Torres v. Cooperativa De Seguros De Vida De P.R.

Page 365

260 F.Supp.2d 365

Rebecca TORRES, et als., Plaintiff, v. COOPERATIVA DE SEGUROS DE VIDA DE PUERTO RICO (COSVI), Defendants.

Civil No. 00-2231(JAG).

United States District Court, D. Puerto Rico.

February 26, 2003.

Rafael Baella-Silva, Baella & Barcelo, San Juan, PR, Mary C. Rivera-Martinez, San Juan, PR, Paul Hulsey, Cherie K. Durand, Ness, Motley, Loadholt, Richardson & Poole, Mount Pleasant, SC, for plaintiffs.

Antonio M. Cuevas-Delgado, Cuevas Kuinlam & Bermudez, Rafael Cuevas-Kuinlam, Hato Rey, PR, for defendants.

OPINION AND ORDER

GARCIA-GREGORY, District Judge.

Plaintiff Rebecca Torres Martinez ("Torres")¹ filed suit against Torres' employer, Cooperativa de Seguros de Vida de Puerto Rico ("COSVI"), pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.CA § 2000(e)-2(a)(1) et seq. and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 ("PDA"), 42 U.S.CA. § 2000e(k). She alleges that COSVI unlawfully dismissed her from her job because her high-risk pregnancy forced her to be absent from work for an extended period of time. Torres has also invoked this Court's supplemental jurisdiction to entertain claims under Puerto Rico's Anti-Discrimination Statute, Law 100 of June 30, 1959, as amended, 29 L.P.R.A. § 146 et seq., ("Law 100"), Law No. 80 of May 30 of 1976, as amended, 29 L.P.R.A. § 185 et seq. ("Law 80"), Law No. 69 of July 6, 1985, as amended, 29 L.P.R.A. § et seq. ("Law 69"), Law No. 3 of March 13, 1942, as amended, 29 L.P.R.A. § 467 et seq. ("Law 3) and Article 1802 of the Puerto Rico Civil Code, 31 L.P.R.A. § 5141 et seq. Pending before the Court is COSVI's motion for summary judgment (Docket No. 29) and Torres' opposition thereto (Docket Nos. 42 & 43). COSVI has also tendered a brief reply to plaintiffs opposition (Docket No. 53). For the reasons stated below, COSVFs motion for summary judgment is GRANTED.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

The standard for summary judgment is governed by Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. The court should grant summary judgment only "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R.Civ. P. 56(c); see Santiago-Ramos v. Centennial P.R. Wireless Corp., 217 F.3d 46, 52 (1st Cir.2000). The party moving for summary judgment bears the burden of showing the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). A contested fact is "material" when it has the potential to change the outcome of the case. Vega-Rodriguez v. Puerto Rico Tel. Co., 110 F.3d 174, 178 (1st Cir.1997). An issue is genuine if a reasonable jury could resolve the dispute for the nonmoving party. Cortés-Irizarry v. Corporation Insular, 111 F.3d 184, 187 (1st Cir.1997); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

In order to defeat a motion for summary judgment, the party opposing the motion must "present definite, competent evidence to rebut the motion." Maldonado-Denis v. Castillo-Rodriguez, 23 F.3d 576, 581 (1st Cir.1994).² The non-moving party must show that a trial-worthy issue exists and must point to specific facts that demonstrate the existence of an authentic dispute. Mesnick v. General Elec. Co., 950 F.2d 816, 822 (1st Cir.1991). "The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence is insufficient to defeat a properly supported motion for summary judgment." Anderson, ill U.S. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505. Furthermore, the Court "must view the entire record in the light most hospitable to the party opposing summary judgment, indulging all reasonable inferences in that party's favor." Griggs-Ryan v. Smith, 904 F.2d 112,115 (1st Cir.1990). Nonetheless, the Court must never "weigh the evidence and determine the truth of the matter," Lipsett v. University of P.R., 864 F.2d 881, 895 (1st Cir.1988) (quoting Anderson, 411 U.S. at 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505) and "[n]o credibility assessment may be resolved in favor of the party seeking summary judgment." Woodman v. Haemonetics Corp., 51 F.3d 1087,1091 (1st Cir.1995). The Court may safely ignore "conclusory allegations, improbable inferences, and unsupported speculation." Medina-Munoz v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 896 F.2d 5, 8 (1st Cir.1990). "If, after this canvassing of the material presented, the district court finds that some genuine factual issue remains in the case, whose resolution one way or another could affect its outcome, the court must deny the motion." Lipsett, 864 F.2d at 895.

