Czerwienski v. Harvard Univ.

666 F.Supp.3d 49

Margaret CZERWIENSKI, Lilia Kilburn and Amulya Mandava, Plaintiffs, v. HARVARD UNIVERSITY and the President and Fellows of Harvard College, Defendants.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 22-10202-JGD

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts

Signed March 31, 2023

Russell L. Kornblith, Pro Hac Vice, Sanford Heisler Kimpel, LLP, New York, NY, Carolin Guentert, Sanford Heisler Sharp, New York, NY, Sean R. Ouellette, Sanford Heisler Sharp, LLP, Washington, DC, for Plaintiffs.

Victoria L. Steinberg, Rebecca M. O'Brien, Cloherty & Steinberg LLP, Boston, MA, Julien M. Mundele, Rachel C. Hutchinson, Todd & Weld LLP, Boston, MA, Madeleine K. Rodriguez, Martin F. Murphy, Foley Hoag LLP, Boston, MA, for Defendant President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Madeleine K. Rodriguez, Martin F. Murphy, Foley Hoag LLP, Boston, MA, Rachel C. Hutchinson, Todd & Weld LLP, Boston, MA, Rebecca M. O'Brien, Victoria L. Steinberg, Cloherty & Steinberg LLP, Boston, MA, for Defendant Harvard University.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION AND ORDER ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS COUNTS ONE THROUGH NINE OF PLAINTIFF'S AMENDED COMPLAINT

DEIN, United States Magistrate Judge

I. INTRODUCTION

This case arises out of alleged incidents of sexual harassment and retaliation for complaints of sexual harassment that were perpetrated by John Comaroff ("Comaroff"), a world-renowned Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University ("Harvard" or "University"), against female graduate students in the University's Anthropology Department. The plaintiffs, Margaret Czerwienski ("Czerwienski"), Lilia Kilburn ("Kilburn") and Amulya Mandava ("Mandava"), are doctoral students in the Anthropology Department and claim that they were victims of Comaroff's abusive behavior. They also claim that Harvard's long-term failure to address reports of sexual harassment by Comaroff and other prominent male professors in the Anthropology Department enabled Comaroff to engage in the alleged misconduct toward them, and that Harvard's reluctance to investigate their complaints in a timely manner, as well as deficiencies in Harvard's investigatory process, exacerbated their harm and perpetuated the hostile environment that exists for women in the University's graduate Anthropology program.

On February 8, 2022, the plaintiffs initiated the instant action against Harvard.¹ By their ten-Count Amended Complaint ("Amended Complaint" or "Complaint"), the plaintiffs are seeking to hold the defendant liable under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as well as under Massachusetts statutory and common law. The matter is before the court on "Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Counts One Through Nine of Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint" (Docket No. 53), by which Harvard has moved to dismiss the first nine Counts of the Amended Complaint, pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), for failure to state plausible claims for relief.² For all the reasons detailed below, the defendants' motion is ALLOWED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. Because the plaintiffs have failed to allege plausible claims against Harvard for gender discrimination under Title IX, Count Three of the Amended Complaint is dismissed. However, Harvard's motion is otherwise denied.

II. STATEMENT OF FACTS

When ruling on a motion to dismiss that has been brought pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6), "[t]he court must 'assume the truth of all well-pleaded facts and indulge all reasonable inferences that fit the plaintiff's stated theory of liability.'" Redondo-Borges v. U.S. Dep't of Housing & Urban Dev., 421 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir. 2005) (quoting In re Colonial Mortg. Bankers Corp., 324 F.3d 12, 15 (1st Cir. 2003)). The facts may be derived not only from the Complaint, but also from "whatever documents are either annexed to it or fairly incorporated into it, and any relevant matters that are susceptible to judicial notice." Id. However, the court will "not credit 'bald assertions, unsupportable conclusions, periphrastic circumlocutions, and the like.'" Id. (quoting Aulson v. Blanchard, 83 F.3d 1, 3 (1st Cir. 1996)). Applying this standard to the instant case, the relevant facts are as follows.

The Parties

The defendant is a Massachusetts non-profit organization having a principal place of business in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (AC ¶ 23).³ Harvard is one of the world's most prestigious academic institutions, and it has maintained that reputation by recruiting and employing the world's most prominent scholars. (Id. ¶ 6). Comaroff, a Professor of Anthropology and a Professor of African and African American Studies ("AAAS") at Harvard, is one such scholar. (Id. ¶ 7). He is a leading expert on Africa and the Global South, legal and political anthropology, crime and policing, the anthropology of colonialism and postcolonialism, and historical anthropology. (Id.). He has also served as a visiting professor at academic institutions throughout the world, and has mentored tenured professors in nearly all of the leading anthropology departments. (Id.).

