Comments on: Update: millionaire spankee verdict tossed

By: Mark Biggar

Mark Biggar — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:28:49 +0000

Isn’t whether or not it was sexual a “matter of fact” to be determined by the jury? What if you could show that the employer was bi-sexual and was “Getting off” on it no matter what the gender of the spankee?

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:29:09 +0000

Yes, don’t spank your employees — have your employees spank your customers. They pay good money for the service, and usually tip generously as well!

Nothing sexual, of course…

By: Hans Bader

Hans Bader — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:23:16 +0000

Spanking adults is generally illegal (as assault), but does not necessarily constitute sexual harassment, as the plaintiff seems to have assumed it automatically did.

The court’s ruling was faithful to the California Supreme Court’s decision in Lyle v. Warner Brothers (2006), which made clear that harassment must occur be because of sex to be actionable as sexual harassment under California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.

In almost all cases, however, an employer spanking an employee will be illegal assault.

This appears to be the rare case where a jury found that the spanking was not an illegal assault.

Juries are not generally inclined to so rule.

Employers should be aware that spanking their employees is stupid and likely to lead to liability for assault.

By: Deoxy

Deoxy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 14:31:07 +0000

Scote,

Actually, that reasoning has been the basis of judiciary changes to decency laws in several places in the country.

By: Scote

Scote — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:26:29 +0000

Nice to know that as long as you do it to everybody it isn’t sexual! Now I can require all my employees to go topless and it won’t be sexual discrimination…