63 N.Y.2d 541 | NY | 1984
OPINION OF THE COURT
A corporate employee, though he has a title as an officer and is the manager or supervisor of a corporate division, is not individually subject to suit with respect to discrimination based on age or sex under New York’s Human Rights Law (Executive Law, art 15) or its Labor Law (§ 194) or under the Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (29 USC § 623) or Equal Pay Act (29 USC § 206, subd [d]) if he is not shown to have any ownership interest or any power to do more than carry out personnel decisions made by others. The order of the Appellate Division insofar as it dismisses the complaint against defendant Corney
Plaintiff fares no better under article 6 of the Labor Law. Although the definition in subdivision 3 of section 190 of “employer” provides no clue, we have recently held that the provisions of section 198-a subjecting corporate officers to criminal sanctions for violation of the article indicates a legislative intent that they not be subject to civil liability (Stoganovic v Dinolfo, 61 NY2d 812, affg 92 AD2d 729).
The question is a closer one under the Federal statutes. The Equal Pay Act defines “employer” to include “any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee” (29 USC § 203, subd [d]), and the Age Discrimination Act defines the word to mean “a person engaged in an industry affecting commerce who has twenty or more employees [during a specified period] * * * The term also means (1) any agent of such person.” (29 USC § 630, subd [b].) We assume without deciding that an Age Discrimination action can be maintained in a State court (see 29 USC § 633a, subd [c] [“Any person aggrieved may bring a civil action in any Federal district court”]; cf. Gulf Offshore Co. v Mobil Oil Corp., 453 US 473, 479). We conclude, however, that the weight of Federal authority is that “economic reality” governs who may be sued under both statutes and that a corporate employee such as defendant Corney, who, plaintiff concedes, is one of approximately 800 vice-presidents of Chemical Bank and has not been shown to have any ownership
Order affirmed, with costs.
. Plaintiff’s appeal as against defendant Chemical Bank was dismissed for nonfinality (62 NY2d 801).
. Some of the above decisions were made under the Civil Rights Act definition (42 USC § 2000e, subd [b]) but are applicable to the present decision because, except as to number of employees, that definition is the same as that of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (29 USC § 630, subd [b]).