Lisa's Case

The Human Face Project shares the stories of the people who came to the Court seeking justice -- and were denied. The decisions of the Taylor Court in these cases not only left the people before the Court without a remedy, but they have let cities, employers, business owners and polluters know that they can get away with a lower standard of care for their citizens, employees and customers and those who love Michigan's natural beauty. These stories could have ended differently if an independent, fair minded justice was in Taylor's seat on the Court.

Cliff Taylor’s Court allows employers to ignore sexually aggressive comments between employees

Taylor’s Court finds employer had no duty to protect its employee from workplace rape

Beginning in early 2000, Lisa Brown worked as a security guard. She was assigned to work the night shift at a Detroit plant. Her duties included answering and transferring telephone calls, inspecting employees and truck drivers as they left the facility, and making nightly rounds through the plant.

When she started at the plant, she was assigned to work on the same shift as foreman Michael Brown (no relation) repeatedly harassed Ms. Brown.

Michael Brown taunted Ms. Brown with comments about how he "liked her big t*its" and how she "shook her a**.". She was afraid. She told reported the incidents to her superiors and she kept coming to work. Her employer did not discipline the male employee or reassign him.

His comments weren’t idle chatter. He told her that he wanted to "f*ck her and pull her long hair." Then he did. He raped her in November, 2000, in a women’s restroom at the plant. The rape was immediately reported to the police and Michael Brown was arrested.

Lisa Brown sued her employer for failing to take action against her fellow employee after she had notified the employer of the months-long litany of degrading, demeaning and violent verbal attacks.

She sued the company. She won at the trial court. She won at the Court of Appeals.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled that it – not a jury – should determine whether or not the employer should have foreseen that Mr. Brown would have raped his fellow employee.

The Court found that the employer could not have anticipated that its employee would have raped Ms. Brown – despite the repeated sexual taunts, late night hour shifts, his supervisory control over her and secluded situations. The Court found that the employer could not have foreseen that its supervisor would engage in this criminal act unless he had made an appointment to commit the crime by stating, “Next time we are alone, I’m going to rape you.”

Justice Taylor’s fellow “gang-of-four” member Justice Markman took an even harsher view. Justice Markman stood shoulder-to-shoulder with employers that shut their eyes to their employees. He stated that a jury cannot be trusted to decide whether an employee should have been protected from rape because the result would create confusion and uncertainty for employers.

Justice Cavanaugh, in dissent, defended the long-standing right of a citizen to have a jury determine whether an employer should have foreseen the harm caused by its supervisory employee. He dismissed the Taylor majority’s rationale that requiring employers to pay attention to workplace safety would be bad for business.