Freeman v. Spencer Gifts, Inc.

333 F.Supp.2d 1114

Ora FREEMAN, Plaintiff, v. SPENCER GIFTS, INC., Defendant.

No. CIV.A. 03-2229-KHV.

United States District Court, D. Kansas.

August 25, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Steven D. Horak, Overland Park, KS, for Plaintiff.

Donald S. Prophete, Michael L. Matula, Armstrong Teasdale LLP, Kansas City, MO, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

VRATIL, District Judge.

Ora Freeman brings suit against Spencer Gifts, Inc. ("Spencer Gifts") alleging a racially hostile work environment, disparate treatment on the basis of race and retaliation for engaging in protected activity, all in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. as amended. This matter comes before the Court on Defendant's Motion For Summary Judgment (Doc. # 38) filed June 1, 2004. Defendant seeks summary judgment on each of plaintiff's claims. For reasons stated below, the Court finds that defendant's motion should be sustained in part.

Summary Judgment Standards

Summary judgment is appropriate if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Rule 56(c), Fed.R.Civ.P.; accord Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Vitkus v. Beatrice Co., 11 F.3d 1535, 1538-39 (10th Cir.1993). A factual dispute is "material" only if it "might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505. A "genuine" factual dispute requires more than a mere scintilla of evidence. Id. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

The moving party bears the initial burden of showing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Hicks v. City of Watonga, Okla., 942 F.2d 737, 743 (10th Cir.1991). Once the moving party meets its burden, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party to demonstrate that genuine issues remain for trial "as to those dispositive matters for which it carries the burden of proof." Applied Genetics Int'l, Inc. v. First Affiliated Secs., Inc., 912 F.2d 1238, 1241 (10th Cir.1990); see also Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Bacchus Indus., Inc. v. Arvin Indus., Inc., 939 F.2d 887, 891 (10th Cir.1991). The nonmoving party may not rest on its pleadings but must set forth specific facts. See Applied Genetics, 912 F.2d at 1241.

The Court must view the record in a light most favorable to the party opposing the motion for summary judgment. See Deepwater Invs., Ltd. v. Jackson Hole Ski Corp., 938 F.2d 1105, 1110 (10th Cir.1991). Summary judgment may be granted if the nonmoving party's evidence is merely colorable or is not significantly probative. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 250-51, 106 S.Ct. 2505. "In a response to a motion for summary judgment, a party cannot rely on ignorance of facts, on speculation, or on suspicion, and may not escape summary judgment in the mere hope that something will turn up at trial." Conaway v. Smith, 853 F.2d 789, 794 (10th Cir.1988). Essentially, the inquiry is "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to the jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

Facts

The following facts are either uncontroverted or construed in a light most favorable to plaintiff.¹

Spencer Gifts is a national retail store which sells novelty gifts. In August of 1999, Spencer Gifts hired plaintiff, an African-American woman, as a management trainee. In August of 2000, Freeman relocated from Texas to Kansas to become area manager for the Kansas City stores. Freeman was responsible for managing a store at Oak Park Mall, and for overseeing the operations of three other stores in Independence, Missouri, and Olathe and Topeka, Kansas.

As area manager, plaintiff's responsibilities included operating the Oak Park store at a level to receive "top marks" and being an example to other store managers. She trained other store managers who reported to her.

Regional managers supervise district managers, and district managers supervise area managers. In November of 2000, Joseph Goodfellow became district manager for plaintiff's stores. Goodfellow reported to regional manager Jerry Marfisi. Regional managers such as Marfisi report to the vice president of operations, Ken Garagiola.

Freeman rode in a car with Goodfellow on many work-related trips. On more than ten occasions, Goodfellow played rap music with the word "nigger" in it. He told plaintiff that he played the music so that he could "relate" to her. Once, Goodfellow told plaintiff that he did not understand how black people can call each other "nigger" but get upset when white people use the word. He also told plaintiff that the name of the group which sang the music was "Niggas With Attitude," a nationally known rap band. He emphasized to plaintiff that the word was "nigga," not "nigger."² Plaintiff told Goodfellow that the word was offensive in either case and that she did not want to listen to vulgar, racist music. Goodfellow did not turn the music off right away.³ Goodfellow told plaintiff that he and some friends drove around playing that music and asked plaintiff: "Can you imagine how the brothers feel when they see a bunch of white guys riding around in their car listening to this type of music?" Freeman Depo. at 15-16, Ex. 3 to Defendant's Memorandum In Support Of Motion For Summary Judgment (Doc. # 39) filed June 2, 2004.

