Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated et al. - Significance, Same-sex Sexual Harassment, Sexual Assault Or Horseplay, Impact, Further Readings

court petitioner john justices

Petitioner

Joseph Oncale

Respondent

Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated, John Lyons, Danny Pippen, and Brandon Johnson

Petitioner's Claim

That on the job sexual harassment by coworkers of the same sex constitutes sexual discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner

Nicholas Canaday III

Chief Lawyer for Respondent

Harry M. Reasoner

Justices for the Court

Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia (writing for the Court), David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens, Clarence Thomas

Justices Dissenting

None

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

4 March 1998

Decision

Ruled in favor of Oncale and reversed two lower court decisions by finding that Oncale was deserving of damages for sexual harassment.

Related Cases

Saulpaugh v. Monroe Community Hospital, 4 F.3d 134 (1993).
Garcia v. Elf Atochem No. Am., 28 F.3d 446 (1994).
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 118 S. Ct. 438 (1998).
Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, No. 97-569 (1998).

Additional Topics

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated et al. - Significance

The ruling recognized that individuals have the right to file sexual harassment complaints against employers based on same-sex sexual harassment claims. The Court found that Title VII applies equally to all sexual harassment situations. The decision ensured for the first time that men taunted or abused by other men, and women harassed by women can sue for damages. The harassment must be based on g…

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated et al. - Same-sex Sexual Harassment

In regard to the appropriateness of sexual harassment claims when the alleged victim was the same sex as the alleged harasser, the lower courts were extraordinarily inconsistent in their rulings. The District of Columbia Circuit in Barnes v. Costle (1977) acknowledged the possibility of sexual harassment under Title VII where a homosexual employer harassed an employee of either gender. In the Seco…

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated et al. - Sexual Assault Or Horseplay

Joseph Oncale, at age 21, was hired in August of 1991 as a roustabout by Sundowner Offshore Services in Houma, Louisiana. After a few weeks of working with an eight-man crew on a Chevron USA oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, he began to be subjected to a series of humiliating and sexually threatening actions by the other men. On one occasion, two supervisors and another coworker physically assai…

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated et al. - Impact

At the time of decision, Oncale was 27 years of age, married, with two children. For the first time the Court clarified an employers, liability for instances of sexual harassment between two people of the same gender. Critics of the Oncale decision quickly claimed the Court distorted the Civil Rights Act which they asserted was specifically intended to protect female employees from discrimination …

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