Pruitt v. CHSPSC, LLC

EDWINA L. PRUITT, Plaintiff, v. CHSPSC, LLC, Defendant.

No. 3:17-cv-01048

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE NASHVILLE DIVISION

September 10, 2018

Chief Judge Crenshaw

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Pending before the Court in this employment discrimination case brought by Edwina L. Pruitt is a fully briefed Motion for Summary Judgment filed by CHSPSC, LLC. (Doc. No. 23).¹ For the reasons that follow, the Motion will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. Factual Background

The parties have filed 133 paragraphs of supposedly undisputed facts, only a small percentage of which is necessary to place Pruitt's claims and the parties' arguments in context. Construed in Pruitt's favor those facts are as follows:

CHSPSC, LLC provides legal, human resources, consulting, information technology, and other professional services to contracted healthcare facilities around the country. CHSPSC employees are housed in corporate offices in Franklin, Tennessee.

Pruitt, an African American woman, was hired into a temporary position at CHSPSC in November 2011. In January 2012, she became as an administrative assistant to Mike O'Shea, a Caucasian male, who was the Chief Technology Officer ("CTO"). On March 12, 2012, Pruittbecame O'Shea's permanent administrative assistant with an annual salary of $42,000, and worked out of the CHSPSC facility at Cool Springs Common. Pruitt liked working for O'Shea, who admittedly treated her well. Pruitt never received any form of discipline while working for O'Shea.

On June 10, 2013, CHSPSC hired Manish Shah, a male of Indian descent, as its Deputy Chief Information Officer ("DCIO"). Initially, Shah and Pruitt spoke by phone, and those interactions were pleasant. That allegedly changed, however, when Shah met Pruitt in person in April or May 2014. Pruitt described their meeting and Shah's reaction, as follows:

When he came into the building, he had a meeting with Michael [O'Shea]. When I walked up to my desk, I said, "May I help you?" And he said he was looking for Edwina. I said, "Well, that would be me." And he just kind of stopped in his tracks and he kind of looked at me, and it was just this expression, and he said, "You're not exactly what I expected." And I said, "Well, what did you expect?" And he never responded. He turned around and walked away.

(Doc. No. 23-1, Pruitt Dep. at 72-73). Pruitt believes Shah's comment about not being "what I expected' was racially biased and derogatory, and resulted from Shah being "shocked" to learn that Pruitt is black. (Id. at 74). Thereafter, according to Pruitt, the interaction between the two was very different: Shah's tone of voice on the phone changed, he became very short, pointed, direct, and almost stern with Pruitt. Further, when they would see each other at work (CHSPSC claims this was rare, Pruitt asserts it happened 3 to 4 time as week), Shah refused to speak with Pruitt, even after she greeted him.

At some point before O'Shea left CHSPSC on December 14, 2014, Pruitt complained about Shah's comment and reaction to Leanne Reeves, who at that time was CHSPSC's Senior Director of Human Resources. Reeves had not previously received a complaint about Shah, nor has anyone else complained since Pruitt.

Reeves knew that Pruitt was upset, but did not interpret her complaint to be about racediscrimination or harassment. Nevertheless, she spoke to Shah who stated that he was sorry to hear that Pruitt took offense, that was not his intent, and he was just making an observation. Reeves then reported the conversation to Pruitt. Shah did not personally apologize to Pruitt, however.

On November 20, 2014, while Pruitt was on Family Medical Leave for knee replacement surgery, Sibyl White, a Caucasian female and Shah's senior administrative assistant, sent an e-mail to Reeves and two other human resources representatives on Shah's behalf. Knowing that O'Shea had indicated an intent to resign, the email inquired as to whether Pruitt could work as an administrative assistant to Kirk Swilley, a Caucasian and Senior Director of the Information Systems ("IS") Department, because that was the only administrative assistant position available. In a follow-up email the next day, White wrote:

We heard from Edwina Pruitt today, and she'll be back Tuesday. We have the only AA opening and have someone identified (external) candidate that the director wants to hire, but can we keep this open for Edwina? Please let Manish [Shah] know as soon as you can so we'll know how to move forward.

(Doc. No. 23-2 at 56, CHSPSC Rule 30(b)(6) Depo. Ex. 8).

