## Facts

- Penny Ferris, a Delta flight attendant, was assigned to a flight pairing with Michael Young, another Delta flight attendant.
- During a Rome layover on a work trip, Delta reserved and paid for a block of hotel rooms for the crew and arranged transportation to the hotel.
- Before Ferris’s assault, Delta supervisors received reports that Young had raped two other flight attendants and had acted threateningly toward a third after she rejected him.
- Two complainants identified Young but did not submit written reports; another wanted to submit a written report but alleged a supervisor told her not to write a report or tell anyone.
- Delta did not make an official record or take official remedial action in response to these reports before Ferris’s assault.
- Young invited Ferris to his hotel room to taste wine; after drinking, Ferris felt faint, lost mobility, and blacked out.
- While Ferris was unconscious or intermittently conscious, Young raped her repeatedly.
- After returning to work, Ferris feared encountering Young, suffered anxiety attacks, sought psychiatric care, and used antidepressants.
- When Ferris later filed an official complaint, Delta suspended Young; he subsequently resigned.
- Ferris sued Delta for a sexually hostile work environment under Title VII and under New York state and city human-rights laws, and asserted New York tort claims (including negligent hiring/retention/supervision and intentional torts).
- The district court granted summary judgment to Delta on all claims.

## Issues

1. Whether a jury could find that the employer-arranged layover hotel setting was part of Ferris’s “work environment” for Title VII hostile-environment purposes.
2. Whether evidence of prior reports about Young could support a finding that Delta knew or should have known of coworker sexual harassment and failed to take reasonable corrective action.
3. Whether Ferris’s New York State and New York City discrimination claims and New York tort claims could proceed against Delta.

## Decision

- The court vacated summary judgment on the Title VII hostile-work-environment claims and remanded, holding that a reasonable factfinder could find Delta responsible for a hostile environment that injured Ferris.
- The court held a jury could treat the layover hotel context as part of Ferris’s work environment because Delta arranged and paid for lodging and the layover was part of the work assignment.
- The court held a jury could find Delta had actual or constructive knowledge of Young’s propensity for serious sexual misconduct based on prior reports and could find Delta’s nonresponse unreasonable.
- The court affirmed summary judgment for Delta on the NYSHRL, NYCHRL, and New York tort claims.
- Disposition: affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded.

## Legal Principles

- Under Title VII, a hostile work environment may include employer-controlled conditions during business travel, including employer-provided lodging during a layover that is part of the work assignment.
- For coworker harassment under Title VII, an employer may be liable if it knew or should have known of the harassment and failed to take reasonable steps to stop it.
- Prior complaints can establish employer knowledge even when not reduced to formal written reports, including where supervisors allegedly discouraged reporting.
- A jury may consider foreseeability and causation where prior similar misconduct was reported and the employer’s failure to investigate or act plausibly allowed the hostile environment to persist.
- Under New York law, employer liability for an employee’s intentional sexual assault is generally limited where the act is outside the scope of employment; additional New York claims may also be barred by limitations periods or other state-law requirements.

## Conclusion

The Second Circuit allowed Ferris’s Title VII hostile-environment claims to proceed because a jury could find the layover hotel was part of her work environment and that Delta unreasonably failed to respond to prior reports of similar misconduct by the assailant, while it upheld dismissal of her New York statutory and tort claims against Delta.


Ferris v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., 277 F.3d 128 (2d Cir. 2001)