Dees v. Hyundai Motor Mfg. Alabama, LLC

605 F.Supp.2d 1220

Jerry Leon DEES, Jr., Plaintiff, v. HYUNDAI MOTOR MANUFACTUING ALABAMA, LLC, and Hyundai Motor America, Inc., Defendants.

Civil Action No. 2:07cv306-MHT.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, Northern Division.

March 25, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

David Allen McDonald, Jeffrey Rayborn Sport, Vincent F. Kilborn, III, W. Perry Hall, Kilborn Roebuck & McDonald, Mobile, AL, for Plaintiff.

Joseph Trent Scofield, Thomas Scott Kelly, Timothy A. Palmer, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Birmingham, AL, Matthew Kinard Johnson, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, PC, Greenville, SC, for Defendants.

OPINION

MYRON H. THOMPSON, District Judge.

In this lawsuit, plaintiff Jerry Leon Dees, Jr., asserts the following claims against defendants Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama, LLC (HMMA) and Hyundai Motor America, Inc. (HMA): termination and harassment claims under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERA), 38 U.S.C. §§ 4301-4334, and outrage and conversion claims under Alabama law. Jurisdiction over the USERRA claims is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 1331 and 38 U.S.C. § 4323(b)(3), and the state-law claims may be heard under supplemental jurisdiction, 28 U.S.C. § 1367(a).

On May 21, 2008, this court entered summary judgment against Dees on his USERRA-termination claim and state-law outrage claim against HMMA and on all claims against HMA, with the result that Dees's USERRA-harassment claim and state-law conversion claim against HMMA were to go to trial. Dees v. Hyundai Motor Mfg. Alabama, LLC, 2008 WL 2157009 (M.D.Ala.2008) (Thompson, J.). This case is again before the court, this time on Dees's and HMMA's motions asking the court to reconsider its summaryjudgment decision. For the following reasons, the court will grant the reconsideration motions, vacate its entire May 21 summary-judgment opinion and accompanying judgment, and enter this new opinion, with a companion judgment, in their place.¹ The court now holds that HMMA and HMA are entitled to summary judgment on both of Dees's USERRA claims (retaliation and harassment) and that both of Dees's state-law claims (outrage and conversion) should be dismissed with the right to refile them in state court.

I. STANDARD FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

Summary judgment is appropriate "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of that party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986).

II. FACTS

Dees began working at HMMA as a maintenance technician in the Stamping Maintenance Department in November 2005. At that time, he was also a Staff Sergeant and Combat MP in the Alabama Army National Guard and had previously served two tours in Iraq.

Dees's direct supervisors at HMMA were Stamping Maintenance Assistant Manager Greg Prater and Team Leader Kevin Hughes. Prater and Hughes began to harass Dees almost immediately upon learning about his military service. Prater required that Dees provide nonexistent military orders for Guard monthly weekend training; forbade Dees from missing work for training; made derogatory comments about the Guard in the presence of Dees and other employees; and attempted to coerce Dees's coworkers to state, falsely, that Dees had violated company policies and procedures. Additionally, Prater and Hughes assigned Dees to difficult and dangerous work more frequently than they did for other employees. In an effort to stem the harassment, Dees asked the sergeant of his Guard unit to send a letter to HMMA's Human Resources Department that explained the lack of monthly military orders. The sergeant did so and also offered to confirm Dees's presence at the weekend trainings. Instead of quelling the harassment, however, the sergeant's letter caused the harassment to escalate.

In February 2007, Production Stamping Manager Jim Brookshire accused Dees of sleeping on the job, and a HMMA committee terminated Dees's employment. After his termination, Dees recovered most of his personal items from his locker but did not recover military pay stubs and notes that he had made about his harassment.

III. DISCUSSION

A. USERRA Claims

As stated, Dees has two USERRA claims: a termination claim and a harassment claim. USERRA provides that a member of the Armed Services "shall not be denied initial employment, reemployment, retention in employment, promotion, or any benefit of employment by an employer on the basis of that membership." 38 U.S.C. § 4311(a).

1. "Employer" within the meaning of USERRA

Before turning to the substance of Dees's two USERRA claims, it is necessary to determine whether both HMMA and HMA may properly be sued as Dees's "employer" or, as the defendants argue, only HMMA may be deemed Dees's employer.