By the time O'Shea voluntarily resigned in December 2014, Pruitt had returned from Family Medical Leave. His position was not immediately filled, however. In O'Shea's absence, according to CHSPSC, Reeves received information from other administrative assistants that Pruitt was visiting other employees a lot, and was frequently in and out of the office, which raised concerns about Pruitt's productivity. (Id. at 45-46).

In late December 2014 or early January 2015, Pruitt was reassigned as an administrative assistant to Swilley. CHSPSC claims this was because O'Shea's position as CTO was vacant, CHSPSC did not know how long it was going to take to find another CTO, Pruitt had no one to support as an administrative assistant, and Swilley did not have an administrative assistant. Pruitt,on the other hand, claims the reassignment was in retaliation for having complained about Shah. On this point, she notes that when Chief Information Officer Eric Harrison resigned, White was allowed to remain in her position as an administrative assistant, even though Shah was not hired until months later.

As the administrative assistant to Swilley, Pruitt remained in the IS department, but was moved from technology to the physicians practice service in the Carothers building where Swilley worked. The move did not reduce Pruitt's compensation or benefits. Nevertheless, Pruitt viewed this as a demotion because she went from supporting a C-level position (CTO) to supporting a senior director and the move "greatly diminished" her job duties. The level of her work also dropped off because Swilley was "very self-sufficient." (Pruitt Depo. at 83, 89-90)

Administrative assistants at CHSPSC are classified as either an administrative assistant, senior administrative assistant, or executive administrative assistant. Pruitt was an administrative assistant when working for O'Shea, and she remained an administrative assistant when supporting Swilley.

In early 2015, Pruitt began receiving a number of what she considered "nitpicky" emails from White regarding work related issues. Although White had no direct supervisory authority over Pruitt, she was a senior administrative assistant and responsible for scheduling, monitoring time and attendance, and collecting payroll exception reports from other administrative assistants. The "nitpicky" emails included Pruitt being instructed by White that she could only take two instead of three computer monitors when she went to work for Swilley, and being informed that she was sending too many e-mails letting the other administrative assistants know she was leaving early for physical therapy appointments. Other "nitpicky" behavior included a new human resourcescoordinator asking Pruitt about a missing exception report.

On February 4, 2015, Pruitt e-mailed Reeves requesting a meeting. Pruitt wrote:

Is it possible to meet with you sometime this week? For the past month or so, I have felt as if something were amiss, today I get a call concerning my presence here in the office. I understand that IS has its own unique vibe, but there is no reason for some of the behaviors that continue in this department. I just need to speak with you."

(Pruitt Depo., Ex. 34). Two days later Pruitt and Reeves met, with Pruitt claiming that they discussed a number of Pruitt's concerns, including White's "nitpicky" and harassing behavior, the reassignment to Swilley, and Pruitt being told by White and Shah that she was not going to keep her job under any circumstances. Pruitt also claims to have told Reeves about Scott Breece, the Vice President of Security, allegedly striking the names of African Americans from an applicant pool. According to Pruitt, Breece struck applicants with names like "D'Angelo," "Andre" and "Mohammed," while applicants named "Peter, " "Joseph" and "Robert" were not stricken from the candidate pool.

On February 13, 2015, Pruitt e-mailed Reeves and stated, in pertinent part, that "things are getting really upsetting and confusing for me, and basically, I just need to know if I need to start looking for another job." (Id., Ex. 27.). Pruitt claims that in addition to the items she had previously discussed with Reeves, she was concerned about White watching her "every move," and the daily communication she was receiving about her upcoming move from the Springs Commons location to the Carothers building. (Id. at 151-153).

After a new CTO was named, Pruitt applied to be his administrative assistant. She updated her resume and filed her application on March 2, 2015. On March 18, 2015, Pruitt e-mailed Andrew Bellm, CHSPSC's Human Resources Coordinator, and asked him whether she should assume that the IS Department was looking to go in a different direction since CHSPSC was still requestingapplicants. Bellm responded by stating that he "would not make that assumption at this point. We are simply getting a robust candidate pool." (Id. Ex. 22). The next day, March 19, 2015, Pruitt withdrew her application.

Even though no one told Pruitt to withdraw her application, she claims she did so because Reeves had told her that CHSPSC was going in a different direction, and both Shah and White had made clear to her that she would not become an administrative assistant to the new CTO.

Nicola Booker, a white female external candidate was hired on July 1, 2015 as the administrative assistant for the new CTO, Chris Lewis, a Caucasian, who was also an...