In Hewitt v. BS Transportation of Illinois, Civ. No. 18-712 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 11, 2019), a district court addressed an unsettled issue in the Third Circuit: The extent to which an employer may be held liable for a hostile work environment created by a non-employee. The district court held that an employer could be held liable for its failure to investigate and remediate its employee’s complaint. In so holding, it imposed a standard similar to that which exists under New Jersey law.

Facts of ‘Hewitt’

Plaintiff, Carl Hewitt, worked as a freight driver for Defendant BS Transportation. His job responsibilities included loading oil at Sunoco’s refinery on a weekly basis. Hewitt alleged that, over the course of a two-and-a-half-year period, defendant Sunoco’s employee, Anthony Perillo, subjected him to sexual advances “at least once or twice a week.” On one occasion, Perillo grabbed Hewitt “by the buttocks with one hand,” shoved him into his trailer’s freight car with the other and “leaned” into him, asking, “Do you like that?”