; (6) being “sick-checked” while out on sick leave, when no other officers were “sick-checked”; (7) receiving a warning letter in her personnel file; and (8) denial of transfers to other units.
The court first detailed the five elements that must be established before the Officer can bring a hostile work environment claim:
(1) [s]he suffered intentional discrimination because of [her] membership in a protected class; (2) the discrimination was pervasive and regular; (3) the discrimination detrimentally affected [her]; (4) the discrimination would detrimentally affect a reasonable person of the same protected class in that position; and (5) the existence of respondent superior liability.
The City’s motion to dismiss the harassment claim focused entirely on the second element—pervasive and regular discrimination. To satisfy the second element, and defeat the City’s motion, the Officer “must show harassing behavior ‘sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of [the victim’s] employment.’”
Based on the above “well-pled allegations” of the Officer, the court found she “sufficiently alleged severe and regular acts of harassment.” The City’s motion was denied and the Officer was allowed to bring the claim.