Goodfellow played the music once while another black employee, Byon Arceneaux, was in the car. Before plaintiff got in the car, Goodfellow told Arceneaux that the music was going to upset plaintiff. Plaintiff refused to get into the car until Goodfellow turned off the music. Goodfellow did so but then put the CD back on.

Goodfellow used terms such as "you people" or "brother" to refer to blacks. He sometimes told plaintiff that there was no food for her to eat because there was no chicken. On one occasion, Goodfellow referred to an African-American woman as a "black gal."

Goodfellow refused to shake plaintiff's hand when he met her. He hugged other employees and shook their hands. During a meeting at a store in Wichita in front of several other employees, Goodfellow asked Freeman to run to his car to "fetch" a bag.

Goodfellow allowed another employee, Debbie Stone, to take two weeks off when she injured her back. When plaintiff asked for time off to seek treatment for uterine cysts, however, Goodfellow told her that Halloween was not a good time to be off because that was Spencer Gift's busiest season. Even though he was aware of plaintiff's medical condition, Goodfellow required her to move boxes from a store to a truck. Further, when Stone traveled on company business, Goodfellow made sure she had a hotel room and was "fully taken care of." On the other hand, Goodfellow did not ensure that plaintiff had a hotel room or car when she traveled on business.

Goodfellow would order Freeman to get him coffee in a demeaning manner, and did not ask other employees to get him coffee. Plaintiff testified that he treated her in a gruff manner but treated all other managers in a friendly manner. He would give them pats on the back and mingle with them.

When plaintiff went to Hutchinson, Kansas to help close down a store, Goodfellow told her that the Hutchinson store manager would drive her to and from the mall. The manager was not able to do so, however, and plaintiff had to walk to and from the hotel to the mall in the snow and developed pneumonia.

At a manager's meeting in plaintiff's store, Goodfellow required plaintiff to give up her chair to another employee during a meeting. She felt this was demeaning. At another meeting with store managers, Goodfellow excluded plaintiff from sitting with other employees at lunch. He told her to go sit "back there."

When Freeman considered hiring two African-American women, Goodfellow asked whether they "were the right kind of people for the mall," and she decided not to hire them because she did not want to go "tit for tat" with Goodfellow.

In August 2001, Freeman hired Byon Arceneaux, an African-American, as store manager at Independence Center. When Goodfellow came back from meeting Arceneaux, he told plaintiff that people like Arseneaux do not work out. When another employee accused Arceneaux of sexual harassment, Goodfellow wanted plaintiff to fire Arceneaux. Goodfellow did not fire a white store manager whom five employees accused of sexual harassment.

Arceneaux saw Goodfellow and plaintiff interact on many occasions, at meetings and during store visits. He stated that he thought they had "personality conflicts" and that "they were both stubborn people" who "bumped heads." See Defendant's Ex. 21 at 10-11.

Freeman was the only area manager whom Goodfellow supervised. His duties included training plaintiff, but she testified that he "utterly failed to train her." Specifically, plaintiff testified that a "phase II" area manager received training including how to use a laptop computer, how to evaluate yearly financial figures, and how to break down payroll for each store, but she received no such training. Goodfellow did not provide plaintiff much feedback, and he did not show her any team progress reviews.

Plaintiff's Complaint of Discrimination And Defendant's Response

In January of 2002, plaintiff attended a manager's meeting in St. Louis, Missouri. On January 29, 2002, plaintiff met with Garagiola, vice president of operations, to complain about Goodfellow. Specifically, plaintiff complained to Garagiola that (1) at the Oak Park store, Goodfellow showed her 16-year-old son a pornographic website (Goodfellow did not show the web...