Third Circuit reaffirms high bar for showing ‘severe and pervasive’ harassment for hostile work environment claims under Title VII.

A nurse practitioner sued her employer alleging, inter alia, a hostile work environment on the basis of her sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII). Specifically, the plaintiff claimed that her direct supervisor made numerous inappropriate sexual comments to her throughout her employment, thereby creating an environment of severe and pervasive harassment. At the conclusion of discovery, the employer moved for summary judgment, arguing that, despite the plaintiff’s claims that this conduct “occurred regularly” and “all the time,” her testimony reflected a more narrow set of seven inappropriate comments made over a three-and-a-half-year period that did not rise to the level of “severe and pervasive” harassment required to sustain a hostile work environment claim. 

The district court agreed and granted summary judgment for the employer. The plaintiff appealed, and the Third Circuit affirmed, concluding that the plaintiff failed to demonstrate an environment of “severe and pervasive” harassment because, although the supervisor’s remarks were “obnoxious, unprofessional, and inappropriate,” none of the more limited set of seven purported comments involved threats to the plaintiff, physical contact, or any propositioning for a date or sex. 

Notably, the court also agreed that the district court had properly disregarded the plaintiff’s generalized assertions of harassing conduct, explaining that a plaintiff “may not rely merely on vague statements to defeat summary judgment.”
 

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