Appeals, Title VII, Non-Employees

If You See Something, Do You Fix It If It Isn’t Your Employee? 6th Circuit Applies Higher Standard to Non-Employee Harassment Case

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 8/20/2025

An employee tells you a customer just harassed them — what should you do? In Bivens v. Zep, Inc. the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals charts its own course in addressing employer liability for third-party harassment. The Equal...more

Sixth Circuit Limits Employer Liability for Harassment by Nonemployees

Littler on 8/19/2025

On August 8, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled an employer is not liable for harassment of an employee by a third party unless the employer intended for the harassment to occur. This stark departure...more

Sixth Circuit Redefines Employer Liability for Client-Based Harassment

Phelps Dunbar on 8/14/2025

In an explicit departure from EEOC guidance and other federal court caselaw, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently held that an employer can only be liable for a client/customer’s harassment of its...more

Fifth Circuit Says Third Party Cannot Sue for Retaliation Under Title VII

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 8/31/2020

In its 2011 North American Stainless decision, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that an engaged man could sue for retaliation under Title VII after he was fired around the time his fiancée filed a discrimination claim against...more

Private Physician Plaintiff Not “Employee” Of Hospital For Title VII Purposes

Fisher Phillips on 8/8/2019

A federal appeals court recently rejected a physician’s employment discrimination lawsuit against a hospital that revoked her privileges because it found her not to be an “employee” eligible to bring such a claim. The lessons...more

Seventh Circuit Reaffirms Test for Employee Status

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 5/15/2019

On May 8, 2019, the Seventh Circuit reaffirmed its test for determining employee status under federal anti-discrimination laws, holding that a physician lacked standing to bring Title VII claims against the hospital at which...more

Employers may be liable for harassment by a non-employee

McAfee & Taft on 3/29/2019

“Claims of sexual harassment typically involve the behavior of fellow employees. But not always,” said a federal appeals court in Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC. The case shows employers must take employee complaints of...more

Gardner v. CLC of Pascagoula, LLC –What Constitutes “Severe and Pervasive” Conduct With Respect to “Third-Party Harassment”?

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 2/26/2019

Employers may be liable to their employees for harassment by non-employees under Title VII. Courts have found liability for this so-called “third-party harassment” in some of the following fact-specific contexts: waitresses...more

Appeals › Title VII › Non-Employees

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