Patricia A. Brooks v. City of San Mateo, a Municipal Order and Corporation San Mateo Police Department John Stangl, Chief of Police Steven Selvaggio

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that “refusal to consider for promotion” is an adverse employment action
• finding that “asserting one’s civil rights . . . by complaining of [sexual harassment] is a protected activity under Title VII”
• stating that work environment must be both subjectively and objectively abusive to constitute hostile work environment
• finding that, although a coworker’s harassment was “egregious,” the employer was not responsible for the behavior under the circumstances and, therefore, the employee could not succeed on a Title VII claim against her employer
• stating that a prima facie case requires “(1) involvement in a protected activity, (2) an adverse employment action and (3) a causal link between the two”
• explaining that the employer’s response is critical to a hostile-work-environment inquiry under Title VII, “[w]hich is why [the harasser’s] conduct, while relevant, is not the primary focus of our inquiry”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).