In a unanimous decision, the Minnesota Supreme Court Wednesday upheld the “severe or pervasive” legal threshold for sexual harassment claims in the workplace in a case involving a former employee of a residential care nonprofit.
The ruling said that for an abusive working environment to exist, sexual harassment must be more than minor and must be “both objectively and subjectively offensive in that a reasonable person would find the environment hostile or abusive and the victim in fact perceived it to be so.”
Justice Anne McKeig wrote the 20-page opinion, which sends the case back to the Hennepin County District Court. The lower court previously dismissed Assata Kenneh’s claims of sexual harassment. She said the harassment from a maintenance worker began immediately when she started in 2014.
The Supreme Court didn’t address the substance of Kenneh’s claims in her lawsuit against Homeward Bound, a nonprofit that operates residential care facilities for people with disabilities.
The high court, however, said Kenneh had provided sufficient evidence for a jury to decide whether the harassment rose to the severe or pervasive level.
Kenneh claimed that every time maintenance employee Anthony Johnson saw her, he would say something to the effect of “you look pretty” or “hey sexy.” He continued the behavior even after she reported it to a supervisor, Kenneh claimed.
“This is somebody who talk(s) to me sexually each and every chance he gets, every time he sees me. And he’s talking to me, he’s putting his tongue out, up and down, up and down,” her lawsuit said.
Kenneh resigned from the nonprofit. She is seeking unspecified damages.
Homeward Bound CEO Donald Priebe issued a written statement saying the “small, diverse nonprofit agency” is dedicated to its mission of caring for those with severe disabilities and providing a “workplace free from harassment based on sex and all” protected categories.
“We look forward to moving ahead in the trial court to establish once again that no unlawful sexual harassment took place,” he wrote.
Numerous groups filed friend-of-the-court briefs on both sides of the case because of its potential to upend the long-standing severe-and-pervasive standard for sexual harassment.
Lawyers for Kenneh didn’t respond to calls seeking comment.
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Minnesota Supreme Court upholds 'pervasive or severe' standard for sexual harassment - Minneapolis Star Tribune
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