Employer's Conduct Fell Short Of Creating An Objectively Hostile Or Abusive Working Environment
Lucy Hancock, Betty Hitzfeld, and Lisa Mooney brought suit alleging that during a period of three to six months they were subjected to repeated sexual harassment by their employer’s president and owner, Barron Rush. The plaintiffs claimed that Rush's conduct created a hostile work environment.
Granting summary judgment for the employer, the United States District Court held that Rush’s conduct was not sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the female plaintiffs’ employment and fell short of creating an objectively hostile or abusive working environment actionable under Title VII; although Rush frequently discussed his personal sex life with the plaintiffs, his remarks were not physically threatening or humiliating, and his other conduct in instructing one of the plaintiffs to wear a bikini, and in unbuttoning his shirt in another's office, while offensive and unwelcome, was not sufficiently severe or pervasive.
Hancock v. Barron Builders & Management Co., Inc.