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David C. Cox
David C. Cox, 9 Seton Hall Constitutional Law Journal
311 (Fall, 1998) Fourteenth Amendment--due Process, Equal Protection and
Law Against Discrimination--material Issue of Fact as to Whether County
Sheriff Engaged in Discriminatory Harassment by Uttering One Racial
Epithet That Was Sufficiently Severe to Create a Hostile Work
Environment and Would Cause a Reasonable African American to Suffer
Severe Emotional Distress Precluded Summary Judgment For Sheriff--taylor
V. Metzger, 152 N.j. 490, 706 A.2d 685 (1998).
The New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that a rational factfinder
could conclude that there was a material issue of fact as to whether a
county sheriff engaged in discriminatory harassment by uttering a racial
epithet that was sufficiently severe to have created a hostile work
environment and that would result in severe emotional distress to an
average African American, and thus, precluded summary judgment in favor
of the sheriff. Taylor v. Metzger, 152 N.J. 490, 706 A.2d 685 (1998). In
so holding, the Court reasoned that there was sufficient evidence to
support a claim asserting a violation of the Law Against Discrimination
("LAD"), and intentional infliction of emotional distress. See
id. at 508, 706 A.2d at 693. The Court found that a rational factfinder
might reasonably conclude that a single racial slur by a superior to a
subordinate employee could rise to the level of severity necessary to
maintain a LAD claim. See id., 706 A.2d at 693-94. Therefore, the Court
concluded that a jury should have decided the outcome, and summary
judgment was inappropriate. See id., 706 A.2d at 694. Although the
Taylor decision expands the threshold requirements of the Law Against
Discrimination and the tort of intentional infliction of emotional
distress, such an expansion only results in the introduction of the
issues before a jury, not the expansion of the standards themselves. |