PATRICIA WATTERSON, APPELLANT,
v.
SMALLWOODS, INC. AND JIMMY FLOYD, APPELLEES
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The Fourth District affirmed summary judgment for the employer, holding that the plaintiff failed to state a viable sexual harassment claim and that the employer established an affirmative defense based on reasonable preventive measures and the employee's failure to utilize corrective opportunities.
Summary judgment for the employer was proper because the plaintiff failed to state a viable sexual harassment claim and the employer established the affirmative defense under Faragher.
[1] An employer may assert an affirmative defense to sexual harassment liability by demonstrating that it exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct harassing conduct a…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceA former employee brought a sexual harassment claim against her employer, Smallwoods, Inc., and an individual defendant.…
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We affirm the circuit court’s order granting final summary judgment in favor of the plaintiffs former employer. See Allstate Ins. Co. v. Ginsberg, 863 So.2d 156, 158-60 (Fla.2003) (pleadings of unwelcome conduct including touching in a sexual manner do not state a cause of action for the Florida common law tort claim of invasion of privacy); Natson v. Eckerd Corp., 885 So.2d 945, 948 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004) (a defending employer may raise an affirmative defense to liability or damages on a sexual harassment claim on the basis: “(a) that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and (b) that the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise.”) (quoting Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 807-08, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998)); Scott v. DMN Inc., 31 Fed.Appx. 836 (5th Cir.2002) (“We agree with the district court that [the employer] then discharged its burden by coming forth with a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for terminating [the plaintiff] — namely, that [the plaintiff] violated [the employer’s] established attendance policy by failing to report to work for at least three consecutive days without providing documentation explaining her absence and thus was terminated for job abandonment.”) (footnote omitted).
Affirmed.
TAYLOR, CIKLIN and GERBER, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (U.S. 1998)
- Allstate Ins. Co. & Allstate Indem. Co. v. Ginsberg, 863 So. 2d 156 (Fla. 2003)
- Shirail Natson v. Eckerd Corp., Inc., 885 So. 2d 945 (Fla. 4th DCA 2004)