Beckham v. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp.

736 F.Supp.2d 130

Pamela Montgomery BECKHAM, Plaintiff,

v.NATIONAL RAILROAD PASSENGER CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 08-172 (RMC).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Sept. 9, 2010.

Gary T. Brown, Gary T. Brown & Associates, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

David C. Tobin, Desmond T. McIlwain, Tobin, O'Connor, Ewing & Richard, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ROSEMARY M. COLLYER, District Judge.

Pamela Montgomery Beckham sues the National Railroad Passenger Corporation ("Amtrak") for alleged race discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. Ms. Beckham complains that she was discriminated against when Amtrak denied her tuition reimbursement for a master's degree program, web design software training, and her requests to work from home. Furthermore, Ms. Beckham complains that such actions were taken in reprisal for her participation in a Title VII class action against Amtrak. Having reviewed the parties' briefs, exhibits, and the entire record, the Court finds that none of these decisions rises to the level of a legally cognizable adverse action to support the allegations of disparate treatment discrimination. The allegation that Amtrak retaliated against Ms. Beckham also fails for lack of evidentiary support. Summary judgment will be granted to Amtrak.

I. FACTS

Ms. Beckham is an African-American woman who has been employed by Amtrak since 1989. She was initially hired as a Train Attendant and has been promoted to a number of different positions over the years.¹ In 1995, Ms. Beckham became a Service Manager, where David Nogar was in her supervisory chain, although not as her direct supervisor. In September 1999, Mr. Nogar transferred to a new position with Amtrak in California. When this suit was filed in 2008, Ms. Beckham was working as a Senior Analyst in Amtrak's Transportation Department in Washington, D.C.²

In 1998, Ms. Beckham joined a class-action lawsuit against Amtrak that charged the railroad with race discrimination; at the time, her name was Pamela Montgomery. See McLaurin v. Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp., 311 F.Supp.2d 61 (D.D.C.2004). The suit was resolved in November of 1999, through a consent decree which continued in force until 2004. Ms. Beckham received monetary relief from the decreeto compensate for a salary disparity that existed between African American and Caucasian employees. The decree named Thom Chawluk as a manager who allegedly discriminated against the protected class members. Mr. Nogar was Thom Chawluk's immediate supervisor at some point during the McLaurin class action.

In December 2002, Mr. Nogar returned to the East Coast as the Senior Director for Amtrak's Department of Service Delivery Standards ("Service Delivery") in Wilmington. As a Senior Analyst in Service Delivery, Ms. Beckham worked directly for Mr. Nogar, starting in approximately 2002 and continuing until January 2005, when Monika Sloane joined Service Delivery as Director of Service Standards and Operations. Ms. Sloane supervised Ms. Beckham until late 2006, after which Ms. Beckham's position was moved to the District of Columbia. Ms. Beckham did not discuss the McLaurin class action with either Mr. Nogar or Ms. Sloane.

Ms. Beckham contends that Mr. Nogar knew of her involvement in the McLaurin class action as he had been Tom Chawluk's immediate supervisor. Pl.'s Mem. in Opp'n. ("Opp'n."), Ex. 1 ("Beckham Decl.") ¶ 3. Mr. Nogar's name does not appear in the McLaurin complaint. Mr. Nogar supervised a contract commuter operation for Amtrak in California from September 1999 through December 2002 and testified in deposition that he "didn't know anything about that class action suit until after I came back and assumed my job as senior director of service delivery in Wilmington." Def.'s Mem. in Support of Mot. for Summ. J. ("Def.'s Mem."), Ex. 3 ("Nogar Dep.") at 64-65. Mr. Nogar learned at some point that Ms. Beckham had been a plaintiff in McLaurin. Id. at 64. Mr. Nogar "didn't think [the suit] impacted me one iota because-certainly with respect to Ms. Beckham, because the class action suit would have occurred when she was employed as a service manager for Northeast Direct product line. I actually recruited Ms. Beckham. I gave her her first management job. And I also provided her with a lot of training in those days, and so I had no reason to believe that if she was part of that suit that it would have anything to do with me." Id. at 65-66.

