Lord v. High Voltage Software, Inc.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Employment Discrimination
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 13-3788
Decision Date: 
October 5, 2016
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendant-employer’s motion for summary judgment in Title VII action alleging that male-plaintiff’s male co-worker sexually harassed him, and that defendant fired plaintiff for complaining about said harassment. While plaintiff alleged that harassment took form of “audio-bug” joke and certain contact on plaintiff’s buttocks and legs, plaintiff failed to show that he was harassed “because of his sex,” where there was no suggestion that co-worker was homosexual, and where co-worker’s physical contacts were not so patently indicative of sexual arousal that trier-of-fact could reasonably draw conclusion that harassment was motivated by plaintiff’s sex. Fact that conduct had sexual overtones did not require contrary result. Plaintiff also failed to establish viable retaliation claim, even though termination came within two days of plaintiff’s complaint about co-worker’s conduct, where: (1) complained-of conduct was not “protected conduct,“ because it did not entail motive that Title VII prohibited, and thus any belief by plaintiff that he was making sexual harassment complaint was objectively unreasonable; and (2) plaintiff failed to show that defendant’s reasons for plaintiff’s termination, i.e., failure to timely report harassment and insubordination, did not occur or that defendant did not honestly believe that plaintiff had committed said infractions. (Partial dissent filed.)