Weird Request for Personal Body Grooming Presents Triable Issue of Sexual Harassment By Jerry L. Pigsley, Harding & Shultz, P.C., L.L.O. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals recently found a St. Louis area public employee had established a triable sexual harassment claim. McMiller v. Metro, Case No. 123536 (8th Cir. Dec. 26, 2013). The court addressed the two types of sexual harassment claims alleged by McMiller: “hostile-work-environment” and “quid-pro-quo.” Eartha McMiller sued the Bi-State Development Agency of the Missouri-Illinois Metropolitan District (“Metro”), her former employer, alleging that her supervisor had sexually harassed her in violation of Title VII. McMiller contended that her supervisor’s behavior resulted in a hostile work environment that amounted to constructive sex discrimination. She alleged that her supervisor kissed her face on two occasions, placed his arms around her or attempted to do so three times, and requested that she remove an ingrown hair from an area near his chin. The Eighth Circuit agreed with the trial court that the evidence presented in this summary judgment proceeding, “while
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demonstrating conduct that ‘can at best be described as inappropriate,’ is insufficient to establish severe or pervasive harassment under our precedents.” Accordingly, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for the employer on the hostile work environment claim. However, the Eighth Circuit reversed the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for Metro on the “quid-pro-quo” harassment claim. McMiller claimed that her supervisor implicitly demanded sexual favors in exchange for influencing Metro to continue her employment, and that she was terminated because she refused to cooperate with her supervisor’s attempts to engage her sexually. The Eighth Circuit concluded that McMiller’s evidence was sufficient to generate a genuine issue of fact for trial on this theory. According to the appellate court, “[a] reasonable jury could conclude that [her supervisor] made a strange request for grooming assistance in an effort to bring McMiller into close physical proximity and to gratify him sexually in exchange for protecting her job.”
SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
