LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT).
The Third Department, in a matter of first impression, determined the damages award for loss of Seabury’s pension benefits in this sexual harassment case was properly calculated using the “total offset” method:
We … reject petitioner’s contention that SDHR [State Division of Human Rights] erred by failing to reduce the damages awarded for loss of pension benefits to present value. Citing Stratton v Department of Aging for City of New York (132 F3d 869, 882 [2d Cir 1997]), SDHR explained that it had not discounted the award to present value because it had not factored future salary increases into its award … . Whether the Human Rights Law (see Executive Law art 15) requires that awards for future damages be discounted to present value is an issue of first impression in the appellate courts of New York. However, the Court of Appeals has noted that federal case law is instructive in the employment discrimination context… . We acknowledge that the award for Seabury’s lost pension benefits can only be a “rough approximation” of the amount necessary to restore her to the position that she would have occupied had she not been the victim of sexual harassment, because neither her lost income stream nor the effect of future price inflation can be predicted with complete confidence … . One permissible method for approximating damages that arises from a loss of future income — known as the “total offset” method — is to neither consider future salary increases nor discount the damages to present value based on the presumption that future salary increases are offset by the discount rate used to calculate the present value of a damages award… . Thus, SDHR did not err by adopting the total offset method to determine the value of Seabury’s lost pension benefits … . Matter of Rensselaer County Sheriff’s Dept. v New York State Div. of Human Rights, 2018 NY Slip Op 05719, Third Dept 8-9-18
EMPLOYMENT LAW (HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT))/HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (SEXUAL HARASSMENT, LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT))/DAMAGES (HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, EMPLOYMENT LAW, LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT))/MUNICIPAL LAW (HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT))/TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (DAMAGES, HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT))/PENSION BENEFITS, LOSS OF (DAMAGES, HUMAN RIGHTS LAW, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, LOST PENSION BENEFITS AS DAMAGES IN THIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE WERE PROPERLY CALCULATED USING THE TOTAL OFFSET METHOD (THIRD DEPT))