Takeaway: Even though a manager sent lewd photos to an employee he supervised, the employer was not liable for harassment because the parties had a friendship outside of work, and when the manager sent the photos he was not acting in his capacity as a supervisor.

Although a supervisor sent texts containing lewd photos to an employee, the employer was not liable for sexual harassment because the supervisor was not acting in his capacity as a supervisor when he sent the texts, a California appeals court recently ruled.

The supervisor and the employee had been friends before she started working for the company, and the texts were sent from the supervisor's personal phone outside of working hours.

The supervisor was a district manager for a pharmacy chain. He oversaw the operations of 14 to 16 stores in his district. The employee met the supervisor in the early fall of 2017, during her last year of pharmacy school, when she did a six-week rotation with the chain, which entailed the employee shadowing the supervisor.

In March 2018, while the employee was still in pharmacy school, she began working as an intern at the pharmacy chain. In December 2018, she became an hourly staff pharmacist at one of the stores. In that position, she reported to the supervisor.

Starting from the time the employee did her six-week rotation, she developed a social relationship with the supervisor. Over time, they became close friends. The employee socialized outside of work with the supervisor. They...

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