The functions of Service Delivery are to create, publish, and update the Service Standards Manual for onboard and train service employees; publish service standards for station employees; administer the uniform contract nationwide; perform quality assurance work; and assist in the implementation of special service initiatives by doing train riding, as needed. As a Senior Analyst in Service Delivery, Ms. Beckham's chief duty was technical writing ³ for Service Delivery's primary objective: the Service Standards Manual. Her responsibilities included technical writing for the service standards, the operations standards updates, and the operations service advisories. Additionally, Ms. Beckham was responsible for information relating to the Service Standards Manual that would be uploaded to Amtrak's intranet, an internal website for employees. Amtrak's Information Technology department would upload new or additional material to the intranet at Ms. Beckham's direction. Ms. Beckham vaguely contends, however, that at an unspecified time period her responsibilities included Internet responsibilities. See Opp'n., Ex. 1 (Plaintiff's Statementof Genuine Issues) ("Pl.'s Disputed Facts") ¶ 1 ("Ms. Beckham's responsibilities did include responsibilities for the internet.").⁴

Ms. Sloane has a graphics design background and was hired in part to develop a web-based site for Service Delivery employees, thus keeping work in-house and eliminating the costs of contracting with outside firms for design and management of an Internet site. Russell Fox joined Service Delivery in 2004 after a lateral move from a separate Amtrak department. He was Ms. Beckham's counterpart as a Senior Analyst and shared responsibility for technical writing and updating the Service Standards Manual. Mr. Fox came to Service Delivery with a background in web design. Mr. Nogar had a goal of developing an external website for Service Delivery employees, accessible from outside the Amtrak intranet. According to Mr. Nogar, Mr. Fox and Ms. Sloane were also tasked with designing and maintaining the external Amtrak website based on their previous work experience. Thus, Mr. Fox was responsible for the development and maintenance of the external website and Ms. Beckham was responsible for maintaining the intranet, or internal, site for Service Delivery employees. Their core responsibility, however, remained the Service Standards Manual. Both Ms. Beckham and Mr. Fox reported to Ms. Sloane.

A. Tuition Reimbursement

Amtrak has an Educational Assistance Program whereby it approves tuition reimbursement to Amtrak employees for courses that are likely to assist the Amtrak employee in improving her skills relevant to the performance of her job duties. When Mr. Nogar became Ms. Beckham's direct supervisor in 2002, Ms. Beckham was pursuing a bachelor of arts degree from Cabrini College pursuant to the Educational Assistance Program. She took courses at Cabrini and received tuition reimbursement through 2004, when she earned her bachelor of arts degree.

In 2004, Amtrak reimbursed Ms. Beckham for the last part of her undergraduate degree, and Mr. Nogar separately authorized her attendance at an Effective Business Writing Course, Editing and Proofreading/Grammar Course and Technical Writing Course at The Business Development & Training Center in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Both parties agree that her courses at Cabrini and BDTC helped Ms. Beckham with her technical writing responsibilities. Ms. Beckham later applied for reimbursement for an Adobe Photoshop course she took at Villa Julie College, after she had completed the course. Mr. Nogar approved the tuition reimbursement but advised Ms. Beckham that she needed to submit such requests for approval in advance of a course so that Amtrak could assess whether the course would benefit her and Amtrak.

In July 2004, shortly after earning her bachelor's degree, Ms. Beckham asked Amtrak to approve tuition reimbursementfor master's degree courses in Business and Technology Management at Villa Julie College. Ms. Beckham submitted her request to Barbara Hancock in Amtrak's Office of Career Development. Ms. Hancock sought Mr. Nogar's assessment of Ms. Beckham's application, i.e., whether the courses were relevant to Ms. Beckham's job, as is required under the Program for graduate-level courses.⁵ After discussing the course materials and Ms. Beckham's stated reasons for seeking the specified master's degree, Mr. Nogar responded that he did not believe the proposed courses were sufficiently related to Ms. Beckham's job functions. Ms. Hancock then decided to deny Ms. Beckham's tuition reimbursement request. Ms. Hancock informed Ms. Beckham that Mr. Nogar did not believe the master's degree courses from Villa Julie College were necessary for her job.

Ms. Beckham's request for tuition reimbursement for a master's degree was the first and only time Mr. Nogar had been involved in making a tuition reimbursement decision. Mr. Nogar never had another employee request reimbursement. Thus, he had never approved or denied tuition reimbursement for another Amtrak employee during his time with the railroad. It was also the first time that Amtrak denied one of Ms. Beckham's requests for tuition reimbursement. Amtrak typically receives tuition reimbursement requests from Amtrak employees nationwide for bachelor's degree courses, and Amtrak approves some requests and denies others. Amtrak does not...