Between 1985 and 1990, while attending college, Beth Ann Faragher worked part-time and during the summers as an ocean lifeguard for the Parks and Recreation Department of the City of Boca Raton. Ms.¢Faragher worked for three immediate supervisors during this period: Bill Terry, David Silverman, and Robert Gordon. Ms. Faragher resigned in June 1990 and brought a Title VII sexual harassment suit against the City in 1992. She alleged a sexually hostile atmosphere because of “uninvited and offensive touching,” lewd remarks, and Mr. Silverman’s comment, “Date me or clean the toilets for a year.”

Ms. Faragher had not complained to higher management, and the lifeguards had no significant contact with higher city officials. Two months before Ms. Faragher’s resignation, a former lifeguard, Nancy E. Wanchew, wrote to the City’s personnel director complaining about Mr. Terry and Mr. Silverman’s harassment of female lifeguards. Should the City be held liable? Does it matter that Ms. Faragher asked only for nominal damages, attorney’s fees, and costs? [Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775 (1998)]