## Facts

- Rebecca L. Nichols worked as an over-the-road semi-truck driver for Tri–National Logistics, Inc. and RMR Driver Services, Inc. (collectively, TNI).
- During 2011–2012, Nichols had multiple safety-related incidents and received criticism from TNI and reports from co-drivers alleging unsafe driving practices.
- TNI rehired Nichols after an earlier termination and required her to drive with a co-driver rather than solo.
- In May–June 2012, Nichols was paired with co-driver James Paris and alleged he engaged in repeated unwelcome sexual conduct during a multi-day trip, including exposing himself and making sexual advances.
- Nichols testified she repeatedly complained during the trip to TNI personnel, including a safety-department employee and a dispatcher, and was told by the dispatcher to endure the situation until the trip ended.
- After the trip, the drivers took a mandatory 34-hour rest period in Pharr, Texas; Nichols alleged additional misconduct by Paris during this layover, including coercive and intimidating behavior.
- Nichols later reported she felt abused, scared, and degraded, and she sought medical treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder allegedly linked to the events.
- On June 25, 2012, TNI terminated Nichols, stating it was due to her poor safety record.

## Issues

1. Whether the record, viewed favorably to Nichols, created a triable hostile-work-environment claim based on sex under Title VII and the Arkansas Civil Rights Act (ACRA).
2. Whether there was a genuine dispute that Nichols timely notified TNI of the harassment and whether TNI’s response could support employer liability for co-worker harassment.
3. Whether Nichols produced sufficient evidence that TNI’s stated reason for discharge (poor safety record) was pretext for retaliation under Title VII and ACRA.
4. Whether dismissal of Nichols’s state-law intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) claim against Paris should stand after reinstatement of the federal and parallel state discrimination claims.

## Decision

- Reversed summary judgment for defendants on Nichols’s Title VII and ACRA hostile-work-environment/sex-discrimination claims and remanded for further proceedings.
- Affirmed summary judgment for defendants on Nichols’s Title VII and ACRA retaliation claims.
- Vacated the judgment disposing of Nichols’s IIED claim against Paris and remanded for the district court to reconsider supplemental jurisdiction in light of the revived discrimination claims.
- Left undisturbed the district court’s disposition of Nichols’s other claims not meaningfully affected by the appellate analysis.

## Legal Principles

- At summary judgment, courts must view evidence in the nonmovant’s favor and avoid resolving genuine disputes about what occurred, its offensiveness, and the plaintiff’s subjective perception.
- A hostile work environment may be shown by unwelcome, sex-based conduct that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of employment, assessed under the totality of the circumstances.
- Employer liability for co-worker harassment can turn on whether the employer had actual or constructive notice and whether its remedial response was prompt and reasonable; disputes about reporting and response may be jury questions.
- Retaliation requires evidence that the employer’s stated reason for the adverse action is pretextual; substantial, well-documented performance or safety deficiencies can defeat an inference of pretext on summary judgment.
- When federal claims are reinstated, a district court must reconsider whether related state-law claims form part of the same case or controversy for supplemental jurisdiction purposes under 28 U.S.C. § 1367.

## Conclusion

The Eighth Circuit held that factual disputes about the full course of alleged harassment, including the layover period and Nichols’s reports to management, required a trial on her hostile-work-environment claims, but it upheld dismissal of retaliation claims because the record supported TNI’s nonretaliatory explanation that Nichols was fired for a poor safety history; it also required reconsideration of supplemental jurisdiction over the related IIED claim.


Nichols v. Tri-Nat'l Logistics, Inc., 809 F.3d 981 (8th Cir. 2016)