CAN'T BOOT FOR BEING CUTE
Beauty gets OK to sue
Hot women have rights, too. In a first-of-its kind decision, a Manhattan appeals panel ruled on Tuesday that workers can’t get the boot for being “too cute.”
The decision stemmed from a 2013 discrimination lawsuit filed by blond massage therapist Dilek Edwards against her former boss, Wall Street chiropractor Charles Nicolai, and his Playboy Playmate ex-wife, Stephanie Adams.
Dilek, 33, claimed that she was axed after Nicolai admitted to his then 46-year-old wife that she “might become jealous’’ of his bubbly staffer because she was “too cute.’’
The masseuse says she was fired even though she did her job well, and says there was never any hankypanky between her and Nicolai.
But last year, Manhattan Judge Shlomo Hagler ruled against Dilek, saying her cuteness quotient couldn’t be used as a basis for her discrimination claim. The appeals panel disagreed. If Dilek “was fired for no reason other than Adams’ belief that Nicolai to her . . . this states a cause of action for gender discrimination under New York State Human Rights Law,” Judge David Friedman wrote.
Friedman was joined in his decision by Judges Karla Moskowitz, Judith Gische and Marcy Kahn.
The case now goes back to Hagler, who must consider Dilek’s argument. She is suing for unspecified monetary damages.
It wasn’t the first time that the issue had been heard by a US court — although in the past, the judges hadn’t sided with the plaintiff.
In 2013, a circuit court in Iowa ruled the opposite of the New York appeals panel. The all-male Iowa panel OK’d a male dentist’s ouster of his female hygienist because he viewed her “as an irresistible attraction.”
Dilek’s lawyer, Maimon Kirschenbaum, said the other courts also had nixed the “too cute” bias claim.
“We had looked extensively to find a case for what should be obvious: that firing a woman because you might be attracted to her is discrimination,” KirscKirschenbaum said.
“BBut as it turns out, there is no such case until nownow.”
NeitherNe the chirochiropractor nor his ex returnturned calls for comcomment. Their lawylawyer, Martin SiegSiegel, said it is “too early to tell’’ if thethey will appeal.
PaPaige Fiedler, who reprerepresented fired Iowa dental hygienist MeliMelissa Nelson, applauplauded the Manhattantan jujudge’s ruling.
“I always thought that having a female justicetice on the Iowa Supreme CourCourt would have helped the judgesj understand what it’s like to be a woman in
ththe workplace,” she said.