An ex-Delta Air Lines flight attendant who sued the Atlanta-based carrier for failing to properly investigate a sexual assault allegation she made against a pilot during a drunken night out between flights has had her case thrown out by a Boston appeals court.
Sara Caruso originally filed her lawsuit against her ex-employer in 2020, two years after the alleged assault in August 2018 at a Dallas hotel used by Delta pilots and flight attendants during work layovers.
Caruso had gone out with several other flight attendants and a Delta First Officer for drinks during their layover in Dallas but when the night came to an end, Caruso alleges that the pilot sexually assaulted her in her hotel room.
The allegations only came to light after Caruso failed a breathalyzer test the following morning prior to operating her next flight. The test had been ordered after the hotel phoned Delta with concerns about Caruso because she had running around the corridors in her underwear during the night.
Caruso was found to be nearly four times over Delta’s alcohol limit and double the federal maximum, which resulted in her being immediately suspended pending an investigation.
Caruso was told to hand in her badge and made to provide a statement before being flown back to her home base of Boston later the same day. In her initial statement, Caruso made no mention of a sexual assault, but after arriving home, she went to a local hospital and completed a sexual assault kit.
The following day, Caruso contacted Delta and told the airline that she believed she may have been drugged and assaulted. Caruso didn’t initially mention that the pilot was the assailant, and before she filed a police report, she was referred into a 30-day residential alcohol rehabilitation program.
It was only in late September, following her discharge from the alcohol rehabilitation center, that Caruso filed a police report alleging that the pilot had sexually assaulted her.
By this point, potentially crucial surveillance footage from the hotel had already been overwritten, and in early 2019, law enforcement in Dallas concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that a crime had taken place.
Having successfully completed the alcohol rehabilitation program, Caruso was allowed to keep her job at Delta and the airline attempted to meet her requests for accommodation by changing her manager.
Caruso had also asked Delta to ensure she never flew with the same pilot but it’s scheduling systems were capable of meeting this accommodation but she was instead told to bid for trips that wouldn’t see her flying on the same model of plane that her alleged assailant was licensed to fly.
Later in 2019, Caruso’s attorney demanded Delta grant her requested accommodations in full. If the airline refused, she would make a claim of constructive dismissal and discrimination.
Delta requested an extension to the deadline set by Caruso’s attorney but she declined the request and then resigned from her position.
Caruso’s lawsuit had accused Delta of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Massachusetts state law by failing to conduct an inadequate investigation into her allegations against the pilot.
In a majority ruling, however, the appeals court concluded that rather than ‘shielding’ the pilot from investigation, Delta continued its own inquiry even after the Dallas Police had dropped their investigation.
Dissenting the majority ruling, one judge, however, said the other judges were “flat wrong” and were engaging in indefensible “victim-shaming” by dismissing Caruso’s allegations because she took some time to file a report with police.
Caruso’s attorneys are said to be considering their legal options.
