Legal News

CT Court: Work Environment ?Insensitive,? but Not Hostile

By Dan Slater

Over at Pullman & Comley, Daniel Schwartz writes a great blog about CT employment law.

Sound a bit dry, LB’ers? Not today. Pullman has a post that begins: “Is putting a toilet training book, such as one allegedly called ‘The Book of Poop,’ on a disabled co-worker’s desk sufficient to create a Hostile Work Environment?”

Apparently, that question was addressed this week by Connecticut federal district court judge Dominic Squatrito. (Here’s the opinion.) In Murphy v. Beavex, the court had to decide whether an employee who had several “bowel incidents” (allegedly arising from multiple sclerosis), a hostile work environment when his co-workers left said book on his desk. They also called him a variety of harsh names unsuitable for a print in a wholesome blog like this one. The court, reports Schwartz, found that this was not enough to create a hostile work environment:

In considering the remaining alleged incidents in a light most favorable to [the Plaintiff], the court concludes that a reasonable jury could not find such conduct so severe and pervasive as to have altered his working conditions. While it was insensitive for [the Plaintiff]’s coworkers to call him names and leave a scatological children’s book near his workspace, such teasing does not rise to the level of severity and pervasiveness required to defeat a motion for summary judgment.

Loyal LB’ers, this work environment seems pretty uncool. Hostile? Dust off the law books and see what you think.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).