Discrete adverse employment actions cannot be aggregated to claim a continuing violation under CEPA.

The plaintiff retired from his position as a State Trooper and thereafter filed a whistleblower (CEPA) claim alleging that certain employment actions were in retaliation for reports of potential wrongdoing. In opposition to the State’s motion for summary judgment on statute of limitations grounds, the plaintiff argued that he was entitled to assert a continuing violation theory under which all adverse employment actions are timely as long as at least one is within the statute of limitations period. In rejecting this argument, the Appellate Division held that the adverse employment actions constituted discrete employment actions and that the statute of limitations began to run as to each such act. The continuous violation argument only applies to a series of minor instances of behavior directed at the employee that make up a pattern of retaliatory conduct.

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