Aug 28 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday

revived a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit

accusing BNSF Railway of allowing a severe and pervasive hostile

work environment toward women in a western Nebraska railyard.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Omaha said a trial

judge wrongly dismissed claims that from 2011 to 2022, BNSF

subjected train conductor Rena Merker and other female workers

at the Alliance railyard to a near daily barrage of sexual

harassment by male coworkers, as well as supervisors.

This allegedly included sexual advances, derogatory comments

about women's bodies, sexually explicit graffiti at the railyard

and on locomotives, soiling of unisex bathrooms, and a dead bird

left on the toilet seat of a female conductor's train.

The EEOC accused BNSF of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

of 1964, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on sex.

BNSF is owned by Warren Buffett's conglomerate Berkshire

Hathaway ( BRK/A ). The Fort Worth, Texas-based railroad and its

lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Writing for a three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Lavenski

Smith said the EEOC's claims were plausible, and the trial judge

should not have required the agency to show that female workers

endured the same harassment by the same people at the same time.

The appeals court also rejected the judge's conclusions that

the sexist comments were too "sporadic" and the graffiti could

be excused by its "social context"--in a railyard with mainly

male employees, rather than a professional office.

"Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the

EEOC," Smith wrote, "we conclude that a reasonable jury could

find that Merker was subjected to harassment that was

objectively severe and pervasive."

The EEOC did not immediately respond to requests for

comment.

Merker died in January 2024 but the case continued. The

appeals court returned it to U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher

in Omaha.

Berkshire was not a defendant, and Buffett's Omaha-based

conglomerate has minimal involvement in its businesses'

day-to-day activities.

The case is EEOC v BNSF Railway Co, 8th U.S. Circuit Court

of Appeals, No. 24-2082.