Pollard v. Quest Diagnostics

Page 1

610 F.Supp.2d 1

Bridget POLLARD, Plaintiff, v. QUEST DIAGNOSTICS, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 07-692 (CKK).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

February 17, 2009.

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Nathaniel D. Johnson, Laplata, MD, for Plaintiff.

Michael L. Stevens, Arent Fox, LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Bridget Pollard ("Pollard" or "Plaintiff"), an African-American female, brings the instant lawsuit against her previous employer, Defendant Quest Diagnostics ("Quest" or "Defendant"), alleging claims of discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. ("Title VII") and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ("Section 1981"). Specifically, Pollard asserts a claim of disparate treatment based upon race and color in regard to allegations that Quest failed to promote Pollard while instead promoting a Caucasian male into a newly-created Project Manager position. Pollard also asserts a claim of retaliation based on allegations that Quest gave her an inferior performance evaluation because of her complaints of discriminatory treatment.

Currently pending before the Court is Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment. As briefing on Defendant's motion is complete, the case is now ripe. After a searching review of the parties' briefing, the exhibits attached thereto, the relevant case law, and the entire record herein, the Court shall GRANT Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment, for the reasons that follow.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In October of 2002, Pollard, an African-American female, was hired by American Medical Laboratories to work as a Medical Technologist at its medical laboratory facility located in Providence Hospital ("Providence") in Washington, D.C. Defendant's Statement of Material Facts ("Def.'s Stmt.") ¶¶ 2, 6¹ Shortly thereafter, Quest² acquired the Providence medical laboratory facility from American Medical Laboratories. Id. ¶¶ 1, 2. Pollard continued working as a Medical Technologist at the Providence laboratory after it was acquired by Quest. Id. ¶ 2, 7.

As a Medical Technologist, both for American Medical Laboratories and for Quest, Pollard's responsibilities included performing assigned medical tests, maintaining laboratory areas and equipment, and ensuring that test systems were in control for each test performed. Id. ¶ 7. Her duties remained the same throughout her employment with Quest. Id. Pollard's duties also included performing functions related to Quest's Laboratory Information System ("LIS"), which is the computer system used in the laboratory in conjunction with the laboratory equipment to generate reports of test results. Plaintiff's Response Statement ("Pl.'s Resp.") ¶ 7; see also Plaintiff's Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Pl.'s Opp'n"), Ex. B (Pollard Decl.) ¶ 2; Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 17. Pollard confirmed at her deposition, however, that her only experience with LIS was as a user of the system and that she had no experience with the creation, installation and/or maintenance of the system. See Defendant's Reply in Support of its Motion for Summary Judgment ("Def.'s Reply"), Ex. 5 (12/21/07 Pollard Dep.) at 131:3-132:15.

From 2002 to 2005, Pollard worked the third (overnight) shift at the Providence location and reported directed to Isabelita Aglipay. Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 9. In 2005, Pollard requested to work on a "PRN," or on-call as needed, basis so that she could attend school full-time, which request Quest granted. Id. ¶ 10. While working on a PRN basis, Pollard's work hours varied, and she worked for several different supervisors. Id. Subsequently, in or around March 2006, Pollard relocated to Raleigh, North Carolina and thereafter worked only occasionally for Quest. Id. ¶ 11. As of early October 2006, however, Pollard had not worked for Quest for several pay periods and her employment with Quest was therefore terminated on October 4, 2006, as a result of a routine audit Quest periodically conducts of all PRN employees, consistent with Quest policy.³ Id. ¶ 12.

1. The Project Manager Position

In the spring of 2005, Quest decided to create an Information Technology Project Manager ("Project Manager") position at Providence. Id. ¶ 14. The Project Manager position was posted in mid-May of 2005, see Pl.'s Resp. ¶ 20; Pl.'s Opp'n, Ex. A ("Vacancy Announcement"),⁴ Quest made the position available to both internal and external applicants by announcing it on the internet, on Quest's internal intranet, and by posting it on the bulletin board in the Providence lab, Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 15. Harvey Vandenburg, the Administrative Director of the Providence Laboratory, and Richard Leap, Director of Information Technology, collaborated in selecting a candidate for the Project Manager position. Id. ¶ 19.

