Nonprofit Worker Disability Harassment Suit Fails New Harm Test

A Michigan nonprofit worker didn’t provide enough proof of disability-based harassment or harm to warrant a trial on her hostile environment claims, the Sixth Circuit ruled Friday.

The Cincinnati-based federal appeals court applied its updated test for establishing hostile-environment harassment, which it set last year in an age discrimination case, to the former Yunion Inc. employee’s claims under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The new standard ended the circuit’s previous requirement to show harassment unreasonably interfered with job performance. Hostile-environment plaintiffs also must only demonstrate harassment caused “some harm” to their terms or condition of employment, making it easier for ...