Date: 11-16-2001

Case Style: Lois Ann Oakley v. David Wianecki, et al.

Case Number: a6238-99

Judge: Unknown

Court: New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division

Plaintiff's Attorney: Mandy R. Steele, attorney for appellant.

Defendant's Attorney: John J. Farmer, Jr., Attorney General, attorney for respondents (Patrick DeAlmeida, Deputy Attorney General, of counsel; Barbara Berreski, Deputy Attorney General, on the brief).

Description: Plaintiff, a former Senior Corrections Officer (SCO) with the New Jersey Department of Corrections (DOC), appeals from a summary judgment dismissing her complaint against the DOC and a number of her superior officers and co-workers alleging violations of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, N.J.S.A. 10:5-1 to -30 (LAD), as well as common law torts, breach of contract and unlawful acts of retaliation involving her employment.

. Plaintiff, a white female, alleges that she was subjected to "reverse discrimination" and was required to endure a "hostile workplace" because of her race and gender. She bases her claim primarily on a verbal confrontation with another corrections officer, Clifford Owens, an African-American male, in which he directed a coarse, insulting and sexually explicit insult at her. Additionally, she claims she was exposed to other hostile incidents over the eleven years of her employment with the DOC and also that the DOC did not properly handle the complaint she lodged against Owens. We find no merit in any of the charges. Plaintiff began work with the DOC in August 1986, as a Corrections Officer Recruit (COR). As is customary, she remained a COR for one year, after which she became a Senior Corrections Officer (SCO) and then completed a four month probationary period. Thereafter, she worked as a corrections officer _ essentially a prison guard _ and performed duties customary to that position until she retired in January 1997, because of a back and neck injury unrelated to her present claims.

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Click the case caption above for the full text of the Court's opinion.

Outcome: We are satisfied that under the standard set out in Brill v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 142 N.J. 520, 540 (1995), plaintiff failed to demonstrate that she could establish any of those claims, and thus we affirm.

Plaintiff's Experts: Unknown

Defendant's Experts: Unknown

Comments: Reported by Kent Morlan