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THE DISMISSAL OF PLAINTIFF’S FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION (RETALIATION) ACTION PURSUANT TO THE NEW YORK STATE HUMAN RIGHTS LAW PRECLUDED A RELITIGATION OF THE RETALIATION CLAIMS IN STATE COURT PURSUANT TO THE NEW YORK CITY HUMAN RIGHTS LAW (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Shulman, determined plaintiff’s employment discrimination (retaliation) cause of action pursuant to the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) was collaterally estopped by the dismissal of plaintiff’s action in federal court pursuant to the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL):

Plaintiff asserts that his cooperation in [an] investigation [of another employee] provoked animus from his supervisors … who allegedly retaliated by reducing his business opportunities and ultimately terminating him.

Plaintiff alleged seven discrete adverse employment actions: (1) the artificial depression of his revenue; (2) denial of his request to transfer to a new position; (3) reassignment of his clients; (4) denial of funding to attend conferences; (5) a negative performance review; (6) no bonus in 2015; and (7) termination in August 2016. * * *

The City HRL is “uniquely broad and remedial,” requiring courts to construe its provisions “independently from similar or identical provisions of New York state or federal statutes” … . However, the requirement to interpret the City HRL under a more liberal lens does not relieve plaintiff of his burden to produce evidence of a retaliatory motive behind the adverse actions.

* * * Plaintiff’s arguments … invite relitigating facts already adjudicated by two federal courts after full and fair litigation. The federal courts expressly found no retaliatory animus after reviewing extensive evidence. … [T]his compels preclusion.

We emphasize that the City HRL’s liberal construction rule lowers the causation threshold, not the evidentiary one. Once the federal record established the absence of any retaliatory motive, no genuine factual issue remained even under the City HRL’s mixed-motive framework. To allow this case to go to a jury under the guise of liberal construction finds no support in the record. Abromavage v Deutsche Bank Sec. Inc., 2026 NY Slip Op 00052, First Dept 1-8-25

Practice Point: Here the federal courts’ dismissal of plaintiff’s employment discrimination (retaliation) claims pursuant to the New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) precluded relitigation of those claims in state court pursuant to the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL). Consult this opinion for insight into when collateral estoppel will be invoked to preclude a state action under the NYCHRL which raises retaliation claims identical to those dismissed by the federal courts under the NYSHRL. Although the NYCHRL lowers the causation threshold in comparison with the NYSHRL, it does not lower the evidentiary threshold.

 

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