Law for Business 10th Edition by James Barnes,Terry Dworkin,Eric Richards

Exercise 3

Faragher worked as an ocean lifeguard in Boca Raton, Florida. She alleged that two of her immediate supervisors subjected her and other female lifeguards to uninvited and offensive touching, lewd remarks, and offensive comments about women. The lifeguards and supervisors were stationed at the city beach and worked out of a small one-story building. There was a clear chain of command, and the lifeguards had no significant contact with higher city officials. The city had a sexual harassment policy, but it failed to disseminate the policy among employees of the lifeguard section, and many of the supervisors and lifeguards were unaware of it. Faragher did not complain to higher management about the two supervisors. Although she spoke of their behavior to a third supervisor, Gordon, she did not regard these as formal complaints to a supervisor but as conversations with a person she held in high esteem. Because he did not feel it was his place to do so, Gordon did not report the complaints to his own supervisor or to any city official. Two months before Faragher resigned, a former female lifeguard complained to the city's personnel director about the supervisors' conduct; following an investigation, they were reprimanded. Faragher sued for sexual harassment after she resigned. Is the city liable for the sexually hostile work environment created by the supervisors? Why or why not?