Radtke v. Everett

Plaintiff alleged that defendant sexually harassed her during a break from work.  The Court held that “a hostile work environment claim is actionable when the work environment is so tainted that, in the totality of the circumstances, a reasonable person in the plaintiff’s position would have perceived the conduct at issue as substantially interfering with employment or having the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive employment environment.”  The court found that, although generally, more than one incident of 13 is needed for a hostile work environment claim, a single incident of 13 may be sufficient to establish a hostile work environment claim if the harassment is perpetrated by a supervisor in a close working environment.   The court also held that in determining whether a hostile work environment exists, the use of the reasonable person standard was acceptable; there was no need for the court to assess based on a “reasonable woman” standard.

Topics

• Sexual harassment

Geographical location

• North America
• United States
• Michigan

Keywords

• sexual harassment
• united states
• 1993
• michigan

Year

• 1993

External URL

• Radtke v. Everett

Court

• Michigan Supreme Court

Type

• Domestic Case Law

Jurisdiction

• Michigan