St. Jean v. Orient-Express Hotels Inc.

963 F. Supp. 2d 301, 2013 WL 4049982, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112675, 119 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 923
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedAugust 7, 2013
DocketNo. 12 Civ. 8822
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 963 F. Supp. 2d 301 (St. Jean v. Orient-Express Hotels Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Jean v. Orient-Express Hotels Inc., 963 F. Supp. 2d 301, 2013 WL 4049982, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112675, 119 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 923 (S.D.N.Y. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion

SWEET, District Judge.

Defendant Orient-Express Hotels Inc. (“OEHI” or the “Defendant”) has moved pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to dismiss the amended complaint (the “Amended Complaint” or “AC”) of plaintiff Melissa St. Jean (“St. Jean” or the “Plaintiff’), alleging gender discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. (“Title VII”).

Upon the conclusions set forth below, the motion to dismiss is denied.

I. Prior Proceedings

The Plaintiff filed her original complaint on December 5, 2012. On February 15, 2013, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss, which was withdrawn after Plaintiff filed her amended Complaint on March 5, 2013.

The Amended Complaint alleged two causes of action sounding in gender discrimination and retaliation under Title VII. On March 22, 2013, Defendant filed a motion to dismiss the Complaint, and that motion was marked fully submitted on April 22, 2013.

II. Facts

The facts are taken from the Amended Complaint and the submissions of the parties. The allegations of the Amended Complaint are accepted as true for the purposes of this motion, see Chambers v. Time Warner, Inc., 282 F.3d 147, 152 (2d Cir.2002), and do not constitute findings of fact by the Court.

Plaintiff is a U.S. citizen who maintains a permanent residence in Westbrook, Connecticut. (AC ¶ 7).

Orient-Express Hotels, Ltd. (“OEH Ltd.”) is a Bermuda-based company engaged in owning and managing luxury properties in the leisure and tourism sector. (Def. Ex. B, 2011 Annual Report). OEH Ltd. has 42 subsidiaries including OEHI, Orient-Express Services Ltd. (“OES Ltd.”) and Cupecoy Village Development N.V. (“Cupecoy”). (Id.).

According to the Plaintiff, Defendant OEHI is a Delaware corporation with a principal place of business in the State of New York, which employs over 15 persons. (AC ¶¶ 8-9).

According to the Defendant, OEHI employed only 12 persons, including Philip Gesue (“Gesue”) and Catherine Armstrong (“Armstrong”). (Def. Ex. C, 2012 Payroll Budget). At all relevant times, OEHI’s directors were Martin O’Grady and David Williams (“Williams” ’) and its officers were Williams, President, John Landry, Jr., Vice President and Assistant Secretary, and Edwin Hetherington, Secretary.

Cupecoy is a subsidiary of OEH Ltd. and located in St. Maarten, Netherland [304]*304Antilles. (AC ¶ 12). The company is incorporated under Dutch law and manages Porto Cupecoy, a luxury residential marina in St. Maarten. (Id. ¶¶ 14-15). Richard Seay (“Seay”) was and is Cupecoy’s Director of Sales at Porto Cupecoy. (Id. ¶ 16).

The Amended Complaint alleges that Seay began sending sexually offensive emails with disparaging comments' to Plaintiff in the spring or summer of 2011. (AC ¶ 24). Plaintiff alleges that the harassing verbal comments and emails continued throughout the fall and winter of 2011. (See generally AC ¶¶ 25-28).

On February 1, 2012, Plaintiff and Seay allegedly both attended the Winter Concert Series at Porto Cupecoy, after which Seay grabbed and kissed Plaintiff in the mouth. (Id. ¶ 30). Plaintiff alleges that Seay thrust his tongue in her mouth, and then when she pulled away immediately, Seay stated, “Pm so sorry. I’m so sorry.” (Id.). Plaintiffs boyfriend arrived shortly thereafter and Plaintiff reported that she was in shock and cried all night. (Id.).

According to the Amended Complaint, Plaintiff sent an email to Seay writing “That you did tonight was so wrong.” (Id. ¶ 32). When Plaintiff got home, she also immediately emailed Gesue and Armstrong about the incident. (Id. ¶ 33). Ge-sue allegedly responded to Plaintiff via email discussing the seriousness of the situation and telling Plaintiff she could stay on paid leave. (Id.).

On the morning of February 7, 2012, Plaintiff met with Carol Etheridge (“Etheridge”), the Director of Human Resources for OEHI, and Lucas Herman (“Berman”), an attorney. According to the Amended Complaint, after asking Plaintiff about her past work with the Defendant, Etheridge allegedly said, “It sounds to me like you systematically got everyone fired, one by one. This was all part of your plan. Your next step is to get Richard fired.” (Id. ¶ 35). Etheridge also allegedly stated that “Richard (Seay) told us that he did kiss you, but that it was only the local St. Maarten type of kiss.” (Id.). According to the Plaintiff, Etheridge then repeatedly asked her why she wished to work for Defendant when no one there liked her. (Id.).

According to the Plaintiff, no corrective action was ever performed despite her complaints. (Id. ¶ 36). Instead, on February 8, 2012, Plaintiff received a notice of termination letter from Defendant.

According to the Plaintiff, OEHI controls Cupecoy through “the interrelation of operations, common management, and centralized control of labor relations, common ownership and financial control.” (AC ¶ 13). The AC alleges that, at all relevant times, OEHI and Cupecoy were the Plaintiffs joint employers, who began her employment as an Assistant Project Manager at Porto Cupecoy in November 2010. (Id. ¶¶ 17-20).

Plaintiff alleges that she was required to answer to and deal with a number of OEHI employees, including Armstrong, Gesue, Amy Finch and Jacob Margulies on a daily basis, even though she was in St. Maarten at Porto Cupecoy. (Id. ¶ 21). She alleges that Gesue, as the Managing Director and Vice President of Global Real Estate for OEHI was responsible for hiring, terminating, and deciding payroll income for multiple employees at Cupecoy. (Id. SI 48). Gesue allegedly also had final authority for all major employment decisions and pay rates for Cupecoy employees. (Id. SI 68). Gesue’s signature is allegedly on Plaintiffs termination letter and he also allegedly signed Cupecoy’s employees’ work contracts, including Seay’s. (Id.; Id. ¶ 65).

[305]*305Similarly, Plaintiff alleges that OEHI and Cupecoy had shared operations and management through Armstrong, Director of Real Estate Marketing, who was an OEHI employee who also ran all of Cupecoy’s marketing, advertising and sales materials. (Id. ¶ 49). Plaintiff allegedly reported to Armstrong and Gesue on budget items, finances, invoicing,' sales results and reports, and weekly traffic logs. (Id. ¶ 73).

Plaintiff also maintains that, among other things, she was required to submit reports and budgets to OEHI (Id. ¶ 51); new emails accounts for Cupecoy employees were created by OEHI’s office in New York (Id. ¶ 50); Cupecoy shared their business records with OEHI (Id. ¶ 60); and that OEHI and Cupecoy regularly shared employees (Id. ¶ 93). Plaintiff alleges that when she was out of the office between February 1 and 8, 2012, Armstrong flew into Cupecoy to perform Plaintiffs job duties in her absence. (Id. ¶ 74).

III. Rule 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) Standards

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963 F. Supp. 2d 301, 2013 WL 4049982, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112675, 119 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-jean-v-orient-express-hotels-inc-nysd-2013.