O'Connor v. Davis

Bridget O’Connor (plaintiff) was enrolled as a student at Marymount College (Marymount) (defendant), majoring in social work. Marymount College required social-work majors to complete 200 hours of field work at an approved organization like a school or healthcare facility. During O’Connor’s senior year Marymount placed her with Rockland (defendant), a hospital for the mentally disabled. O’Connor did not receive compensation from Rockland, but she did receive federal work-study funds for her volunteer work at the hospital. Dr. James Davis (defendant) was a licensed psychiatrist at Rockland. He called O’Connor “Miss Sexual Harassment” and made a number of other inappropriate sexual remarks on numerous occasions to both O’Connor and other women at Rockland. O’Connor reported the harassment promptly, but Rockland was slow to take action. O’Connor left Rockland for a different internship and subsequently filed an action in the district court against Marymount, Rockland, employees of both organizations, and New York State (defendants) for sexual harassment in violation of Title VII and Title IX. All defendants but Rockland and New York State were removed eventually from the action. The two remaining defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, which the district court granted, finding that O’Connor was not an “employee” under Title VII. O’Connor appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.