Cutler v. Dorn, 196 N.J. 419 (2008)

Reversing the Appellate Division and assessing, for the first time, the sufficiency of a plaintiff’s proofs in the context of an essentially religion-based hostile work environment claim, the New Jersey Supreme Court recently held that, consistent with New Jersey’s strong policy against any form of discrimination in the workplace, the threshold for demonstrating a religion-based, discriminatory hostile work environment under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (“LAD”), N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -49, cannot be any higher or more stringent than the threshold that applies to sexually or racially hostile workplace environment claims.

Iyer v. Everson, et al., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 18512 (3d Cir., August 3, 2007).

Where employment discrimination plaintiffs are unable to provide direct evidence of discrimination, the employer has the burden of overcoming the accusations of discrimination it would not otherwise have.  In Iyer the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit employed the well-established burden-shifting analysis under McDonnell Douglas v. Green (“McDonnell Douglas”), where the plaintiff could present nothing more than circumstantial evidence of illegal discrimination.

Cutler v. Dorn, 390 N.J. Super. 238 (App. Div. February 2, 2007).

Sporadic teasing in the workplace will not support a claim of hostile work environment under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD). In Cutler, the New Jersey Superior Court – Appellate Division set aside a jury verdict in favor of a Jewish police officer who complained that other officers’ anti-Semitic remarks and actions had created a hostile work environment. The Court ruled that one comment overheard by the plaintiff, though unsettling, was not “extreme and outrageous,” and the totality of the circumstances indicated that other remarks occurred in a context of good-natured pranks and joking, in which the plaintiff participated from time to time. Therefore, the Court found that the plaintiff had not proven the existence of a hostile work environment.

Cutler v. Dorn, 390 N.J. Super. 238 (App. Div. February 2, 2007).

Sporadic teasing in the workplace will not support a claim of hostile work environment under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD). In Cutler, the New Jersey Superior Court – Appellate Division set aside a jury verdict in favor of a Jewish police officer who complained that other officers’ anti-Semitic remarks and actions had created a hostile work environment. The Court ruled that one comment overheard by the plaintiff, though unsettling, was not “extreme and outrageous,” and the totality of the circumstances indicated that other remarks occurred in a context of good-natured pranks and joking, in which the plaintiff participated from time to time. Therefore, the Court found that the plaintiff had not proven the existence of a hostile work environment.