Allah v. City of New York Department of Parks & Recreation
Opinion of the Court
SUMMARY ORDER
ON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the order of said District Court be and it hereby is AFFIRMED.
Plaintiff Shatiek Allah appeals from an order of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Victor Marrero, District Judge) that dismissed, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, Allah’s employment discrimination complaint against his former employer the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (“Parks”).
Allah, who is African American and adheres to the Five Percenter religion, worked for Parks from May 1985 until his termination on December 10,1999.
On December 10, 1999, Parks fired Allah based on its findings that he struck and intimidated a supervisor, used obscene language with that supervisor, failed to obey the lawful order of another supervisor, engaged in disruptive conduct, was late on excessive occasions, and neglected assigned duties. Allah filed a complaint with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) on May 4, 2000. He claimed that Parks discriminated against him based on race and religion and retaliated against him for protected activities including his filing of the federal court complaint and a myriad of internal complaints. In addition to alleging that his termination was discriminatory and retaliatory, Allah complained of all the conduct set out in his federal court complaint. He also added new incidents of allegedly discriminatory and retaliatory conduct: (1) in March 1999, he was counseled in a supervisory conference despite the fact that the supervisor who counseled him had not observed the conduct at issue and (2) Parks twice assigned him to the Elijah Stroud playground despite supervisors’ knowledge that the playground would be dangerous for Allah and, on one occasion, that it lacked heat and hot water.
On August 28, 2000, EEOC dismissed Allah’s complaint and notified him of his right to sue. Allah then filed an amended complaint adding his new factual allegations and making a Title VII claim.
The district court granted Parks’ motion for summary judgment. Judge Marrero first found that all of Allah’s Title VII claims except those occurring after June 24, 1999, were barred by the statute of limitations for filing a complaint with the EEOC. See Allah v. City of New York Dep’t of Parks & Recreation, 162 F.Supp.2d 270, 273 (S.D.N.Y. 2001). As to any remaining discrimination claims, the court found that Allah failed to establish both that he had suffered an adverse employment action and that the employment action in question occurred under circumstances giving rise to an inference of discrimination. Id. The court also dismissed Allah’s Section 1981 discrimination claims because of Allah’s failure to offer proof from which a reasonable jury could find an adverse employment action or could infer discrimination. Id. at 274. Finally, Judge Marrero dismissed the retaliation claim, finding that Allah did not offer sufficient evidence of a causal connection between his protected activity and subsequent employment actions. Id. at 274.
Allah appeals, arguing principally that the court erred by (1) failing to give him the benefit of the continuing violation or hostile environment exceptions to the 300
For our purposes, we assume that Allah had a full 300 days in which to file his EEOC complaint. Therefore, unless Allah can establish a continuing violation or hostile environment exception to the 300-day statute of limitations, he has no Title VII claim for conduct occurring before late June 1999, making only his termination claim and his claim that Parks discriminated against him by transferring him to a dangerous playground in July 1999 actionable under Title VII. He can establish neither.
Assuming that this circuit’s test for a continuing violation exception remains valid,
Nor do Allah’s allegations describe a hostile environment. Allah complains both of acts that had a tangible effect on his employment, e.g. transfers to unattractive environments, termination, loss of pay, loss of vacation, changes in an evaluation, and of acts that on their face have nothing to do with his employment, e.g. denials of permits to hold outside events. An actionable hostile environment claim, on the other hand, must target conduct like racial taunting, stereotyping, and intimidation that does not impact an employee’s pay or benefits but nevertheless is so persistent and severe that it alters “the conditions of the victim’s employment and create[s] an abusive working environment.” Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21-23, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993). Allah does not describe a hostile environment. Consequently only his termination and July transfer claims are actionable under Title VII.
However, Allah’s Section 1981 and Human Rights Law claims both have three-year statutes of limitations. See Mian v. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Secs., 7 F.3d 1085, 1087 (2d Cir. 1993) (Section 1981); Quinn v. Green Tree Credit, 159 F.3d 759, 765 (2d Cir. 1998) (Human Rights Law). Therefore, we must address the merits of all of Allah’s discrimination claims.
This circuit analyzes Section 1981 and Human Rights Law discrimination claims using the same analytic framework that it uses for Title VII discrimination claims. See Whidbee v. Garzarelli Food Specialties, 223 F.3d 62, 69 (2d Cir. 2000) (Section
For purposes of this discussion, we assume that plaintiff established a prima facie case of race discrimination, albeit a very weak one.
Plaintiff claimed retaliation only pursuant to Title VII. Therefore, we con
. A recent Supreme Court’s decision casts some doubt on the continued existence of a continuing violation exception if the continuing violation does not create a hostile environment. See National R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, - U.S. -, -, 122 S.Ct. 2061, 2072, 153 L.Ed.2d 106 (2002) (holding that "discrete discriminatory acts are not actionable if time barred, even where they are related to acts alleged in timely filed charges”).
. We agree with the district court that certain of the acts of which Allah complained, e.g. denial of permits to use a park for outside activities, were not adverse employment actions. However, certain acts, e.g. Allah’s termination, his loss of vacation and pay, and the 1997 discipline, clearly were adverse employment actions. We also assume that Allah’s July 1999 transfer to a dangerous and uncomfortable playground was an adverse employment action.
Allah did not offer even a prima facie case of employment discrimination based on religion because he described no circumstances from which a reasonable fact finder could infer religious discrimination.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Shatiek ALLAH v. CITY OF NEW YORK DEPARTMENT OF PARKS & RECREATION
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published