Felder v. Chimes Dist. of Columbia, Inc.

SHON FELDER v. CHIMES DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, INC.

No. 092-2021

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland ^[*]

December 28, 2022

Circuit Court for Baltimore City Case No. 24-C-19-005439

Wells C.J., Zic, Ripken, JJ.

OPINION ^[**]

ZIC J.

Shon Felder, appellant, appeals an order from the Circuit Court for Baltimore City granting summary judgment to Chimes District of Columbia, Inc. ("Chimes"), appellee. This case arises out of Chimes' termination of Mr Felder, a Black^[1] man, who was a Chimes employee from January 2013 to January 2018. Mr. Felder filed suit against Chimes, alleging violations of the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act ("FEPA") on several grounds. FEPA largely adopts Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, in part, prohibits workplace discrimination.

The issues on appeal have been rephrased and reframed as follows:^[2] Whether the circuit court erred by finding Mr. Felder cannot prove that Chimes violated FEPA on the basis of hostile work environment, race discrimination, or retaliation. For the reasons explained below, we answer this question in the negative on all three bases and affirm the circuit court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Chimes.

BACKGROUND

Mr. Felder's Employment with Chimes

Chimes provides training and employment opportunities for people with disabilities through various contracts with state and federal entities. One of Chimes' largest contracts is with the Maryland Aviation Administration ("MAA"), to provide janitorial services to the Baltimore/Washington International Airport ("BWI"). Chimes first employed Mr. Felder from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Felder left Chimes in 2003 for family reasons, but he reapplied to work for Chimes in 2012. Chimes then employed Mr. Felder from January 2013 to January 2018. When hired in 2013 as Inventory and Training Supervisor, Mr. Felder's direct supervisor was Daniel Worthy, and his Project Manager was Douglas Rosenberger. Mr. Felder received multiple promotions between 2013 and 2017. In 2014, Mr. Felder was promoted to Assistant Manager of Equipment, Training, and Inventory, and Kevin "Chip" Zgorski was his direct supervisor. In September 2017, Mr. Felder was promoted to Supply, Equipment, and Inventory Manager ("Supply Manager") for Chimes' contract with the MAA, and Mr. Worthy was his direct supervisor. Gerard Cotter, Executive Vice President, stated in his affidavit that the Supply Manager is "one of the most senior positions on Chimes' contract with the MAA at BWI."

Chimes provided Mr. Felder with a private office in Chimes' suite at BWI, located behind the airport's security check points. Additionally, Chimes provided Mr. Felder with a corporate email account and cell phone to enable MAA officials and Chimes' leadership to more easily contact Mr. Felder. Mr. Cotter testified that Chimes expected Mr. Felder to be present at BWI from Monday to Friday during regular business hours and to clock in at the beginning of his shift, whether he was working in front of or behind security checkpoints. Mr. Cotter also stated in his affidavit that Chimes expected Mr. Felder to always carry his corporate cell phone on his person. Additionally, in December 2015, Chimes notified all managers that they must clock in and out of work or they would be subject to disciplinary action. Because the MAA compensated Chimes based upon the total number of hours performed, Chimes submitted monthly invoices to the MAA detailing the number of hours worked by each individual employee on the contract.

In November 2017, Mr. Cotter and Pamela Meadows, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, met with Mr. Worthy, Mr. Felder's supervisor, to inform him they had discovered inconsistencies between Mr. Worthy's timecard records and the GPS data for his Chimes-issued cell phone. Mr. Cotter and Ms. Meadows suspended Mr. Worthy for suspected timecard fraud in order to further investigate these inconsistencies. Mr. Cotter testified that, in recognition of this potentially fraudulent behavior among Chimes' management, Chimes' corporate leadership reviewed timecards and GPS data for company cell phones issued to other management staff, including Mr. Felder. Ms. Meadows and Joni Dorsett, Human Resources Director, conducted these additional investigations at the beginning of December 2017. As a result of these investigations, Chimes identified at least 13 inconsistences between Mr. Felder's timecard records and the GPS data for his Chimes-issued cell phone for September 2017 through November 2017. For example, Mr. Felder's timecard would indicate he was clocked in at BWI, but his cell phone GPS data showed the cell phone was not at BWI. Also, Chimes noted discrepancies between Mr. Felder's security badge swipes and his cell phone GPS data. Ms. Meadows testified that Mr. Felder's phone was tracked to, for example, Laurel, Owings Mills, and Arundel Mills during hours that Mr. Felder's timecards indicated he was clocked in at BWI. Chimes does not conduct business in any of those locations.

