Keles v. Yearwood

254 F. Supp. 3d 466, 2017 WL 2313472, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81259
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMay 26, 2017
Docket15-cv-03880 (NG)
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 254 F. Supp. 3d 466 (Keles v. Yearwood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keles v. Yearwood, 254 F. Supp. 3d 466, 2017 WL 2313472, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81259 (E.D.N.Y. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

GERSHON, United States District Judge

Plaintiff Resat Keles brings this action, asserting federal question and supplemen[468]*468tal jurisdiction, pursuant to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621 et seq., the New York State Human Rights Law (“NYSHRL”), New York Executive Law §§ 290 et seq., the New York City Human Rights Law (“NYCHRL”), New York City Administrative Code §§ 8-101 et seq., and state contract law. He asserts a number of parallel claims under each of the three anti-discrimination statutes, while other of his claims he brings under only certain of the statutes. Under the ADEA, NYSHRL, and NYCHRL, plaintiff claims that defendant LaGuardia Community College (“LCC” or “the College”) unlawfully discriminated against him based on his age in failing to hire him for a full-time faculty position and, later, in failing to assign him any courses as an adjunct professor at the College. Under the ADEA and NYSHRL only, he further claims that, by failing to assign him any courses to teach as an adjunct professor, the College retaliated against him for submitting a discrimination complaint to his union. Under the NYCHRL only, he claims that defendants interfered with a protected right he enjoys under the City Human Rights Law and that defendant Yearwood aided and abetted the College’s discrimination against him in its hiring for the full-time position. Plaintiff also claims that the College breached its contract with him after appointing him as an adjunct professor.

Defendants move to dismiss all of Mr. Keles’s claims for failure to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) except for his claim under the ADEA that the College discriminated against him based on age by not hiring him for a full-time faculty position. While they seek dismissal of all state and local law claims for failure to comply with New York Education Law § 6224, they do not seek dismissal on the merits of Mr. Keles’s claims under the NYSHRL and NYCHRL that the College discriminated against him based on age by not hiring him for a full-time faculty position, nor of his claim under the NYCHRL that Yearwood aided and abetted LCC’s age discrimination in hiring for the full-time position.1 For the reasons set forth below, defendants’ motion is granted in part and denied in part.

FACTS

The following facts alleged in the Amended Complaint and documents incorporated by reference are taken as true for purposes of this motion.

Between April 2009 and September 2012, plaintiff was employed as an adjunct professor in the Natural Sciences Department at LCC, a two-year public college that is part of the City University of New York system. Am. Compl. ¶ 7, 9, 14, 22. Plaintiff, who was sixty-six years old at the start of this lawsuit, has a PhD and multiple other graduate and undergraduate degrees in engineering, science, mathematics, and business administration. Id. ¶ 13. Defendant Yearwood was and still is the Chairman of the Natural Sciences Department at LCC. Id. ¶ 8. Plaintiff taught courses at LCC from the time when he was first hired until the Spring 2012 se[469]*469mester. Id. ¶ 16, 22. Each semester, plaintiffs supervisor at LCC would provide plaintiff with a letter that offered to reappoint him to teach courses as an adjunct professor the following semester. Id. ¶ 16. In the Spring 2012 semester, Peter Ka-topes, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, again provided plaintiff with a reappointment letter for the following, Fall 2012 semester. Id. ¶ 14. The letter, addressed to plaintiff, read, in relevant part:

LaGuardia Community College intends to reappoint you as an Adjunct Professor in the Natural Sciences Department for the Fall 2012 semester. You will be paid based on an hourly rate of $107.04 .... Appointments will be offered subject to sufficiency of registration, financial ability, curriculum needs and scheduling. Department chairpersons will confirm appointments upon completion of registration.... Please indicate your acceptance by signing and returning this copy of the appointment letter to Human Resources in Room E-408.

Pl.’s Decl. in Opp’n to Mot. to Dismiss, Ex. F. At the bottom, the letter called for plaintiff to sign and date the letter underneath a sentence that read: “ACCEPTANCE: I hereby accept the terms of appointment as stated above.” Id. The letter was signed by Mr. Katopes. Plaintiff signed and dated the letter and returned it to the human resources department as called for in the letter. Am. Compl. ¶ 15.

That same semester, plaintiff applied for a full-time associate professor position at LCC that had become available. Id. ¶ 26. Despite his qualification for the position, plaintiff alleges, LCC hired a less qualified person who was under the age of forty at the time. Id. ¶ 28-29. Plaintiff points to a number of indicators that suggest that he was not hired because of his age. For example, during his interview for the position, one of the interviewers asked plaintiff “How do you write grants at this age?” and told him that “Your old methods don’t work.” Id. ¶ 35-36. There were also a number of apparent irregularities in the interview process for the position. Candidates for the position were interviewed by several interviewers, each of whom wrote an evaluation of the candidate’s presentation and gave a recommendation. Id. ¶ 35-40. One interviewer’s written recommendation with respect to plaintiff was whited out; over it was written “Do Not Recommend” in defendant Yearwood’s handwriting. Id. ¶ 40. Then, in the same interviewer’s evaluation of another candidate, the original recommendation was also whited out; over that recommendation was written “Recommend,” also in Mr. Yearwood’s handwriting. Id. ¶ 41. Moreover, outside the interview context, plaintiff alleges that he would often overhear conversations around the Natural Sciences Department office disparaging older adjunct professors. Id. ¶ 44. For example, he overheard one administrator in the department, who was also one of plaintiffs interviewers for the associate professor position, disapprovingly talking about “these old adjuncts.” Id.

A few months after being denied the full-time faculty, position, plaintiff was also informed that he would not be assigned any courses to teach as an adjunct professor the following semester, even though there were a number of courses offered by the College that he could have taught. Id. ¶ 52. These courses were instead assigned to four other, younger professors, all under the age of 40. Id. ¶ 53. On August 10, 2012, plaintiff complained to his union representative regarding age discrimination. Id. ¶ 46. On September 6, 2012, plaintiffs union filed a formal complaint with the College for improper rescission of plaintiffs Fall 2012 appointment as an adjunct professor without just cause and age discrimination based on plaintiffs August 10 complaint. Id. ¶47. There are no allegations that plaintiff or his union took any action to alert anyone at LCC of plaintiffs complaints until that formal complaint was [470]*470lodged on September 6. Plaintiff was never again assigned any courses at LCC to teach as an adjunct professor. Id. ¶ 51.

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254 F. Supp. 3d 466, 2017 WL 2313472, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81259, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keles-v-yearwood-nyed-2017.