18 - Periodontal Perils

Summary

Dr. Luis Mota, a periodontist, alleged that he was harassed by his supervisor, Dr. Raul Caffesse, also a periodontist. Accordingly, Mota sued his employer, the University of Texas Houston Health Science Center. A jury ultimately found for Mota, agreeing with him that Caffesse had engaged in a classic pattern of harassment. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.

The case provides one example of how same-sex harassment cases are being litigated now – in light of the Supreme Court's ruling in 1998, in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services. Oncale held that same-sex conduct can be the basis for a sexual harassment lawsuit, but only as long as the harassment is “because of sex.” The Court observed that this requirement might be met in one of three ways: (i) with evidence of the perpetrator's homosexuality; (ii) with evidence that the perpetrator in fact targeted only members of one sex; or (iii) with evidence that the harassment took the form of gender-role policing – that is, it was perpetrated to punish an employee for failing to live up to traditional gender norms. The most obvious type of Title VII claim permitted by the Court in Oncale would be one brought based on sexual harassment of a male by a gay male supervisor who was motivated by sexual desire.

THE FACTS

Caffesse was world-renowned among periodontists. A family friend of Mota's, Caffesse encouraged Mota to apply for a job at the university and, once hired, took him under his wing. After Mota's arrival, Caffesse arranged for them to attend a conference together – and even to share the same room. During the conference, Caffesse sexually propositioned Mota, warning that he had to “get along with him and that people who worked with him had to get along with him and that he only wanted to know [Mota] better.”

The unwelcome sexual advances recurred at a series of periodontic conferences across the country over a number of months. When Mota rejected the advances, Caffesse admonished him to keep quiet. He also implicitly threatened to have Mota fired: when Caffesse had grown to dislike people in the past, Caffesse allegedly told Mota Caffesse had “helped them leave” the university.