05-17-2017
T & M Protection Services employed Otis Daniel, a gay black man from the West Indies, as a fire safety director. He was fired in 2012 and filed a lawsuit claiming that he had been discriminated against based on his race, national origin, and sexual orientation.
The district court had dismissed his claim for race discrimination because it was largely based on a supervisor calling Mr. Daniel a racial slur. That court ruled that one statement was insufficient as a matter of law to create a racially hostile work environment.
However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with that finding. In reviewing court precedent, the circuit court noted that prior cases had left open the possibility based on the severity of the slurs. The circuit court cited a portion of a previous decision that read “perhaps no single act can more quickly alter the conditions of employment and create an abusive working environment than the use of an unambiguously racial epithet such as the 'n-word' by a supervisor in the presence of his subordinates.” Thus, the Second Circuit held that one statement could as a matter of law create a racially offensive work environment. The case was sent back down to the trial court so that a trier of fact could determine whether in this particular case a hostile work environment was created.
The case was sent back down to the trial court so that a trier of fact could determine whether in this particular case a hostile work environment was created.