Lest you think that no one can win a hostile work environment claim, we have some positive news from the Second Circuit. In Russell v. New York University, et al., the court issued a summary order (which does not have precedential effect but is citable) affirming a summary judgment order in favor of NYU and Robert Squillace, the associate dean for Academic Affairs.
Facts
Dr. Suzan Russell sued two coworkers, Joseph Thometz and Eve Meltzer, for creating a hostile work environment by their alleged treatment of her, including anonymous, inappropriate emails that she believed came from them. She also sued her employer, NYU, and Squillace claiming that they failed to stop this behavior, causing her to suffer discrimination and harassment because of her gender, sexual orientation, religion and age. (She also claimed NYU and Squillace retaliated against her for complaining about it.)
The court’s brief opinion relied on the defendants’ policies and procedures. NYU had a “robust internal complaint system,” which Russell admitted that she had availed herself of numerous times. Instead, Russell claimed that defendants’ efforts to remedy the harassment “fell below an objective standard of reasonableness.”
The court disagreed with Russell, agreeing with the lower court that defendants dealt with each of Russell’s complaints “quickly and in proportion to the level of seriousness of the event.” There was an internal investigation in which NYU checked IP addresses that Russell provided and attempted to engage the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The court noted that Russell ultimately told NYU to stop contacting the DA, as that was not their business. The fact that NYU was unable to stop the harassment and did not “warn” the employees that Russell suspected them of being responsible for the harassment was not legally sufficient for her to survive summary judgment.
“An employer need not prove success in preventing harassing behavior in order to demonstrate that it exercised reasonable care in preventing and correcting the harassing conduct.”
The court noted that there “is only so much that NYU—a private university lacking the subpoena power of a government agency—can do to investigate misconduct” and that NYU had no duty to take steps against individuals based “solely on her speculative say-so.”
Takeaways
This order is good news for employers. Even though NYU’s efforts were ultimately not successful—and the harassment continued—it won on summary judgment. The Second Circuit’s order makes clear that an employer’s defense to a hostile work environment claim is not measured by its success. If you have (1) a policy prohibiting harassment, (2) effective complaint procedures, and (3) a thorough investigation, even if you do not stop the harassment, you can win. Your reasonable efforts can be enough.