HMMA manufactures Hyundai automobiles, while HMA distributes, markets, and sells Hyundai automobiles in the United States. The parent company of both is Hyundai Motor Company, Ltd. (HMC), which is traded on the Korean Stock Exchange. Defs.' Corporate/Conflict Disclosure Statement (Doc. No. 14).

In USERRA, "employer" means "any person, institution, organization, or other entity that pays salary or wages for work performed or that has control over employment opportunities, including a person, institution, organization, or other entity to whom the employer has delegated the performance of employment-related responsibilities." 38 U.S.C. § 4303(4)(A)(i). This definition suggests that the statute is concerned only with the "person, institution, organization, or other entity" that carries out "employment-related responsibilities," and not with who controls the overall enterprise.

The entity carrying out employment-related responsibilities was HMMA alone. The totality of the circumstances demonstrate that HMMA is a start-up that HMC (not HMA) is assisting in getting off the ground. See Second Warner Decl. (Doc. No. 58), at 2. In particular, HMMA has a number of Korean expatriates "on loan" from HMC (including its President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer) but these persons are employed by HMC, not HMA, and were also not on the HMMA payroll. Warner Depo. (Doc. No. 69), at 12. No HMA employees work in Alabama, id. at 27, and all members of the committee overseeing Dees's termination were HMMA employees. Defs.' Br. (Doc. No. 69), at 20. All personnel decisions, including hiring, training, and firing, were undertaken by HMMA's Human Resources Department, with no involvement by HMA. Warner Depo. (Doc. No. 69), at 24, 35; Parker Decl. (Doc. No. 69), at 2. The companies are undeniably linked, but their relationship does not indicate that HMA handled any of HMMA's employment-related duties such that HMA could be found liable under USERRA.

HMA is therefore entitled to summary judgment on both of Dees's USERRA claims. However, even if HMA could be liable to Dees for a USERRA violation, Dees could still not recover from it because, as explained next, he cannot recover on his USERRA claims for other reasons.

2. USERRA-termination claim

Dees claims HMMA and HMA terminated his employment because of his Guard membership. As this court explained in an earlier opinion on a discovery dispute between Dees and the defendants, Congress enacted USERRA to encourage "noncareer service in the uniformed services by eliminating or minimizing the disadvantages to civil careers and employment which can result from such service" and to minimize "the disruption to the lives of persons performing service in the uniformed services as well as to their employers." Dees v. Hyundai Motor Mfg. Ala., LLC, 524 F.Supp.2d 1348, 1351 (M.D.Ala. 2007) (Thompson, J.) (quoting 38 U.S.C. § 4301(a)). In the legislative history of a predecessor statute to USERRA, it was observed that, "[i]f these young men are essential to our national defense, then certainly our Government and employers have a moral obligation to see that their economic well being is disrupted to the minimum extent possible." H.R.Rep. No. 1303, 89th Cong. (1966), U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 1966, p. 2370 (quoted in Monroe v. Standard Oil Co., 452 U.S. 549, 561, 101 S.Ct. 2510, 69 L.Ed.2d 226 (1981)).

USERRA prohibits discrimination in employment if the employee's membership in the armed services "is a motivating factor in the employer's action, unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such membership." 38 U.S.C. § 4311(c)(1). To proceed under USERRA, Dees must show by a preponderance of the evidence that his protected status was a motivating factor in terminating him, although that status need not be the sole cause as long as "it is one of the factors that a truthful employer would list if asked for the reasons for its decision." Coffman v. Chugach Support Servs., Inc., 411 F.3d 1231, 1238 (11th Cir.2005) (citation omitted).

Dees has presented evidence that Prater, his direct supervisor, may have harbored some animus as a result of Dees's membership in the Guard. See, e.g., Archer Decl. (Doc. No. 108), at ¶ 3 ("Based on my personal observations, Prater wanted to get rid of Leon because of the ongoing dispute over Leon's Guard obligations."); Bomberg Decl. (Doc. No. 108), at ¶ 5 ("It looked like Leon had a target on his back because of his Guard obligations."). Nevertheless, Dees has not shown that his protected status was a motivating factor in terminating him. Prater's actions, taken by themselves, could constitute circumstantial evidence from which Prater's discriminatory motivation could be inferred, see Coffman, 411 F.3d at 1238, but Prater's discrimination cannot be imputed to...