On December 13, 2017, Ms. Meadows and Ms. Dorsett interviewed Mr. Felder, among other managers, to discuss these inconsistencies. Ms. Meadows and Ms. Dorsett generated a report as a result of these interviews. In this report, they wrote that Mr. Felder "stated that there is no time [he] was clocked in and not at the airport." He also stated, however, that there were infrequent occasions that he had to leave the airport to go to a dump in Elkridge, Maryland; go to the corporate office at 4815 Seton Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215; meet vendors near BWI; or pick up supplies at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland at 3345 Washington Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21227. Ms. Meadows and Ms. Dorsett again met with Mr. Felder on January 19, 2018 and January 22, 2018. During the meeting on January 19, Ms. Meadows stated the following in light of the timecard inconsistencies and Mr. Felder's failure to provide an explanation: "We have no choice but to conclude that your time was misrepresented. Can you explain this?" Mr. Felder simply responded, "No." Ms. Meadows then walked through each inconsistency and asked Mr. Felder for an explanation. In response, Mr. Felder indicated either that he had no explanation or that he could not recall why the GPS data would be inconsistent with his timecard or security-badge-swipe records. After a brief discussion with Ms. Dorsett, Ms. Meadows told Mr. Felder, "based on this information, this is grounds for termination" because such misrepresentations of the time he worked amounted to theft of money. At that time, Ms. Meadows and Ms. Dorsett decided to suspend Mr. Felder until January 22, 2018, when he would be provided with access to his work email to review his records and have an opportunity to identify reasonable explanations for the discrepancies. Mr. Felder's suspension included suspended access to his office and his work email.

At the meeting on January 22, 2018, Ms. Meadows provided Mr. Felder with a Chimes computer and the relevant dates for his review. After only a few minutes, however, Mr. Felder stopped searching his records and told Ms. Meadows to ask his supervisor, Mr. Worthy, about Mr. Felder's whereabouts because "anything I was instructed to do, I was instructed by [Mr. Worthy]." Mr. Felder later testified, "I knew that I was gonna be fired. So I just - you know, I just stopped." ^[3] Ms. Meadows restated that Chimes would have to terminate Mr. Felder for timecard fraud.

The following day, on January 23, 2018, Ms. Meadows sent Mr. Felder a termination letter, stating that Mr. Felder failed to provide any explanation for the discrepancies between his cell phone GPS data and his timecard records and/or security-badge-swipe records. Ms. Meadows stated that, for this reason, "Chimes ha[d] no choice but to terminate [Mr. Felder's] employment." Mr. Felder did not raise concerns of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation at any of the three meetings with Ms. Meadows and Ms. Dorsett. Additionally, Ms. Dorsett stated in her affidavit that she was unaware, as of January 22, 2018, that Mr. Felder had previously raised concerns of workplace discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

Because Chimes had overbilled on their MAA contract due to Mr. Felder's misrepresentations, Chimes reimbursed the MAA accordingly. Additionally, as a result of similar investigations into other employees' timecard records, security-badge-swipe records, and Chimes-issued cell phone GPS data, Chimes terminated two other Black employees and two White employees. Both Black employees who were terminated, similarly to Mr. Felder, complained of workplace discrimination and claimed to have engaged in protected activity; neither White employee made these claims.

Alleged Harassment and Discriminatory Behavior by Chimes Employees

Mr Felder identified several offensive comments made by Chimes employees in late 2017. On November 1, 2017, Mr. Allenbaugh Corporate Manager in the Human Resources Department, told Shanell Daniels, another Chimes employee, to "shut up . . . before I slap the [B]lack off of you." Mr. Felder testified that he witnessed this statement and that he filed an incident report with Mr. Worthy, but he did not personally report the incident to Human Resources. Mr. Worthy testified that Ms. Walters filed a report with him about Mr. Allenbaugh's comment, which she witnessed, and that he forwarded that report to the Human Resources Department. On November 3, 2017, Mr. Worthy emailed Ms. Dorsett to address Mr. Allenbaugh's comment and the consequences Mr. Allenbaugh would face. In this email, Mr. Worthy indicated that an apology would be appropriate but that Ms. Daniels had believed the interaction to be "light[-]hearted and comical." Mr. Allenbaugh apologized to Ms....