Hanafy v. Hill Int'l, Inc.

669 F.Supp.3d 419

Shady HANAFY, Plaintiff, v. HILL INTERNATIONAL, INC., Defendant.

CIVIL ACTION NO. 22-878

United States District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania

Filed April 19, 2023

W. Charles Sipio, Andrew Olcese, Samantha P. Martin, Ari Risson Karpf, Allison Aileen Barker, Karpf Karpf & Cerutti P.C., Bensalem, PA, for Plaintiff.

Lori Halber, Gavin Carpenter, Fox Rothschild LLP, Fox Rothschild LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

WENDY BEETLESTONE, District Judge

Defendant Hill International, Inc. ("Hill International") moves for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 as to all counts in Plaintiff Shady Hanafy's Amended Complaint, brought pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ("Section 1981"), and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act ("PHRA"). Plaintiff's employment discrimination claims are predicated on his termination by Defendant in October 2021 and allegedly discriminatory conduct by other employees on the basis of his heart condition, race, and national origin. Defendant argues that Plaintiff's job was eliminated during departmental restructuring and that Plaintiff was not considered for another position during the restructuring due to a history of poor performance reviews.

For the reasons below, Defendant's motion for summary judgment will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Shady Hanafy was born in February 1974 in Cairo, Egypt, making him 47 years old at the time of his termination by Defendant Hill International in October 2021.

Plaintiff was hired by Defendant in 2011 for a human resources position in Saudi Arabia. In 2018, he came to work for Defendant in a new position in the United States. His initial transfer to the U.S. was objected to by human resource employees Tiffany Banks and Christina Klemp on the grounds they did not believe he was well suited for the position, stating in part that he was too qualified based on the level of his position in Saudi Arabia. Felicia Cream, a director in the human resources department who interviewed Plaintiff for the U.S. position, also had concerns with hiring Plaintiff in light of performance reviews based on his work in Saudi Arabia, which, in her recollection, "indicated there were deficiencies in his performance."

Upon his arrival in the U.S., Plaintiff began as an "HR Generalist" and reported directly to Christina Klemp, who was a director in the department. Plaintiff's responsibilities included performing verifications of hired employees' personal information and entering verification information into the Customer Relationship Management ("CRM") system. Plaintiff was also responsible for other various tasks, such as receiving and distributing mail packages. During his employment, Plaintiff received multiple warnings about poor performance in his job duties, as discussed in further detail infra.

Plaintiff suffered a heart attack in December 2018 and was advised to have triple bypass heart surgery. As a result, Plaintiff was granted leave from December 18, 2018 through February 18, 2019 and was preliminarily scheduled for surgery on or around February 11, but he ultimately opted against having the surgery at that time because, as he explained in his deposition, he was concerned that the operation could result in long-term disability. Specifically, he wrote to Banks after deciding not to undertake the surgery that "it would not do much improvement since I have multiple blocking in many places" and "I am not neither my family ready for long term disability or risking losing my job at this time."

Following Plaintiff's heart attack, his physician sent a letter to Defendant stating that Plaintiff was able to resume his work duties with no restrictions effective February 18, 2019.¹ While Plaintiff continued to suffer from coronary heart disease due to three blocked arteries, he also stated in his deposition that his heart condition did "not affect [his] daily life" and he was "still capable of doing my job and my performance." At the same time, Plaintiff stated at deposition that he had to ask for "a little consideration" from Defendant in respect to some aspects of his job, such as lifting FedEx boxes.

Plaintiff did not reschedule the surgery at any point before his termination in October 2021. Nor did Plaintiff provide Defendant with any anticipated date for the surgery or request additional leave before his termination. As Plaintiff explained in his deposition, he was waiting for his wife to come to the United States from oversees such that he could "spend like at least a couple of weeks with [his family]" before doing the surgery. While Plaintiff's wife planned to arrive in the U.S. around September 2021, Plaintiff still did not schedule the surgery before his termination in October.

Both Felicia Cream and Tiffany Banks were aware of Plaintiff's heart attack and that he was advised to have surgery. Additionally, Banks was aware that Plaintiff stated he might schedule the surgery sometime after his wife's arrival in the U.S.

