Denial of racial harassment claim affirmed by 7th Circuit: Annual mistreatment at party too infrequent.

Byline: David Ziemer

Christmas only comes once a year.

Because it is so infrequent, the Seventh Circuit held that an employer did not create a hostile work environment by refusing to let its only black employee bring his grandchildren to the company Christmas party, even though it allowed the rest of its employees to bring their families.

Dennis Ford has been the only black employee at Minteq Shapes & Services, Inc., a company that manufactures refractories in Indiana, for 13 years.

In 2007, Ford brought suit against Minteq, alleging that he was harassed because of his race, based on a variety of incidents.

First, he claimed that a co-worker repeatedly referred to him as either black African-American or black man for a period of 14 months.

Second, he claimed his supervisor once told him he didn't have to worry about losing his job, because the employer wanted to appear integrated.

Third, another supervisor once called him a gorilla.

Finally, Minteq barred him from bringing his grandchildren to the company's Christmas parties, even though the other employees were permitted to bring their families. Since Ford's eighth year with the company, he has been allowed to bring his grandchildren, but has had to pay for their gifts while Minteq purchased gifts for other partygoers.

The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Minteq, and Ford appealed. But the Seventh Circuit affirmed in an opinion by Judge William J. Bauer, concluding that the incidents do not support a claim for harassment, whether considered individually or in the aggregate.

First, even though the coworker's black man references lasted over fourteen months, Ford failed to notify anyone about them during that time.

Addressing the integration comment and the gorilla comment, the court found them to be rude and offensive. However, because each happened only once, the court concluded they were too sporadic to support a harassment claim.

Finally, turning to Ford's treatment at the Christmas parties, the court concluded, it did not impair Ford's job performance, it happened too occasionally and outside the normal workday to rise to the level of a hostile work environment, and there is no evidence that it was because of his race.

Accordingly, the court found no genuine issues of fact, and affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of Minteq.

Case analysis

The court's discussion of the Christmas parties is troublesome, because it ignores that while Christmas comes only once...