On March 29, 2026, Robin Levine, Noreen Mulvanerty, Shavone Sease, Malik Sullivan, and Lucas Kwong filed Levine v. CUNY, a putative class action complaint alleging that the accommodation, leave, and retaliation practices challenged in Ramjerdi v. The City of New York continued across additional CUNY campuses and affected both faculty and staff.
LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y., March 31, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC announces the filing of Levine v. CUNY, Case No. 1:26-cv-01859, a putative class action filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Robin Levine, Noreen Mulvanerty, Shavone Sease, Malik Sullivan, and Lucas Kwong.
According to the class action complaint, the named plaintiffs are current and former CUNY faculty and staff from Queensborough Community College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Kingsborough Community College, Hostos Community College, and New York City College of Technology. The complaint names as defendants The City University of New York, The Board of Trustees of The City University of New York, the City of New York, and Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez in his official capacity.
The complaint alleges that Levine follows and expands upon the earlier-filed Ramjerdi action, in which Professor Jan Ramjerdi alleged that CUNY maintained a one-size-fits-all in-person mandate that functioned as a presumptive bar to fully remote disability accommodations; retaliated against faculty who requested disability-based remote work; denied FMLA leave tied to accommodation requests and/or to the characterization of conditions as permanent; and used a medical-separation process in a manner that bypassed reasonable-accommodation rights.
The complaint further alleges that similar disability-based remote-work requests were processed through the same or materially overlapping Queensborough Community College Human Resources and appeal channels.
It further alleges that the repetition across Professor Ramjerdi and Plaintiff Levine supports the inference that the challenged conduct was not an isolated mistake or a genuinely individualized judgment, but part of a broader pattern, practice, custom, policy, method of administration, and/or standard operating procedure. The complaint also alleges that CUNY did not change course after the Ramjerdi action was filed or after Professor Ramjerdi's death. According to the complaint, CUNY continued to apply substantially the same systemwide approach across campuses and job titles by: (1) denying or materially restricting disability-based requests for fully remote work, (2) substituting purported alternatives that still required in-person attendance, and (3) treating accommodation requests as a predicate for retaliatory discipline, forced leave, AWOL status, non-reappointment, or involuntary separation, rather than as a prompt for an individualized and good-faith interactive or cooperative dialogue.
"According to the complaint, the accommodation, leave, and retaliation practices first challenged in Ramjerdi v. The City of New York were not confined to one professor or one campus," said Cyrus E. Dugger of The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC. "The complaint further alleges that similar basic practices continued across additional campuses, additional employees, and job categories."
The complaint seeks class-wide declaratory and injunctive relief requiring lawful, individualized accommodation determinations and meaningful interactive and cooperative dialogue, as well as additional individual injunctive relief and damages.
The case is Levine v. CUNY, No. 1:26-cv-01859, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
The allegations in the class action complaint are only allegations. The Court has not made any findings on the merits.
**About The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC**
The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC represents employees and consumers in complex litigation, including discrimination, retaliation, disability-accommodation, wage-and-hour, and class action matters.
Media Contact
Cyrus Dugger, The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC, 1 6465603208, [email protected], https://www.theduggerlawfirm.com/
SOURCE The Dugger Law Firm, PLLC
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