Dawson v. County of Westchester.

U.S. District Court

SEXUAL HARASSMENT 

HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT 

Dawson v. County of Westchester, 351 F.Supp.2d 176 (S.D.N.Y. 2004). Female correctional officers brought an action against a county and personnel of a county department of corrections, alleging hostile work environment claims and state law claims. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants in part, and denied it in part. The court held that summary judgment was precluded by a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the county defendants' response to the officers' allegations of a hostile work environment was reasonable and prompt. The court found that a sergeant was the female officers' supervisor for purposes of holding the county vicariously liable for the sergeant's actions which created a hostile work environment, even though the sergeant had no authority to hire, fire, transfer or take other tangible employment actions against the officers. The court noted that the sergeant was next in the chain of command, the officers reported to him, and he had the power to enable or materially augment the ability to create a hostile work environment. The court found that the officers provided sufficient evidence to demonstrate intentional harassment by male co-workers and a supervisor, based on sex, in violation of equal protection. The officers alleged that they were subjects of two inmate letters containing a drawing and sexually explicit language, that they showed the male sergeant who failed to report the letter to a higher authority and failed to conduct any credible investigations about its authorship and circulation. They also alleged that the male sergeant engaged in inappropriate conversations with supervisors and officers about the contents and targets of the defamatory letters. (Westchester County Department of Corrections, New York)