Birschtein

Can staring at a fellow employee—“to gaze fixedly . . . with eyes wide open,” is how the Oxford English Dictionary defines the word— constitute actionable sexual harassment under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (Gov. Code, § 12900 et seq.) (FEHA)? We hold that under the circumstances disclosed by the record in this case, such conduct may indeed violate FEHA’s proscription on gender-based harassment in the workplace. Whether it does or does not amount to harassment as a matter of fact is a determination for the trier of fact in later proceedings; here, we decide only that the superior court erred when it granted the employer’s motion for summary judgment on the ground an employee’s conduct in staring at plaintiff at her workstation on an automotive assembly line was not actionable as a matter of law.

We also conclude the record presents a triable issue of material fact with respect to plaintiffs contention that her claims of sexual harassment occurring outside FEHA’s one-year limitations statute were not time-barred. Because these out-of-time acts were part of a connected and related series of harassing and retaliatory events, plaintiff argues, the…