Vandenburg and Leap, together with Human Resources, composed a position description for the Project Manager position. Id.; Def.'s Reply, Ex. 7 (Leap Dep.) 21:5-8 (testifying that he, Vandenburg and Human Resources drafted position description); id., Ex. 6 (Vandenburg Dep.) 24:16-25:14 (testifying that he and Leap drafted the position description with assistance from Human Resources). They used a prior position description for a similar Project Manager position as a starting template. See id. ¶ 20; Def.'s Reply, Ex. 6 (Vandenburg Dep.) 24:19-25:4 (testifying that they used a template); Pl.'s Resp. ¶ 20 (denying only that the position description was composed at the time the vacancy was posted and not that Vandenburg and Leap used an incumbent Project Manager position description as the template).

According to Quest's policy, a written position description is required before an available position may be posted. Def.'s Stmt. ¶ 20. Quest asserts that Vandenburg and Leap composed a position description consistent with that policy. Id. Pollard, however, claims that the position description was not, in fact, composed until August 2005, well after the position was posted in May of 2005. Pl.'s Resp. ¶ 20. As support for this assertion, Pollard points to: (1) a copy of the position description at issue, which indicates the "Date Written" was August 22, 2005; and (2) testimony by Vandenburg, in which he stated: "So I would surmise the posting predated the finalization of the position description." Id.; see also Def.'s Mot., Ex. 8 (Project Manager Position Description); Pl.'s Opp'n, Ex. H (Vandenburg Dep.) at 49:5-6. As to the fact that the copy of the position description attached as Exhibit 8 to Defendant's Motion has a "Date Written" of August, 2005, Michael Knapp, Quest's Director of Employee Services, explained that "each time a job description is revised or updated on the computer system in any way, the date in the `Date Written' section is updated to reflect the then current date.'" Def.'s Reply, Ex. 1 (Knapp Decl.) ¶ 6. Furthermore, Quest presents evidence that the position description, or at least a version of it, was composed as early as June 24, 2005. See id. ¶ 7 (showing that the position description at issue had been printed on June 24, 2005). Finally, both Vandenburg and Leap have confirmed that neither made any changes to the position description, nor are they aware of anyone else who made changes to the position description, after the interviews for the Project Manager position had begun. See Def.'s Reply, Ex. 2 (Vandenburg Decl.) ¶ 3; id., Ex. 3 (Leap Decl.) ¶ 3. Accordingly, there is, to some extent, a dispute as to the exact date on which the position description was created, but the Court concludes, for the reasons discussed below, infra 24-27, that such a dispute is not material.

Nonetheless, both parties agree that the Project Manager's primary responsibility was to coordinate and maintain a new upgrade to the LIS system that was to be installed in the near future. Id. ¶ 16. In particular, the "Essential Job Duties and Responsibilities" for the Project Manager position included, inter alia, the following technical aspects:

3. Collaborate with HIS personnel in maintaining database.

4. Facilitates LIS training and competency for all new and existing staff as new processes or procedures are added.

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6. Provides necessary audit trail documentation of all changes and validations to LIS system to meet or exceed regulatory requirements, including but not limited to, annual calculations review, biannual patient report for Medical Director review, LIS upgrade documentation, LIS backup and transaction documentation.

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9. Monitor LIS performance and report outages or system degradation issues to appropriate channels.

Id. ¶ 21. The position description also provided that the minimum qualifications for the Project Manager position included: an educational background in Computer Science or Medical Technology, strong interpersonal skills, basic knowledge of laboratory skills, and experience testing or troubleshooting new or existing LIS systems.⁵ Id. ¶ 22. In addition, Vandenburg and Leap both agreed that their preferred candidate would also have technical experience in LIS/laboratory instrument interfaces, LIS test file development, and LIS report maintenance and generation as well as experience training LIS users. Id. ¶ 23.

Pollard makes much of the fact that the vacancy announcement, as posted in May of 2005, provided only that the position's requirements included having a degree in medical technology or computer science, general laboratory knowledge, LIS functionalities, and LIS/HIS interface knowledge—and did not include the specific technical requirements set forth in the position description. See Pl.'s Resp. ¶ 22.; see also Pl.'s Opp'n, Ex. A (Vacancy Announcement). Michael Knapp, Quest's Director of Employee Services, explained, however, that: "The Job Posting Bulletin (i.e., the vacancy...