Gress v. Reg'l Transp. Auth.

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LAWRENCE H. GRESS, Plaintiff, v. REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, an Illinois Municipal Corporation; PACE SUBURBAN BUS SERVICE, A DIVISION OF THE REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, an Illinois Municipal Corporation; SUSAN RUSHING, Individually; ROCKY DONAHUE, Individually; LINDA SWEDLUND, Individually; JANIKA MILLER, Individually; THOMAS J. T.J. ROSS, Individually; MARTIN SANDOVAL II, Individually; and SENATOR MARTIN SANDOVAL, Individually; and Unknown and Unnamed Defendants, Defendants

No. 17 C 8067

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division

January 23, 2024

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

REBECCA R. PALLMEYER UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Lawrence Gress applied for and was denied a job at Pace, the Suburban Bus Division of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) an Illinois municipal corporation. Gress's belief that Pace violated the law by choosing another candidate for the position generated this lawsuit. In his original complaint filed in 2017, Gress alleged that Pace's failure to hire him was a product of age and race discrimination. After Judge Coleman of this court dismissed certain other claims [20] Gress expanded his theories of wrongdoing to include a claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“civil RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961-1968, in which he alleges that Pace's decision not to hire him stemmed from a racketeering enterprise engineered by then-state senator Martin Sandoval. Defendants RTA, Pace, and Pace employees Susan Rushing, Rocky Donahue, Linda Swedlund, Janika Miller, T.J. Ross, and Martin Sandoval II (the late Senator Sandoval's son) have jointly moved for partial dismissal of Gress' Second Amended Complaint [102]. Specifically, they seek dismissal of Gress' § 1981 race discrimination and civil RICO claims (Counts IV and VIII, respectively), and to strike Gress's request for punitive damages.

BACKGROUND

Federal Rule 8 directs that a complaint present “a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” FED. R. CIV. P. 8(a)(2). Far from “short and plain,” Gress's Complaint meanders through eight counts, ninety pages, and 525 paragraphs, most of them devoted to detailing corruption scandals in Illinois that relate-sometimes loosely-to Martin Sandoval, a state senator from 2003 to 2020. (See, e.g., Second Am Compl. (hereinafter “SAC”) [80] ¶¶ 46-183, 202-21, 385-408, 445.) In reviewing these allegations, the court adheres to familiar standards, and will “accept as true all factual allegations in the complaint and draw all permissible inferences in plaintiff['s] favor.” Degroot v. Client Servs., Inc., 977 F.3d 656, 659 (7th Cir. 2020) (alteration in original). Finally, when an otherwise sufficient complaint “admits all the ingredients of an impenetrable defense,” it is subject to dismissal. Xechem, Inc. v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., 372 F.3d 899, 901 (7th Cir. 2004). In the summary that follows, the court limits its discussion to facts relevant to this motion.

I. Factual Background

Headquartered in Arlington Heights, Pace is a large paratransit service that provides free rides to people in six Illinois counties covering an area of “approximately 3,450 square miles,” including Chicago. (Id. ¶¶ 42-44.) Pace is an “operating division” of the RTA-an umbrella organization, created by statute, which oversees transit agencies in Illinois. (Id. ¶¶ 38-40.) On March 25, 2016, Pace posted a job opening on its website seeking a “Community Relations Representative.” (Id. ¶ 222, 224, 233.) The role involved marketing Pace services to, and liaising with, local businesses, public officials, and other organizations. (Id. ¶ 230.) Pace sought someone with a “Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Political Science, Public Administration or related field,” as well as two years' experience “in government affairs”; “[t]ransit or government” experience, “[s]trong customer service skills,” and “[f]luency in Spanish” were noted as desirable. (Id. ¶ 231.) The job carried a salary range of $56,043-$99,337. (Id. ¶ 232.)

“Online applications began rolling in” soon after Pace posted the job, and continued to trickle in through April. (Id. ¶ 233.) In the first thirty some-odd applications Pace received,^[1] Gress singles out five applicants (Connor Fitzpatrick, Clint Sabin, Elizabeth Norden, Seville Spearman, and Sean Arden) whose credentials Gress claims made them “highly qualified” for the role. (See ¶¶ 233-37, 244-47.) As applicants filed online applications, Janika Miller, a Human Resources Specialist at Pace (id. ¶ 20), would forward them to Susan Rushing, Pace's Manager of Community Relations (id. ¶¶ 22, 236-37, 246).

