Employment — hostile work environment

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Civil

Employment — hostile work environment

Where an employer adequately responded to all complaints of a hostile work environment that were made to it, it is not liable for allegations that were not reported to it.

“We need not address the first three prongs of the hostile work environment analysis, as the district court correctly determined that there is no basis for employer liability in any of the alleged incidents of harassment to satisfy the fourth prong. There is no dispute that in this case all of the harassment identified by Chaib came from co-workers rather than supervisors. An employer is only liable for harassment from an employee’s co-workers if it was negligent in its response to the harassment. See Vance, 133 S. Ct. at 2439 (‘Under Title VII, an employer’s liability for such harassment may depend on the status of the harasser. If the harassing employee is the victim’s co-worker, the employer is liable only if it was negligent in controlling working conditions.’). Here, there were only a few incidents of alleged harassment which Chaib brought to the attention of the IDOC: she complained about Van Dine’s behavior and three other co-worker comments. After each of these complaints, however, Chaib had no further problems with any of those officers. Indeed, Chaib points to no evidence in the record which establishes that, after reporting a co-worker to her supervisors, she ever had a subsequent problem with that individual. No reasonable jury could say that her employer was negligent for failing to correct her co-workers’ behavior when it apparently corrected all of the behavior she reported.”

Affirmed.

13-1680 Chaib v. State of Indiana

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Pratt, J., Kapala, J.