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Article: "Let's Be Reasonable" -- Resolving the Ambiguities of the Faragher-Ellerth Affirmative Defense.
- Article from:
- Defense Counsel Journal
- Article date:
- April 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 International Association of Defense Counsels. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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If employers have acted reasonably to stop and correct supervisor harassment, the defense should be available even if the employee has acted reasonably
THE BIG one hit in 1998. What had rumbled in the lower courts for 12 years--the question of vicarious liability in sexual harassment cases in which the victim's harasser is her supervisor--eventually rose in the U.S. Supreme Court in a wave of seismic proportion as a new level of sexual harassment litigation surfaced. In two 7-2 decisions--Faragher v. City of Boca Raton(1) and Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth(2)--the Court created strict liability in the hostile environment context unless the employer can ...