NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – An employee at Bloomberg L.P. can’t sue its founder, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, over the sexual harassment and abuse she was allegedly subjected to.
Michael Bloomberg the individual can’t be held vicariously liable for the actions of the woman’s supervisor, the state Court of Appeals ruled earlier this month. A woman known by the pseudonym Margaret Doe is left with her claims against Bloomberg L.P. for employing Nicholas Ferris.
Bloomberg the man allegedly fostered an environment that encouraged sexist and sexually charged behavior, Doe’s lawsuit claimed.
“Shareholders are also not commonly understood to be employers, and to designate them as such for the purpose of imposing vicarious liability would go against the principles underlying the legal distinction,” Judge Michael Garcia wrote for the majority.
“(T)he text of the City (Human Rights Law) demonstrates no intent to displace these settled legal principles. Nor is there merit to the dissent's suggestion that the structure of the employer-business at issue here, a limited partnership, serves somehow to create ‘employer liability’ for the partners.”
Garcia’s decision notes the difficulty jurists have faced while handling the case. The trial judge first granted Bloomberg’s motion to dismiss but then reconsidered and denied it.
At the Appellate Division, two judges dissented when the motion was again rejected. And Judge Jenny Rivera authored a dissent when the state’s highest court granted Bloomberg’s motion.
“(I)t is logical to treat an individual with control over the business as an employer in fact, if not in name—particularly given the liability faced by low-level supervisors and managers for their discriminatory conduct,” Rivera wrote.
“It is, of course, eminently reasonable to hold individuals personally liable for their own discriminatory acts. But it beggars belief that this company's owner—alleged to have fostered a pernicious culture of misogyny that facilitated the egregious conduct to which plaintiff was subjected—should nonetheless escape liability by virtue of his position at the top of the company hierarchy.”