Plaintiff Mandava arrived at Harvard in 2012 to pursue her graduate studies, including a Ph.D. in the Anthropology Department. (Id. ¶ 22). She received a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Anthropology from the University of Chicago and a Master's degree from the Harvard Divinity School. (Id.). Since joining the Anthropology Department, Mandava has received a number of prestigious grants in her field, including but not limited to, the Wenner-Gren Dissertation Fieldwork Grant and the American Institute of Indian Studies Junior Fellowship. (Id.). As detailed below, Mandava claims that Comaroff threatened to derail her future job prospects after he learned that she had spoken out about his sexual harassment of other students. She also claims that Harvard failed to take meaningful steps to protect her or the other plaintiffs from Comaroff's continuing harassment and threats of retaliation.

Plaintiff Czerwienski is a doctoral student in Harvard's Anthropology Department. (Id. ¶ 20). Prior to arriving at Harvard in 2014, Czerwienski received a Bachelor of Arts in Women's Studies, a Master's degree in public health and a graduate certificate in Afroamerican and African Studies from the University of Michigan. (Id.). She also conducted research at the University of Michigan Medical School while working toward her Master's degree. (Id.). In addition to her work as a teaching fellow and Ph.D. student at Harvard, Czerwienski is the recipient of the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant. (Id.). Like Mandava, Czerwienski claims that Comaroff threatened to take adverse action against her after he learned that she had been speaking out about his sexual misconduct toward female graduate students, and that Harvard failed to adequately address Comaroff's misconduct or protect her from retaliation.

The third plaintiff, Kilburn, arrived at Harvard in 2017, and is also a doctoral student in the University's Anthropology Department. (Id. ¶ 21). She received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Amherst College and a Master's degree in Comparative Media Practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (Id.). Her research while at Harvard has been supported by multiple prestigious grants. (Id.). Kilburn alleges that she applied to Harvard so she could work with Comaroff and his wife, Professor Jean Comaroff, who is also a well-known professor in the Anthropology Department, and that she chose to attend Harvard following Comaroff's promise to serve as her mentor and provide pedagogic support. (Id.). She further alleges that Comaroff has made unwanted sexual advances toward her since the first time she arrived on Harvard's campus. Additionally, as detailed herein, Kilburn claims that Harvard ignored her complaints about Comaroff's sexual harassment, allowed Comaroff to retaliate against her for filing a formal complaint against him, and obtained her confidential medical records without her consent and disclosed them to Comaroff and others.

Comaroff's Alleged History of Sexual Harassment

The plaintiffs claim that Comaroff's behavior toward them was part of a long-term pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation against students, and that Harvard was on notice of his misconduct before it even hired him as a professor in the Anthropology Department. Thus, the plaintiffs claim that prior to becoming a professor at Harvard, Comaroff was employed for more than three decades at the University of Chicago ("UChicago"). (See id. ¶¶ 27-29, 41). They further allege that throughout the course of his career at UChicago, Comaroff engaged in sexual relationships with female undergraduate and graduate students, sexually harassed and assaulted female undergraduate and graduate students, and retaliated against students who complained of or objected to his behavior. (Id. ¶¶ 28-37). The Amended Complaint provides numerous, specific examples of Comaroff's alleged conduct, which paint a picture of him as a sexual predator and a threat to the safety and well being of female students in UChicago's Anthropology Department. (See id.). In fact, according to the plaintiffs, graduate students and faculty at UChicago considered Comaroff a "predator" and a "groomer," and his colleagues at the institution were pleased to see him go. (Id. ¶ 8; see also id. ¶ 40).

Allegedly, Mandava was among the female students who was targeted by Comaroff when she was an undergraduate at UChicago. (Id. ¶ 38). The plaintiffs contend that in the winter of 2009, Comaroff pursued her during a study abroad trip to South Africa by repeatedly asking Mandava to sit next to him on long drives and commenting on the neckline of her clothing. (Id.). The interactions made Mandava uncomfortable and she spoke to another professor who was on the trip with the hope that he would intervene. (Id.). However, the professor allegedly told Mandava that Comaroff's actions were consistent with his usual behavior during study abroad trips, when Comaroff would...