Sangamon County Sheriff's Department v. Illinois Human Rights Com'n

• Decision Date: 16 April 2009
• Docket Number: No. 105517.,No. 105518.,105517.,105518.
• Citation: 233 Ill.2d 125,908 N.E.2d 39
• Parties: SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, Appellee, v. The ILLINOIS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION et al., Appellants.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

908 N.E.2d 39

233 Ill.2d 125

SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, Appellee, v. The ILLINOIS HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION et al., Appellants.

No. 105517.

No. 105518.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 16, 2009.

Lisa Madigan, Attorney General, Springfield (Michael A. Scodro, Solicitor General, and Jan E. Hughes, Assistant Attorney General, Chicago, of counsel), for appellant Illinois Human Rights Commission.

Mary Lee Leahy, Springfield, for appellant Donna Feleccia.

William P. Hardy, D. Bradley Blodgett and J. William Roberts, of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Springfield, for appellee.

Randall D. Schmidt, Chicago, and John A. Cise, law student, for amicus curiae Employment Discrimination Project of the University of Chicago Law School's Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic.

Roger Huebner, Brian Day, Springfield, for amicus curiae Illinois Municipal League.

Clifford G. Kosoff, Edie P. Steinberg, of O'Halloran Kosoff Geitner & Cook, LLC, Northbrook, for amicus curiae Illinois Counties Risk Management Trust.

OPINION

Justice BURKE delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion:

Donna Feleccia, a records clerk with the Sangamon County sheriff's department (Sheriff's Department), filed a charge of sexual harassment and retaliation against the Sheriff's Department and Ron Yanor, a sergeant. Yanor was a supervisor in the Sheriff's Department but was not Feleccia's supervisor.

Following a hearing, an administrative law judge (ALJ) concluded that Feleccia failed to establish her claims and recommended that the claims be dismissed with prejudice. The Illinois Human Rights Commission (Commission) adopted the ALJ's recommendation to dismiss the retaliation charge but found that Feleccia established sexual harassment based on a hostile work environment. The Commission found as a matter of law that the Sheriff's Department was strictly liable for Yanor's harassment of Feleccia because he was a supervisory employee. 775 ILCS 5/2-102(D) (West 1998).

The appellate court reversed, finding that Yanor was a coemployee of Feleccia. 375 Ill.App.3d 834, 847, 314 Ill.Dec. 631, 875 N.E.2d 10. As such, the Sheriff's Department was not liable for Yanor's harassment of Feleccia because it took reasonable corrective measures upon learning of the harassment. 375 Ill.App.3d at 847-48, 314 Ill.Dec. 631, 875 N.E.2d 10.

We granted the petitions for leave to appeal filed by Feleccia and the Commission, pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 315 (210 Ill.2d R. 315). The actions were consolidated for purposes of review. We find that the Sheriff's Department is strictly liable for Yanor's harassment based on his status as a supervisory employee and accordingly reverse the appellate court's judgment reversing the Commission's order.

BACKGROUND

Under section 2-102(D) of the Illinois Human Rights Act (Act):

"It is a civil rights violation: * * * [f]or any employer, employee, agent of any employer, employment agency or labor organization to engage in sexual harassment; provided, that an employer shall be responsible for sexual harassment of the employer's employees by nonemployees or nonmanagerial and nonsupervisory employees only if the employer becomes aware of the conduct and fails to take reasonable corrective measures." 775 ILCS 5/2-102(D) (West 1998).

In her charge, filed June 15, 1999, Feleccia alleged three counts: (1) that Yanor had retaliated against her because she refused to engage in sexual activity with him; (2) that Yanor's actions, and the Sheriff's Department's response, created a hostile, embarrassing, and intimidating work environment; and (3) that she experienced different terms and conditions of employment following her report of the sexual harassment.

The Illinois Department of Human Rights issued a notice of substantial evidence as to counts I and II and a notice of dismissal of count III for lack of substantial evidence and lack of jurisdiction over Yanor. It filed a complaint with the Commission on Feleccia's behalf, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation against the Sheriff's Department and Yanor. Yanor subsequently was dismissed from the case after settling the claims against him.

The parties proceeded to an administrative hearing on January 9, 2003. Feleccia testified that she began working as a records clerk on June 4, 1992. In 1998 and 1999, her job duties involved entering warrants and orders of protection into the computer system and taking orders of protection to the squad room to be served by the deputies. Feleccia worked on the first shift from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. At that time, Yanor was a patrol division sergeant working on the second shift from 2:30 p.m to 11:30 p.m. Yanor was a supervisor but had no supervisory authority over Feleccia, who worked in a separate division of the Sheriff's Department.

