Thomas v. Va. Dep't of Transp. (Bristol District)

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MARY WANJIKU THOMAS, Plaintiff, v. VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (BRISTOL DISTRICT), Defendant.

No. 1:22CV00036

United States District Court, W.D. Virginia, Abingdon Division

July 5, 2023

Mary Wanjiku Thomas, Pro Se Plaintiff;

Faith A. Alejandro and Katie DeCoster, Sands Anderson PC, Richmond and Christiansburg, Virginia, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES P. JONES, SENIOR UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

In this employment case, Mary Wanjiku Thomas, proceeding pro se, sues her employer, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), claiming that she was and continues to be discriminated against based on her race, color, national origin, and disability. She asserts claims for violations of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), and the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA). VDOT has moved to dismiss pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). After careful consideration of the parties' submissions, I will grant the Motion to Dismiss.

I.

After receiving a Notice of Right to Sue from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) dated July 11, 2022, Thomas filed her initial Complaint on October 6, 2022. She was allowed by the magistrate judge to amend the Complaint to provide additional factual detail necessary to support her allegations. The court's Order directed that the amended complaint “include the following types of information relevant dates and places and a chronological sequence of events - what action each specific employee or representative of VDOT undertook in violation of her rights.” Jan. 3 2023, Order 2, ECF No. 11. Thomas filed her Amended Complaint on January 20, 2023. She also attached an Exhibit to the Amended Complaint that includes additional facts.^[1]

I begin with the relevant, undisputed facts contained in Thomas's EEOC Charge of Discrimination (Charge) and in VDOT's EEOC Position Statement.^[2]

Ms. Thomas was hired on September 1, 2016, as a contract worker through Premier Staffing Sources, Inc. to perform receptionist duties to include answering the switchboard for the Bristol District Office. There was a need for a fiscal technician, wage position to assist Debby Teasley Telecommunications Coordinator. Ms. Thomas was selected as a good fit for those duties and became a wage employee for VDOT on February 6, 2017. On January 10, 2018, she began her new job as Administrative Assistant to perform the receptionist duties for the Bristol District. Her supervisor is Tina Neal, Executive Assistant for District Engineer Randy Hamilton.

Compl. Ex. CC, Position Statement 1, ECF No. 1-4.

Ms. Thomas received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in May 2016 and a Master of Business Administration degree in May of 2020. Ms. Thomas has also completed several online training courses through the Virginia Department of Transportation University (“VDOTU”). Specifically, from February 2017 through December 2020, Ms. Thomas completed 76 courses through VDOT University's virtual campus.

Id., Ex. AA, Charge 1, ECF No. 1-1.

Additional facts alleged by Thomas, which I must consider as true at this juncture, are summarized as follows.

Thomas is Black and is a naturalized United States citizen from Kenya. In 2017, VDOT's local Civil Rights Manager, MaryAnn Autumn, recommended that Thomas apply for a full-time position in the agency, doing the same work she had done as a contract employee. VDOT offered Thomas the job, but the agency offered Thomas a minimum salary, with the explanation that the position did not require an academic degree.

From 2017 to 2021, Thomas unsuccessfully applied for numerous VDOT jobs. Her supervisor, Tina Neal, and other managers, Connie Hope and Amy Carter, told Thomas that despite her academic advancement, her education “doesn't count.”

Am. Compl. Ex. E at 1, ECF No. 12-1.^[3] Hope also told Thomas that “she did [her] a favor [by hiring her] as a receptionist.” Id.

Some of the positions for which Thomas applied include Fiscal Tech (2017), Traffic Fiscal Tech (January 2017), Business Coordinator (July 2017), Procurement Officer (August 2018), and Maintenance Program Manager (July 2019). Thomas asserts that VDOT rejected her applications and then hired white applicants with little to no experience instead. She also alleges that the hiring manager for the Procurement Officer position, Diane Fair, “made racist comments against [her].” Id. Thomas also unsuccessfully applied for several human resources positions, including Human Resources Benefits Specialist (November 2020), Human Resource Manager (November 2020), Human Resource Consultant Senior (November 2020), Senior Row Agent (February 2021), and Talent Acquisition Supervisor (February and June 2021). These positions were also given to white people who Thomas avers lacked experience and education in human resources.

