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Title VII Violation

By: Derek Hawkins//August 27, 2018//

Title VII Violation

By: Derek Hawkins//August 27, 2018//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Robert Smith v. Rosebud Farm, Inc.

Case No.: 17-2626

Officials: BAUER, BARRETT, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Title VII Violation

Robert Smith worked behind the meat counter at Rosebud Farm, a local grocery store. After several years of ongoing sexual and racial harassment from his male coworkers and supervisor, Smith sued Rosebud. He claimed various violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, and the Illinois Gender Violence Act. The jury returned a verdict for Smith. Rosebud appeals, maintaining that the district court erred in denying its motions for judgment as a matter of law and a new trial.

Rosebud argues that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Smith’s Title VII sex discrimination claim. To win, Smith had to show more than unwanted sexual touching or taunting; he had to show that the harassment occurred because of his sex. Rosebud contends that Smith’s evidence demonstrates that the other men in the shop engaged in “sexual horseplay,” not sex discrimination. But Rosebud is wrong about that: the evidence supports the inference that Smith’s coworkers harassed him because he was male. The shop was a mixed‐sex workplace, and only men were groped and taunted. Because men were treated differently from women at Rosebud, a reasonable jury could conclude that Smith was tormented because of his sex.

Rosebud also insists that the district court should have awarded it judgment as a matter of law on Smith’s § 1981 retaliation claim and granted a new trial because of inflammatory statements that Smith’s counsel made during his closing argument. But Rosebud did not raise either of these arguments below, so it has forfeited them. Its challenges to the judgment uniformly fail.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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