George v. Molson Coors Beverage Co. USA, LLC

610 F.Supp.3d 280

Melchior A. GEORGE, Plaintiff,

v.MOLSON COORS BEVERAGE COMPANY USA, LLC, Defendant.

Case No. 1:20-cv-01914 (TNM)

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Signed July 8, 2022

Carla Denette Brown, Charlson Bredehoft Cohen Brown & Nadelhaft, P.C., Reston, VA, for Plaintiff.

Hans P. Riede, Quarles & Brady LLP, Washington, DC, Sarah Aiman Belger, Quarles & Brady LLP, District of Columbia, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

TREVOR N. McFADDEN, United States District Judge

Melchior George worked at Molson Coors Beverage Company as a sales executive for many years until he experienced medical problems that ended in a heart transplant. During his lengthy recovery, George could not travel farther than three hours from his home in Washington, D.C. He also refused to relocate, because of the impact on his teenage daughter. All of this posed a problem when he wished to return to work. Molson Coors determined that he could not meet his job's requirements for travel and fired him.

George sued, arguing that the company had illegally discriminated and retaliated against him both when it fired him and in one of his annual performance reviews. He also alleged that Molson Coors illegally denied him a reasonable accommodation. After discovery, Molson Coors filed for summary judgment.

The Court finds that George's travel limitations made him unqualified for his old job. And he has not shown any other Molson Coors job that was a suitable replacement. The company thus broke no law when it denied him an accommodation and failed to give him a different role. And his travel restrictions were a legitimate reason for Molson Coors's decision to fire him. Molson Coors has also proffered a legitimate reason for George's performance review. He challenges both reasons as pretextual, but his arguments fail. The Court will therefore grant Molson Coors's motion.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Molson Coors sells many popular domestic brands of alcoholic beverages and has done so for over two centuries. See Def.’s Stmt of Undisputed Material Facts (SUMF) ¶ 1.¹ George began his career with the company in 1991, and he worked there for most of the next 28 years. See id. ¶ 2. In 2011, the company promoted George to national account executive, based in Washington, D.C., for the Buffalo Wild Wings account. See id. ¶ 3. Buffalo Wild Wings is Molson Coors's largest customer. See MSJ, Ex. 5 at 6, ECF No. 29-6 (Delaney Dep.).² This job required George to develop a sales plan of Molson Coors brands for all Buffalo Wild Wings locations east of the Mississippi River, to facilitate that plan, and to enhance the relationship between Molson Coors and Buffalo Wild Wings locations in George's bailiwick. See id. ¶¶ 3–4. He was one of two African American employees at this level in the entire company. See Decl. of Melchior George ¶ 4, ECF No. 32-4 (George Decl.).

Much of this case centers on how much travel George's position required. In a job description, Molson Coors described it as associated with "50–60% travel." MSJ, Ex. 4 at 9, ECF No. 29-5 (ADA Packet). George likewise testified that travel was "a big part of the position," see MSJ, Ex. 2 at 15, ECF No. 29-3 (George Dep.), and that he traveled outside the D.C. area "40 to 50 percent of the time," id. at 16, usually by plane, see id. at 19. During these trips, George would meet with distributors, Buffalo Wild Wings franchise owners, and Buffalo Wild Wings corporate employees. See id. at 22. He would entertain these "key stakeholders" at dinners and would give his own presentations to them about Molson Coors's products. See id. at 17–18.

To be sure, some of George's contacts lived closer to Washington. He testified that "there were significant touch points with key stakeholders" within a three-hour drive from here. Pl.’s Opp'n to Summ. J. (Opp'n), Ex. 3 at 10, ECF No. 32-3. He also said in passing during his deposition that he sometimes hosted stakeholders in the D.C. area. See id. at 5. In a declaration filed after the deposition, George said that he received "approximately 20–25 stakeholders per year" that way. George Decl. ¶ 9.

In July 2018, George began to experience dizziness and "debilitating nausea." See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 13. For the most part, he worked through those issues and took "minimal" time off. See George Dep. at 45–46. But his condition worsened through the end of 2018, and he spent multiple stints in the hospital between November 2018 and February 2019. See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 14. Because of these difficulties, George took leave from work in late February 2019, as authorized by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). See id. ¶ 16.

