“Dubois” first contacted the employment and ethics hotline operated by the large company that owned the subsidiary where she had worked. It investigated, and found the supervisor had acted unprofessisonally but was not guilty of sexual harassment. He was disciplined but not fired. Meanwhile, Dubois began receiving short-term, and subsequently long-term, disability benefits. She claimed that she had felt so threatened by her boss that it had caused her emotional distress, which made her unable to return to that job. And, her employer acknowledged that it was unable to find another suitable position for her.
Next, Dubois lodged a complaint with the state civil rights office. Finally, she sued the parent company, her own former employer, and the supervisor, charging sexual harassment, failure to accommodate her disability, and violation of Massachusetts law. But here was the problem: She had worked for Idearc Media Services, which for most of her tenure was known as Verizon Directory Services, of which it was a wholly owned subsidiary. That led Dubois to believe she worked for Verizon Directories Corp. But that company is a subsidiary of GTE Corp., which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, Inc.
A judge in federal district court dismissed her suit, reasoning that the supervisor had not sexually harassed her and that Verizon—either the directories division or the communications owner—was not her employer. Dubois appealed to the 1st Circuit, which covers Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
What the court said. Dubois appealed only her claim that Verizon was liable for her poor treatment. But appellate judges had to agree with the district judge. They said Dubois didn’t show that Verizon had control over her employment, nor that its code of conduct applied to Idearc. But it’s puzzling that Verizon conducted a thorough investigation of her complaint and disciplined the boss. Had she appealed her claims against Idearc and the boss himself, her case might have gone differently. DeLia v. Verizon Communications, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, No. 09-2667 (8/24/11).
Point to remember: The boss had been given a final warning, and he was fired some months after Dubois’s complaint. Again, the boss had made inappropriate comments.

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