The line between actionable sexual harassment and “simple teasing, offhand comments, and isolated incidents” is sometimes elusive. Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 788 (1998). But a summary judgment determination that a case falls into the latter category must be a long shot when the alleged harasser “admitted to showing the Plaintiff a video clip of a horse sodomizing a woman.” Slip op. at 8.
Not surprisingly, Judge Rodriguez made quick work of the defendant surgery center’s motion in this case, finding that the plaintiff nurse (a) adequately described her complaint and exhausted her Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) administrative remedies, (b) timely filed suit after filing her charges with the TWC and Equal Employment Commission, (c) produced sufficient evidence of actionable sexual harassment, and (d) demonstrated that the surgery center’s mild response to her complaint was insufficient to prove the Faragher two-prong affirmative defense. Slip op. at 4-12.