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March 27, 2002
Court: 'Work Environment' Can Include Hotel Room
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And while acknowledging the "special circumstances" of the case, the court further decided that even off-duty conduct of an employee can subject an employer to liability for co-worker harassment.
Law.com reports that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made the rulings in Ferris v. Delta Air Lines Inc. The site gives this background on the case:
Delta flight attendant Penny Ferris was raped in 1998 by another attendant in a Rome hotel room, where the Delta crew had been assigned to stay pending a flight back to New York City.
Following the rape, Ferris learned that her attacker had raped or been hostile toward other flight attendants during the past five years. Other victims had made reports to Delta supervisors, but the airline took no action against the rapist.
The 2nd circuit overturned the ruling of a district court, which had rejected Ferris' sexual-harassment claims on grounds that the hotel room was not a "work environment" within the ambit of Title VII of Civil Rights Act and because Ferris' fear of encountering her attacker on subsequent Delta flights was too "speculative."
While conceding it was a close call, the 2nd Circuit noted that Delta had booked and paid for the block of hotel rooms that the flight crew used and arranged for transportation to and from the hotel. Under those circumstances, it was "likely" that the crew members would band together during the foreign layover, the appeals court concluded.
Moreover, Law.com reports, the 2nd Circuit reversed the district court by finding that Ferris had stated a cause of action for sexual harassment. It rejected Delta's argument that off-duty, non-work-related encounters could not serve as notice to it of the harassment suffered by Ferris; rather, it decided there was a sufficient basis to impute responsibility on Delta because supervisors had been notified of the previous rapes.
The appeals court said Delta had a duty to warn, regardless of the fact that Ferris herself was not previously abused. It also found that Ferris's trepidation of further encounters with her attacker was not too speculative to state a claim.
Finally, according to Law.com, the 2nd Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of appellant's negligent retention and supervision claims.