Rushing and Miller began interviewing candidates on April 29, 2016, and spoke with three people-Sean Arden (identified above as “highly qualified”) and two others, identified in the complaint by their last names only: Fischer and Lawson. (Id. ¶¶ 251-52.) Fischer and Lawson were already employed by Pace but, according to Plaintiff's allegations, “lacked the minimum qualifications” for the job. (Id. ¶ 252). On May 3, Pace interviewed three more applicants, all of whom were fluent in Spanish: Hernandez, Ortiz, (first names again not stated) and Martin Sandoval II (“Sandoval II”). (Id. ¶ 253.) Then, on May 11, Pace interviewed “another highly-qualified candidate,” Joshua Steinberg. (Id. ¶ 263.) The Complaint alleges that of those interviewed, the two well-qualified candidates, Steinberg and Arden, never had a second interview. (Id. ¶ 268.) Instead, “only Ortiz and Sandoval [II] were called back for second interviews,” which both occurred on May 16. (Id. ¶¶ 272-73.)

The Complaint describes Sandoval II as “a young, 20-something Hispanic male who had recently (in December 2012) graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology (not political science) and was enrolled at the University of Illinois, pursuing a master's degree in social work, which he expected to pursue while employed at PACE.” (Id. ¶ 319.)

Though Sandoval II spoke Spanish (id. ¶ 253), Sandoval II had “no transit or government-related experience; no Bachelor's degree in Political Science; less than two years of experience in government affairs if he had any at all; no experience developing and maintaining relationships between PACE and stakeholders of PACE in the Six-County Area; and no experience as a senior marketing officer, general manager, or sales director for any transit-based entity.” (Id. ¶ 321 (emphasis in original).)

Plaintiff Gress also sought the position at Pace. Gress is more than 40 years old^[2] and is non-Hispanic. (Id. ¶ 5.) He had worked for both Pace and RTA as a “marketer, manager and outreach coordinator,” and had “established a nationally-recognized record of success” in that work. (Id. ¶¶ 303, 324-29.) His work at RTA lasted from 1993 to 2005, about five years of which he spent as a “human resources generalist manager” before transitioning to “the newly-created role of Manager of the RTA Transit Benefit program.” (Id. ¶ 327.) He claims that “[b]y all accounts, [he] was remarkably successful in the new role.” (Id. ¶ 328.) In 2005, he left “on good terms” and continued work “for various contractors of RTA and PACE,” including spending 2012-2015 “market[ing] VENTRA-linked computerized human resource benefit programs to corporate executives in the Six-County Area on behalf of a contractor to PACE and CTA” and speaking “on behalf of PACE, in addition to RTA's other operating divisions,” while marketing an “employer-provided benefit program” called RTA Transit Check to “senior human resource corporate executives” within RTA's jurisdiction. (Id. ¶¶ 329, 335, 337-38.) He had a Bachelor's degree in Political Science (as Pace's job posting demanded), and, though he lacked government experience, he had numerous years of transit-related experience. (Id. ¶ 331-32.) “Admittedly, Gress was not fluent in Spanish,” but he stresses that Pace's job posting “said that was desirable, but not required,” and that “the previous incumbent (Mary Robb) had retired from the . . . position after receiving consistently positive reviews - without ever having fluency in Spanish.” (Id. ¶ 343.)

On April 28 (four weeks after the position had been posted), “conclud[ing] that his qualifications were a close match” for what Pace was looking for, Gress faxed his resume to Pace “as his application” for the position.^[3] (Id. ¶¶ 322-23.) He had heard nothing by May 16, when Pace was interviewing Ortiz and Sandoval II for the second time. (See id. ¶ 276.) On May 17, according to the Complaint, “Kirk Dillard, a Republican [former state senator] who became chairman of the RTA Board of Directors in June 2014, and was familiar with Gress, called [Rocky] Donahue”-Pace's Deputy Executive Director of External Relations-“to inquire about Gress' application and to recommend that Gress be given serious consideration” for the job. (Id. ¶¶ 24, 276.)^[4] After getting this call, Donahue and Linda Swedlund, Donahue's executive administrative assistant, asked Miller, the HR specialist, “whether Lawrence Gress had submitted an application” for the position. (Id. ¶ 277.) One of Miller's staff members at Pace “searched only among the online applications submitted through Pace's website” and, finding no application for Gress there, determined that he had not submitted one. (Id. ¶¶ 277-78.)

By that afternoon, Rushing had prepared a “Justification to Hire” document recommending that Pace hire Sandoval II. (Id. ¶ 279.) And the following morning, May 18, Donahue sent an email to Rushing stating, “This is approved. I will be in Friday to sign the original but you can start the process now if you want. Thanks, Rocky.” (Id. ¶ 283.)

Then, a few hours later,...