Temporal Proximity Creates Triable Issue, New York Supreme Court Denies Summary Judgment to Employer
In Wright v Ad Pepper Media USA, LLC, the employer, a germany-based marketing company, was denied summary judgment on plaintiff's retaliation claims under the New York City Human Rights Law on the grounds of temporal proximity between the protected activity and the adverse action, despite the claim of Ad Pepper that the plaintiff had a six-month record of poor performance. The court held: while it may be true that plaintiff's employer was dissatisfied with plaintiff's job performance for an extended period of time, plaintiff's employer apparently did not make the decision to suspend plaintiffs employment until the day he first made a complaint of discrimination on April 2, 2014 and then terminated plaintiff's employment two days later on April 4,…