Patrick Diogenia v. Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC, Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, Comcast Corporation, Comcast Holdings Corporation, Andrew Antonioli

District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided August 6, 2026·No. 2:26-cv-03156·Unknown

Opinion

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

PATRICK DIOGENIA : CIVIL ACTION : v. : NO. 26-3156 : COMCAST CABLE : COMMUNICATIONS : MANAGEMENT LLC, COMCAST : CABLE COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, : COMCAST CORPORATION, : COMCAST HOLDINGS : CORPORATION, ANDREW : ANTONIOLI :

MEMORANDUM KEARNEY, J. August 6, 2026

Congress requires employees suing their employers in federal court for alleged discrimination based on a hostile work environment to first timely exhaust their remedies through a federal administrative agency. Employees disappointed with the agency’s decision can then timely file a case before us. We must dismiss lawsuits where the employee did not exhaust a timely filed administrative claim. But we can equitably toll these administrative deadlines in limited circumstances. We today study whether we can toll a former employee’s plainly untimely claims with the federal and state agencies for his supervisor’s alleged hostile work environment based on his sexual orientation. The employee’s December 29, 2024 administrative filing is untimely unless he can show conduct contributing to a hostile work environment conduct within the time limitations. The employee asks us to toll these deadlines arguing the employer’s July 3, 2024 termination (within the limitations period) is evidence of a continuing hostile work environment created by a supervisor in March 2023 (fourteen months earlier). But the discrete act of termination on July 3, 2024 is not part of a continuous pattern of hostile work environment when the employee took leave in March 2023 and did not return to work. We cannot toll these deadlines for the hostile work environment claim. We dismiss the employee’s claims for discrimination based on a hostile work environment under both federal and state law. But the employee also generally refers in one paragraph to his former supervisor assisting

in “discrimination.” He does not plead facts allowing us to infer a plausible basis for this separate discrimination. But he did mention sex discrimination to the administrative agency without describing facts allowing us to plausibly infer discrimination based on sexual orientation arising from the July 3, 2024 termination. The July 3,2024 termination is a discrete act and may have been timely filed with the administrative agencies on December 29, 2024. We grant the employee leave to amend to plead facts allowing us to infer a timely and plausible discrimination by termination claim on July 3, 2024 based on his sexual orientation without opining on the merits or timeliness of this claim against persons other than his former supervisor. I. Facts alleged or integral to the alleged facts1 Patrick Diogenia told his future employer Comcast Cable Communications, LLC of being a gay man when he interviewed for a position as Senior Manager in 2022.2 Mr. Diogenia then

reported to Senior Director Andrew Antonioli.3 His employer provided positive performance reviews during his employment.4 Senior Director Antonioli harasses Mr. Diogenia between September 2022 and May 2023. Senior Director Antonioli harassed Mr. Diogenia beginning during Mr. Diogenia’s September 2022 onboarding.5 Senior Director Antonioli refused to answer Mr. Diogenia’s questions, limited him to one question per meeting, required a weekly task agenda not required of others, and interrupted and ignored Mr. Diogenia in front of his colleagues.6 Senior Director Antonioli told Mr. Diogenia during a February 2023 lunch he would be “perplexed and disturbed” by having a gay child and called sexual orientations other than heterosexual “abnormal.”7 Senior Director Antonioli suggested Mr. Diogenia quit and stated Mr. Diogenia “chose the wrong job” during his end-of-year evaluation for 2022.8 Mr. Diogenia begins medical leave on May 10, 2023 and never returns to work.

Mr. Diogenia sought medical assistance in early May 2023 for panic attacks, sleep disturbances, anxiety, and depression caused by Senior Director Antonioli’s harassment.9 He asked for assistance from Comcast’s Human Resources department.10 Mr. Diogenia began a medical leave of absence on May 10, 2023.11 He identifies no harassment by Senior Director Antonioli after beginning his leave. Mr. Diogenia remained on medical leave for several more months. His therapist recommended he return to work only if Senior Director Antonioli no longer supervised him and he did not need to interact with Senior Director Antonioli to perform his duties.12 Comcast, through its “third-party leave and accommodation administrator,” proposed a “job search” through which Mr. Diogenia could remain employed while seeking another position within Comcast.13 He asked

to be removed from Senior Director Antonioli’s supervision on September 21, 2023 to accommodate his disabilities arising from anxiety and depression.14 Comcast denied Mr. Diogenia’s transfer request in October 2023.15 He submitted a written complaint about Senior Director Antonioli in November 2023 while on medical leave.16 Comcast investigated but found Mr. Diogenia’s complaints unsubstantiated.17 Comcast proposed Mr. Diogenia return to work in his same role under an intermediary supervisor between him and Senior Director Antonioli on June 10, 2024.18 But this proposal required Mr. Diogenia to remain within Senior Director Antonioli’s chain of command.19 Mr. Diogenia does not plead whether he responded to the June 10, 2024 proposal.20 Comcast’s Human Resources employee told Mr. Diogenia on June 24, 2024 his refusal to return within Senior Director Antonioli’s chain of command would result in his administrative separation.21 Mr. Diogenia does not plead whether he responded. Comcast terminated Mr. Diogenia’s employment on July 3, 2024—approximately three weeks after its June 10, 2024 proposal.22

Mr. Diogenia files administrative complaints. Mr. Diogenia waited several months after his July 3, 2024 termination to complain administratively about Senior Director Antonioli’s conduct towards him before May 10, 2023. He submitted a pro se complaint on December 29, 2024 to the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights.23 Mr. Diogenia does not plead the contents of his New Jersey complaint and no party provides it for our review. The New Jersey Division told him on March 14, 2025 it could not hear his case as it lacked authority to resolve claims arising from conduct involving his Pennsylvania employer.24 Mr. Diogenia filed an intake form with the Pennsylvania Human Relations on March 31, 2025.25 Mr. Diogenia then dual-filed a Charge of Discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission on July 25, 2025.26

He identified disability and retaliation as the protected classes in the Charge and claimed Comcast denied him a disability accommodation.27 He did not identify sex as a protected class but stated Senior Director Antonioli harassed him because of his sexual orientation.28 Mr. Diogenia wrote the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on November 3, 2025 asking it to record March 31, 2025 as his charge-filing date based on the date the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission allegedly received his intake form.29 He separately identified sex based on sexual orientation as a basis and harassment or hostile work environment as an issue in a supporting “Charge Narrative (Summary)” attached to his letter.30 He does not plead, and we otherwise cannot discern from the public record, when the administrative agencies decided his claim and presumably granted him a right to sue in federal court. Mr. Diogenia sues. Mr. Diogenia waited until May 10, 2026 to sue his former employer Comcast and its Senior

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Patrick Diogenia v. Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC, Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, Comcast Corporation, Comcast Holdings Corporation, Andrew Antonioli, (E.D. Pa. 2026).

Patrick Diogenia v. Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC, Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, Comcast Corporation, Comcast Holdings Corporation, Andrew Antonioli (Patrick Diogenia v. Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC, Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, Comcast Corporation, Comcast Holdings Corporation, Andrew Antonioli) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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