Maine’s Highest Court Narrows Scope of Continuing Violation Doctrine in Discrimination Claims
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court just handed employers a win by narrowing the application of the “continuing violation” doctrine in discrimination claims under the state’s primary anti-bias law. This doctrine permits plaintiffs to bring discrimination claims after the Maine Human Rights Act’s (MHRA’s) two-year statute of limitations expires if those claims are part of a pattern of discrimination. The Law Court’s July 3 decision in Andersen v. Department of Health and Human Services held that an employee’s resignation, occurring more than seven months after the last alleged act of harassment and/or discrimination, was too remote to extend the limitations period. What do you need to know about this new standard? Case Background Plaintiff was a long-time employee at the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) who alleged that her supervisor’s increasingly hostile and punitive behavior created a hostile work environment. As a result, she claimed that she developed anxiet...