After a four-day trial and three days of deliberations, a jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee found in favor of the plaintiff Ariel Schlosser, awarding $58,170.00 in back pay incurred subsequent to her resignation. Schlosser was hired as a certified diver for the defendant VRHabilis, which performed remediation of unexploded ordnance sites. From the beginning of her employment, Schlosser received performance counseling, was treated less favorably than male employees, and received verbal abuse from a supervisor and co-worker. Following the jury’s verdict, the defendant filed a motion for judgment as a matter of law pursuant to Rule 50(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, arguing that the evidence could not support the jury’s verdict in favor of Schlosser. The district court denied the motion and the Sixth Circuit affirmed. Schlosser v. VRHabilis LLC (6th Cir., No. 23-6019, 08/26/2024). The court rejected the employer’s argument that the jury should consider only the verbal abuse and could not consider discrete acts of discrimination when evaluating whether the work environment was hostile. The court also rejected the employer’s argument that, because the jury ruled against Schlosser on her discrimination claim, the jury could not rely on evidence other than the verbal abuse. The court observed it should consider the “constellation of surrounding circumstances” and the totality of the environment that contributed to the alleged hostile work environment. The court noted: “Viewed in the light most favorable to Schlosser, not a day of her ten weeks [with the employer] passed without some type of sexual harassment or ostracization.”
Sixth Circuit Affirms Jury Verdict for Sexual Harassment
