Littlejohn v. City Of New York

795 F.3d 297 (2nd Cir. 2015)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P is an African-American woman with a master's degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Columbia University. P was the Director of its Equal Employment Opportunity ('EEO') Office for New York (D). P conducted investigations of claims of discrimination, trained staff, monitored hiring, counseled agency employees, organized diversity activities, and advised staff on EEO policy. P's prior supervisor, an African-American woman, gave P an above-average performance review for her work over the previous eight months. When P began reporting to Baker (D), a white woman and the Chief of Staff to ACS Commissioner Mattingly (D), a white man things turned bad. P relationship with Baker quickly deteriorated. P listed out in detail the alleged transgressions. D announced that ACS would merge with the City's Department of Juvenile Justice ('DJJ'). Numerous employees from DJJ would be laid off, demoted, reassigned, or terminated. P was excluded from the process. Only after an Assistant Commissioner for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services demanded that P be included in the meetings was, she allowed to attend. P claimed Baker and Mattingly showed preferential treatment to white DJJ employees. P also complained to Baker about the lack of African-American women in management positions, lower management levels for African-American employees compared to white employees, and pay disparities between African-American men and their white counterparts. P was involuntarily transferred and was allegedly demoted to the civil service non-managerial title of Administrative Staff Analyst, incurring a pay cut of $2,000. P was replaced by a white female with no prior EEO experience who received more pay than P did as EEO Director, and was provided with a 'deputy EEO officer' to help with her work. P claimed that the transfer and demotion were in retaliation for her complaints to Baker and Mattingly. P's complaint alleged causes of action for hostile work environment and disparate treatment based on P's race, and retaliation because of complaints about such discrimination, in violation of Title VII and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983. Ds moved to dismiss under 12(b)(6). The court dismissed concluding that P failed to exhaust her administrative remedies as to her sexual harassment claim and failed to adequately plead her hostile work environment, disparate treatment, and retaliation claims.