In
Cowher v. Carson & Roberts, (NJ App., April 18, 2012), a New Jersey state appellate court held that a truck driver formerly employed by defendant site construction company had a cause of action under New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination (
NJSA 10:5-12a) for anti-Semitic comments directed at him on a daily basis for over a year, even though plaintiff in fact was not Jewish. Defendants inaccurately thought that plaintiff was Jewish, The court held:
if plaintiff can demonstrate that the discrimination that he claims to have experienced would not have occurred but for the perception that he was Jewish, his claim is covered by the LAD.
The court also held that, because the goal of the statute is to change conduct, in determining whether defendants' comments created a hostile work environment:
although plaintiff is not Jewish, the proper question in this case is what effect would defendants' derogatory comments have on a reasonable Jew, rather than on a reasonable person of plaintiff's actual background.
[Thanks to CCH Employment Law Daily via Steven H. Sholk for the lead.]
