First Department Reinstates Gender Discrimination Claims

The Appellate Division, First Department held, in Walzer v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority (decided May 13, 2014), that plaintiff’s gender discrimination claims should not have been dismissed:

Applying the liberal pleading standards applicable to employment discrimination claims under the State and City Human Rights Law, plaintiff has stated causes of action for violations of the Human Rights Laws based on sex discrimination. Plaintiff, a former provisional road car inspector with defendant New York City Transit Authority, sufficiently alleged, inter alia, that despite similar, if not better qualifications, she was not hired to the position of cleaner while other former provisional road car inspectors, who were males, were hired to the same position.

The court, however, held that plaintiff failed to exhaust her administrative remedies on her negligence and negligent hiring and supervision claims. Those claims were governed by CPLR Article 78 and its four-month statute of limitations, which plaintiff failed to meet.

Plaintiff’s April 2012 complaint is here.

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