Summary Judgment Denied in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

The lawyers at Sabatini and Associates have successfully fought off an employer's motion for summary judgment in a sexual harassment case. The employer tried to argue that its management had no actual notice of the sexual harassment and therefore was not legally responsible for the hostile work environment. We had anticipated such an argument well in advance and geared our discovery in the case to defeat such an argument. We established during discovery that management failed to take reasonable measures to prevent sexual harassment from taking place in the workplace - no anti-harassment training, no documented rules or policies on sexual harassment in the workplace, no informal discussions with the staff on harassment in the workplace, no guidance as to where an employee should go to report workplace harassment. Because the employer failed to take any preventive measures, the trial court correctly concluded that management's lack of actual notice of the sexual harassment was no defense. The case now proceeds to a jury trial.