Around this time, Molson Coors gave George his 2018 performance review. Christopher Gick was vice president of national accounts, see MSJ, Ex. 6 at 6, ECF No. 29-7 (Gick Dep.), and wrote the management portion of George's review. Gick noted that George had beaten certain metrics, such as volume and distribution, but he had missed other targets, such as market share trends and a so-called innovation target. See MSJ, Ex. 9, ECF No. 31 (Annual Review). In a section entitled "How We Work," Gick wrote that some in the field had told him that George was "aloof, not visible, or not engaged." Id. at 8. Gick told George that he "[n]eed[ed] an action plan here." Id.

Much of this feedback came from Jean Delaney.³ While George covered the Buffalo Wild Wings account for the eastern United States, Delaney covered the western half. See Delaney Dep. at 8. Early in 2019, Molson Coors promoted her to chain sales executive. See id. at 9. In that role, she oversaw the Buffalo Wild Wings account nationwide. See id.

Delaney covered for George during his time on leave. See id. at 16. As part of that work, she interacted with many of George's contacts at Buffalo Wild Wings. See id. at 11. Some of those contacts told her that George was unresponsive and lacked "a sense of urgency." Id. Gick received feedback from others that George was "minimally present" in leading his side of the business. Opp'n, Ex. 5 at 13, ECF No. 32-5. Other employees provided similar feedback to Molson Coors human resources staff. See Opp'n, Ex. 6 at 2, ECF No. 32-6 ("My feedback was from Nels Larsen and Matt Fenlon about Mel being aloof.... That is the feedback historically with Mel ... not new."). George disputed this feedback, saying that Molson Coors had identified "no specific persons" who called him aloof and that he had regardless achieved "significant results." Annual Review at 10.

Molson Coors completed the review in March 2019. See id. at 11. For 2019, the company increased George's salary by 1.5%. See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 23. He also received a bonus of $5,971. See id. That figure was apparently lower than in previous years, but George admitted that Molson Coors "had a bad year in 2018" and thus gave out lower bonuses. See George Dep. at 38–39. Delaney likewise described 2018 as "one of [the] worst years ever" for the Buffalo Wild Wings team. Delaney Dep. at 13.

Sometime in early 2019, George learned that he suffered from congestive heart failure and would need a heart transplant. See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 31. He received one in May 2019. See id. That same month, George exhausted his FMLA leave. See id. ¶ 34. He remained on leave under the company's short-term disability policy. See id.

In the fall, he notified Molson Coors that he wished to return to work but with certain restrictions. George's doctors forbade him from traveling by plane or train until at least May 2020. See id. ¶¶ 39, 41. And although he could travel by car, George must remain within a three-hour radius of his D.C. hospital and could drive no more than 12 hours each week. See id. ¶¶ 39–40. More, doctors recommended that George avoid large crowds. See ADA Packet at 8. More still, he told Molson Coors that he would not relocate away from the D.C. area because his daughter was in high school here. See George Dep. at 36.

Molson Coors then began the process to see if it could accommodate George's medical restrictions. The company referred to this as "the ADA process" after the Americans with Disabilities Act. See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 45. In September 2019, Molson Coors sent George a packet of material and asked him to provide certain medical information. See id. ¶ 45. George then had a phone call with Tara Jo Nellans, an HR staffer, in early October. See ADA Packet at 14. In an email after that call, Nellans clarified the amount of travel required for George's role. See id. She estimated "3–4 days a week" and a "[m]inimum of 9 days of travel via flight[s] per month." Id.

Nellans and George spoke next on October 18. During this call, Nellans explained the ADA process, the request for medical information, and what forms George would have to fill out. See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 51. Also during this call, George conveyed possible accommodations and duties for which he felt qualified despite his medical restrictions.⁴ See id. ¶ 52. He suggested that he could visit only local customers and could cover more remote customers through other technology, like Skype. See ADA Packet at 19. George also proposed the job of chain sales executive as one that he could do under his restrictions. See id. at 20.

Nellans spoke with Delaney on October 22 about George's request. They discussed George's proposed accommodations and what his role required. See Def.’s SUMF ¶ 54. That discussion included consideration of required travel to each of the territories in his region. See id. ¶ 55. Afterwards, Delaney emailed Nellans a list of the major representatives in George's area and the estimated drive time to each. See ADA Packet at 21. All were more than three hours away, and two upcoming conferences were scheduled to occur in Las Vegas. See id. Delaney therefore concluded that George's travel restrictions would "prohibit him from being able to perform" his old job. Id. And based on these same points, Nellans noted on an Accommodations Checklist that George likewise could not be a chain sales executive...