CHAPTER 36

H.P. 408 - L.D. 523

Resolve, Requiring the Maine Human Rights Commission To

Report on Complaints Involving Supervisors

Whereas, the Maine Supreme Court ruled, in Gordan v. Cummings, No. CUM-99-254, 2000 WL 419716 (Me. 4/19/00), withdrawn, 756 A.2d 942 (Me. 2000), in a decision that the court later vacated on procedural grounds, that a supervisor may be personally liable under the Maine Human Rights Act for acts of sexual harassment constituting a "hostile work environment"; and

Whereas, the language of the Maine Human Rights Act defining "employer" under the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 5, section 4553, subsection 4 as including "any person acting in the interest of any employer, directly or indirectly" is distinguishable from the language of the comparable federal statute, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 United States Code, Section 2000e(b); and

Whereas, the Maine Human Rights Commission has consistently interpreted the current language of the Maine Human Rights Act as providing for supervisory liability in some circumstances; and

Whereas, the Legislature is mindful of the fact that an opposite interpretation would leave victims of invidious discrimination without a remedy and might leave the victim with no option other than to file a complaint against the owner for acts of discrimination committed by someone outside the scope of agency law; and