On February 5, 1999, Feleccia received a letter in her office mail, dated January 29, 1999, that appeared to be on Illinois Department of Public Health letterhead. It read, in part:

"Dear Ms. Feleccia: This is to inform you that you may have recently been exposed to a communicable or sexually transmitted disease. A confidential source who has tested positive has brought this matter to our attention.

To insure privacy, your file has been assigned a control number of # A23759. Please refer to this in future correspondence.

It is important that you schedule a screening within the next 7 days. Please contact your local public health office for an appointment. This service is provided at no cost to you.

Yours truly,

Julie A. Chelani, MSW Patient Advocate."

When Feleccia read the letter, she became very upset and started shaking. She brought the letter to her supervisor, Lieutenant Sandra Hinsey. Feleccia was crying and unable to speak. Hinsey escorted Feleccia to the office of the Illinois Department of Public Health, which confirmed that the letter was a forgery. When they returned to the office, Hinsey gave the letter to her supervisor, Chief Deputy Tony Sacco.

Hinsey told Feleccia to "act normal," and told her not to say anything until the investigation was complete. Feleccia testified that other people in the department heard about the forged letter. A sheriff's deputy called her to say that he had heard her "affair with Yanor" went wrong. She told him that his information was incorrect, but that she could not discuss it. On the same day, another deputy told Feleccia's coworker that he had heard Feleccia had a disease.

Sacco ordered the internal affairs division to investigate the matter. The Illinois State Police submitted a report indicating that Yanor's fingerprints were found on the letter. On April 22, 1999, Yanor admitted in an interview that he had typed the letter on a typewriter in the squad room, using old stationery from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Yanor said he had intended the letter as a practical joke. Yanor was advised not to have any contact with Feleccia.

On May 18, 1999, Yanor received a disciplinary memorandum from Sheriff Neil Williamson, which stated, in part:

"Based on the outcome of a Professional Standards internal investigation sustaining the fact you admitted to violating the Sheriff's Office Sexual Harassment Policy, I am hereby suspending you for four (4) days without pay to be served consecutively by June 11, 1999.

I cannot express enough my disappointment in you, especially representing me and this office in your capacity as a supervisor. Your actions were reckless and showed lack of judgement.

Any further actions of this magnitude will result in a substantially harsher suspension and possible demotion or termination." (Emphasis in original.)

When Feleccia asked Sheriff Williamson about the discipline imposed on Yanor, Williamson told her that he "gave [Yanor] as many days as he could without the merit board finding out." Williamson told Feleccia not to file sexual harassment charges, not to go to the media, and not to go near Yanor. He informed her that the Illinois Department of Public Health had opted not to press criminal charges.

Feleccia said she felt "degraded," "insignificant[,] and not important" because nothing more was done. She was upset that the department accepted the letter as a joke. Feleccia had been seeing a psychiatrist for anxiety and "work stress" since 1996. After the incident with the forged letter, she began seeing her doctor more frequently, the dosage of her medication was doubled, and she lost sleep and missed work days.

On June 10, 1999, Feleccia met with Chief Deputy Sacco and Mike Walton, director of support services for the Sheriff's Department. Feleccia told them that she was unhappy with the way the matter was handled because other employees were talking about the incident. Feleccia informed Sacco and Walton about prior incidents of sexual harassment by Yanor. Sacco told Feleccia that she should have come forward at the time of the incidents so that actions could have been taken to stop the behavior. He told her to document the incidents in writing and to send them to him. Sacco testified that he never received the requested documentation.

In Walton's June 15, 1999, memorandum, he noted that Feleccia saw her doctor on June 14, and that the doctor advised her to take off work until at least June 21, due to problems she was having over the "`Yanor' incident."

Feleccia testified about several incidents of sexual harassment by Yanor that took place in November and December 1998. In November 1998, Yanor called Feleccia at home after an annual "cigar dinner" attended by sheriff's deputies and asked her to go to Chantilly Lace, a local bar. He told her that everyone from the party would be at the bar. Feleccia agreed to go to the bar with Yanor. She assumed Yanor's wife would be with him, but Yanor was alone when he came to pick up Feleccia. When they arrived at the bar, Feleccia saw only one other person from the cigar dinner. She felt uncomfortable and asked Yanor to take her home. As Feleccia was exiting the car, Yanor...