Furthermore, management promoted undisclosed white employees who received financial assistance for education from the agency, but management did not treat her similarly. They purportedly refused to promote Thomas despite her advanced degree, high GPA, and experience. Thomas requested a transfer to another VDOT office to fill a Fiscal Technician position. Instead, VDOT offered her other lesser positions. She declined the offers and remained in her receptionist position.

Thomas brought an internal civil rights complaint to MaryAnn Autumn in 2017, alleging discrimination based on race, color, and national origin, but Autumn found that the allegations were unfounded. Sometime thereafter, the VDOT District Engineer, Randy Hamilton, told another co-worker to say that Thomas was incompetent so that VDOT could fire Thomas. Hope and Neal also accused Thomas “of stealing checks as much as $42,000 in one check,” and Hope accused Thomas of making her feel threatened, “something co-workers told [Thomas] [Hope] used on minorities whom she fired or left the organization.” Id. at 4.

Furthermore, Neal admonished Thomas for allowing a young Black child to use the restroom, even though Thomas and the child's mother followed protocol. At some undefined time, another coworker, Mary Monroe, called Thomas a socialist and an “Obamalist,” Id. at 6, and in 2018, someone removed the mailbox from Thomas's workspace. In February 2018, District Engineer Hamilton told Thomas to stop comparing herself to white co-workers and to go to Richmond, Virginia, with “[her] kind of people.” Id. at 4. Another employee, Paul Sisk, attempted to get Thomas to do his work “because it was beneath him,” and he compared Thomas to another Black woman. Id. at 6. VDOT also de-activated Thomas's account two weeks after she went on short-term disability, which is against the VDOT policy that provides that deactivation is to occur in 90 days and that employees should still have access to their retirement account. At some point, someone put rotten eggs in Thomas' lunchbox while she was on break. When Thomas told Neal about the incident, Neal laughed and said, “maybe someone had decided to give [Thomas] some more food.” Id. at 4.

Thomas also alleges that Hope and Neal have refused to accommodate her disabilities so that she can perform her receptionist duties. Thomas avers that she has a compromised immune system and that she suffers from depression, anxiety, panic attacks, migraines, insomnia, and stomach ulcers, all of which impact her ability to sleep and have caused an undefined imbalance. In January 2018, Hope and Neal eliminated Thomas's two 15-minute breaks, breaks she needed to stretch as an accommodation after an injury. Hope and Neal also refused to allow Thomas to telework like the rest of the employees during the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic, despite Thomas's compromised immune system. Thomas's physician faxed notes to the Human Resource Department at VDOT supporting her claims about the deterioration of her emotional health several times in 2020 and 2021. In January 2022, a VDOT manager told Neal to accommodate Thomas's disabilities by restructuring other coworkers' duties so that those coworkers could assist Thomas with completing her assignments, but Neal declined to enact this accommodation.

On January 21, 2022, Thomas asked for leave to go home because of an offending odor. Neal entered Thomas's office to determine the source of the smell. Neal then asked to smell Thomas's lunch and compared the smell from Thomas's lunch to a garbage dump, humiliating Thomas. Thomas also accuses Neal and another employee named Donny of pressuring Thomas to disclose her COVID vaccination status and accuses Neal of arguing that Thomas did not have compromised immune system. Although not entirely clear, the Amended Complaint suggests that Thomas continues to work at VDOT, and Thomas alleges that she continues to experience discrimination and retaliation.

Thomas now sues VDOT pursuant to the ADA, Title VII, and the VHRA, claiming a failure to hire or promote, retaliation, unequal terms and conditions of employment, and “Harassment by Management and co-workers,” Am. Compl. 4, ECF No. 12, based on Thomas's race, color, national origin, and disabilities, as well as a failure to accommodate Thomas's disabilities. VDOT argues that the Amended Complaint must be dismissed pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Motion to Dismiss is fully briefed and is now ripe for determination.

II.

A Rule 12(b)(1) motion challenges the court's authority to proceed with a case, raising a jurisdictional bar. Cunningham v. Gen. Dynamics Info. Tech., Inc. 888 F.3d 640, 649 (4th Cir. 2018).^[4] The plaintiff bears the burden of establishing that subject-matter jurisdiction exists when a defendant challenges jurisdiction. ...