Below is the sexual harassment and race discrimination complaint filed by plaintiff Elizabeth Shiflett against Scores Holding Company last Friday. She sues under Title VII and the New York State and City Human Rights Laws. This is one of the relatively few cases in which the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) found reasonable cause to believe…
Read More Sexual Harassment Complaint Against ScoresYesterday the Appellate Division, First Department found, in Grinberg v. C & L Contracting Corp, that awards of $75,000 and $35,000 for past and future pain and suffering, respectively, were “inadequate” to compensate the plaintiff for injuries sustained in a fall. It therefore remanded for a new trial on damages unless defendant stipulated to an increase…
Read More Damages Increased From $110,000 to $950,000 in Slip/Fall CasePeople who contact me regarding an employment discrimination claim that they are interested in pursuing invariably ask two questions: (1) Do I have a case? (2) What is my case worth? The first question relates to the question of liability, while the second relates to the question of damages. As in any legal case, in…
Read More Damages in Employment Discrimination CasesThis week the Southern District of New York held, in Glatt v. Fox Searchlight Pictures Inc., 2013 WL 2495140 (SDNY June 11, 2013), that two unpaid interns who worked on the movie Black Swan in New York were “employees” under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the New York Labor Law (NYLL). Citing and applying…
Read More Court Holds That Black Swan Unpaid Interns Were “Employees” Under Federal And New York Wage LawsBelow is the complaint, captioned Burhans and Rivera v. Lopez and Silver, 13 CIV 3870, filed in the Southern District of New York by Victoria Burhans and Chloe Rivera against (former) Assemblyman Vito Lopez and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. Plaintiffs allege violations of the Fourteenth Amendment (through 42 U.S.C. § 1983), the New York State Human…
Read More Federal Sexual Harassment Complaint Against Vito Lopez and Sheldon SilverLast week in Williams v. Board of Education-City of Buffalo, the Second Circuit affirmed the summary judgment dismissal of plaintiff’s First Amendment retaliation claims. The district court’s decision is here, and the Second Circuit’s decision is here. Plaintiff, a clerk at the Riverside Institute of Technology, claimed that the principal instructed her to “alter payroll documentation…
Read More School Clerk’s Complaints About Payroll Fraud Not Protected Under the First AmendmentA New York appellate court recently agreed that a teacher should not have been fired for complaining about her students on Facebook. The appellate court’s May 7, 2013 decision in In the Matter of the Application of Christine Rubino v. City of New York is here, and the lower court’s Feb. 1, 2012 decision is here. On June…
Read More Facebook-Venting Teacher Keeps Her JobLet’s face it: jury service can be a major inconvenience. But, like paying taxes, it’s not voluntary. The recent words of a federal judge, however, may be just inspirational enough to make performing one’s civic duty more bearable. In Clark v. Castro, the Southern District of New York explained why it refused to vacate a…
Read More Citing Importance of Jury Service, Court Denies Motion to Vacate Judgment Following Jury VerdictThat pesky First Amendment. Always causing trouble. As has been widely reported (for example, here and here), an Ohio jury recently awarded former Catholic school computer technology teacher Christa Dias more than $170,000 in her federal anti-discrimination lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Plaintiff claimed that she was fired because she was pregnant (due to…
Read More Recent Pregnancy Discrimination Verdict May Lead To Revisiting The “Ministerial Exception” To A Federal Anti-Discrimination ClaimA recent New York trial court decision again underscores the breadth of the New York City Human Rights Law. The case is Davis v. Phoenix Ancient Art, decided April 22, 2013. There, plaintiff Emily Davis alleged that she was subjected to sexual harassment and constructively discharged. Plaintiff’s allegations: [I]n September 2010, while at an art…
Read More NYC Human Rights Law Claims Continue, While State Human Rights Law Claims Fail