A. Restructuring

In 2021, Banks was promoted to Senior Vice President of the human resources department and began to consider how to restructure the department, including potentially eliminating one of the HR Generalist positions. Banks began to have discussions in March or April 2021 about eliminating the positions of HR Generalist (which was held by Plaintiff) and Director of Human Resources (then held by Christina Klemp).

In June 2021, Banks emailed her supervisor, Chief Administrative Officer William Dengler, a proposal for the restructuring plan. The proposal shows the termination of Plaintiff and Christina Klemp, the creation of two "HR Manager" positions, and the promotion of Lindsey Brown, an HR Generalist like Plaintiff. The projected savings from the restructuring plan was $10,785. This plan was approved on September 14, 2021 by Dengler with the refinement that Lindsey Brown would be promoted from HR Generalist to HR Manager and her role would be "back filled."

Plaintiff was terminated with an effective date of October 1, 2021. Christina Klemp was also terminated. At the time of her termination, she was on medical leave.

Roughly three of four months after Plaintiff's termination, Defendant hired an "HR Coordinator," Gabriel McCann, who is a white/Caucasian man and, at the time of his hiring, was under 40 years old. McCann would perform at least some of the duties that Plaintiff once performed, including verifications of hired employees' personal information.

B. Work Performance Reviews

During the course of his employment, Plaintiff received multiple reviews describing shortcomings in his work performance. In December 2018, Christina Klemp, his supervisor at the time, reported to Banks that Plaintiff was not distributing received packages appropriately, was opening the reception doors "earlier than told to," and was taking "[e]xcessive breaks." Klemp reported she had "concerns about his performance" and stated that Plaintiff "doesn't want to do what is required for this role." In June 2019, Klemp sent a similar email to Banks reporting Plaintiff was taking "excessive breaks" and that he was behind in entering CRM records and verifications. In his 2019 performance review, covering the period from January to May 2019, Plaintiff received an overall score of "2—Below Expectations."

Plaintiff later moved under the supervision of Felicia Cream. In December 2019, Cream emailed Plaintiff with concerns about specific issues with the verification process. In April 2020, Cream sent another email, attaching a performance warning outlining concerns with verifications, among other issues, and stating that "[i]mmediate improvement is required on the timeliness of all verifications" and that "[i]f there are no marked improvements in all areas within 45 days, further disciplinary action will occur, including up to termination." In his 2020 performance review, Cream gave Plaintiff an overall score of "2—Below Expectations." This was followed up with another performance warning letter in June 2020, which similarly concluded that, if there were no "marked improvements in all areas within 45 days, further disciplinary action will occur, including up to termination."

C. Hostile Work Environment

Plaintiff claims he was subject to a hostile work environment based on comments made to him by three of his fellow employees: Gabe Klemp, Christina Klemp, and Tiffany Banks. Plaintiff stated in his deposition that no other employees made harassing or discriminatory comments.

i. Gabe Klemp

Plaintiff testified at deposition that Gabe Klemp, the employee originally tasked with training Plaintiff once he began his employment in the U.S., said to him, as Plaintiff was stapling a document, "in this country, we staple the paper in the left [sic]" and made similar comments along the lines of "in this country, we do that this way." Plaintiff testified Gabe Klemp also made comments in respect to his accent such as "I cannot hear you, I cannot understand you, what is he saying," which "really offended" Plaintiff, in addition to comments regarding Plaintiff's accent, smell, and food that Plaintiff found offensive. Plaintiff stated in his deposition that there was a meeting with Christina Klemp and Felicia Cream regarding such comments by Gabe Klemp, but that the comments stopped when Gabe Klemp was moved to another department in 2019.

ii. Christina Klemp

Plaintiff also testified at deposition that Christina Klemp made fun of his accent and made comments when he was not feeling well that he "should have stayed home" in a manner he found offensive. Such comments were made during the time when Christina Klemp was his supervisor, and Plaintiff acknowledges the comments ended at least by the time she went on medical leave in June...