Office of Public Information and Communications Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 (212) 854-5573
Affirming that Columbia University had acted properly, a federal district court judge ruled Friday that former employee Sharon Karibian was not sexually harassed by her supervisor or retaliated against and that the University had adequately investigated her charges.
Judge Thomas P. Griesa of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York set aside a February jury finding that would have awarded Ms. Karibian damages because the University had allegedly failed to investigate and remedy workplace conditions.
"It is difficult to understand how Columbia could have done more than it did to investigate Karibian's complaint and to provide remedial measures," said the judge in his June 28 opinion. He said the jury finding was "contrary to the great weight of the evidence and is a manifest injustice."
Ms. Karibian sued in 1990, charging that her supervisor, Mark Urban, had cooerced her into a sexual relationship. Mr. Urban said the relationship was consensual. The jury in February found that no sexual harassment had occurred and that there had been no retaliation against Ms. Karibian for complaining to the University. Judge Griesa confirmed that in his Friday opinion, referring to the record of his own statements in court during the trial that the evidence offered was not credible.
Judge Griesa ruled Friday that neither the Civil Rights Act of 1964 nor the New York State Human Rights Law "provides for liability for failure on the part of an employer to take investigative and remedial measures in response to a sexual harassment complaint, where it is determined that no sexual harassment occurred."
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