Nicole Brusher worked as a finance manager at Southgate Lincoln, LLC, a used-car dealership in Southgate, Michigan, for nearly six years. She alleges that a male coworker, Nick Jervanian, sexually harassed and physically assaulted her repeatedly in late 2021 and early 2022 — incidents that included groping, a parking-lot attack, and Jervanian following her home from work at least five to ten times. According to Brusher, Southgate Lincoln's responses included telling her to hide in the sales room and directing other employees to stand guard at the door when Jervanian parked outside the dealership. Jervanian eventually quit without any complaint being resolved.
About two years later, in March 2024, Southgate Lincoln hired Jim Arminiak as a used-car manager. Brusher alleges that shortly after Arminiak was hired, coworkers told her that Arminiak had made sexist and discriminatory comments about her to other employees, including calling her a profane slur and saying he had plans to get her fired. Arminiak also allegedly commented that Brusher should have kept her legs shut, after assuming she was pregnant when a coworker told him she was at an ultrasound appointment. Brusher learned of the comments and reported them to management on March 11, 2024, then filed a charge with the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. She informed Southgate Lincoln of the charge on March 14, 2024, and was fired on April 10, 2024 — roughly a month after she notified the company.
Brusher sued, bringing eight counts including Title VII sex discrimination and hostile work environment claims that spanned both the Jervanian incidents and the Arminiak incidents. Southgate Lincoln moved to dismiss the Title VII counts in part, arguing Brusher never filed an EEOC charge within 300 days of Jervanian's 2021–2022 conduct. Brusher conceded the point on timing but argued the continuing-violations doctrine should allow the earlier conduct into the case.
Judge Susan K. DeClercq of the Eastern District of Michigan rejected that argument on both available theories. On the sex discrimination count, the court held that the continuing-violations doctrine's second prong — requiring a standard operating procedure of discrimination against a class established over time — was not met because Brusher had not alleged that Southgate Lincoln maintained a known policy or rule supporting sex discrimination.
On the hostile work environment count, the court considered both prongs. The second prong failed for the same reason as in the sex discrimination count. As to the first prong, which allows untimely acts to be included if they are part of the same ongoing hostile work environment and at least one act falls within the filing period, that theory also failed on the facts: Brusher alleged nothing occurring between early 2022 and early 2024, and the court held that the two-year gap was fatal. The opinion cited authority from across the circuits for the proposition that the continuing-violations doctrine cannot tie together hostile environment claims separated by large gaps in time, and noted that courts have found gaps as short as eleven months too long to support the doctrine.
The court dismissed Counts I and II in part, excising all allegations based on Jervanian's 2021 and 2022 conduct. Brusher's remaining Title VII claims — including retaliation and the portions of the discrimination and hostile environment counts tied to the 2024 Arminiak incidents — survive. Brusher had separately agreed to dismiss her perceived-pregnancy discrimination count under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and that count was not before the court.