LOCAL RULE 311.12

In compliance with Local Rule 311.12, COSVI has submitted "a separate, short concise statement of material facts as to which the moving party contends there is no genuine issue to be tried and the basis for such contention as to each material fact, properly supported by specific reference to the record." D.P.R.R. 311.12. Torres, however, has blatantly ignored the mandates of Local Rule 311.12. Her opposition to COSVI's statement of uncontested facts contains the same vague language as to all defendant's facts stating they are immaterial to summary judgment, unsupported by evidence and selfserving (See Docket No. 43). Further, her Concise Statement of Material Facts as to Which There is Genuine Controversy (Docket No. 43, page 8) is not supported by specific references to the record. Most references made are to the complaint and amended complaint (Docket No. 43 and 52 at 3). It is well-established that "a list of facts with no specific references to the record is of no use to the Court." Hogar Club Paraiso, Inc. v. Varela Llavona, 208 F.R.D. 481, 482 (D.P.R.2002). Torres cannot expect the Court to "ferret through the record, read all the answers to interrogatories, study all the attached documents and carefully scrutinize all the depositions for lurking genuine issues of material fact." Dominguez v. Eli Lilly & Co., 958 F.Supp. 721, 727 (D.P.R.1997). Local Rule 311.12 further provides that the "moving party's statement will be deemed to be admitted unless controverted by the statement required to be served by the Opposing Party." D.P.P.R 311.12. Clearly, "parties who ignore Rule 311.12 do so at their own peril," Hogar Club Paraiso, 208 F.R.D. at 482 (citing Velez v. Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, 170 F.Supp.2d 158, 162 (D.P.R.2001)), and "once so warned, a party's failure to comply would ... be grounds for judgment against that party." Nieves Ayala v. Johnson & Johnson, 208 F.Supp.2d 195, 198 (D.P.R.2002); Morales v. A.C. Orsslejfs EFTF, 246 F.3d 32, 33 (1st Cir.2001). Accordingly, the Court hereby admits all the facts, submitted by COSVI, which have been adequately supported by references to the record.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Torres began working as a temporary clerical employee at COSVI in May of 1991. On May 30, 1992, she gave birth to her third child, occasion for which she enjoyed maternity leave (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 10). Throughout her tenure at COSVI, Torres enjoyed several salary increases and transfers (Docket No. 29, Exhibits 5,7,8,9). While Torres was pregnant with her fourth child, she encountered many medical difficulties and her doctors, fearing an abortion, prescribed rest (Docket No.42, Exhibit 3). Consequently, she was frequently absent from work.

On October 22, 1996, Torres gave birth to her fourth child and again took maternity leave. Her leave was set to conclude on December 31, 1996 (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 10). In fact, on December 30, 1996, Dr. Nilda Vazquez, Torres' obstetrician and gynecologist gave her a clean bill of health and authorized her return to work (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 11). Because Torres failed to report to work as scheduled, COSVI wrote to her on January 16, 1997 requesting that she call the office (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 10). Torres went to COSVI on February 18, 1997 and presented a medical certificate that also authorized her return to work (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 12). She stated however, that she was still undergoing physical therapy and was unable to return to work. COSVI requested that Torres provide an itinerary of her physical therapies, and their expected duration (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 15).

COSVI's Personnel Manual indicates that all employees must present medical certificates and may be required to present additional information to justify prolonged sick leaves (Docket No. 42, Exhibit 13) and Torres certified that she obtained a copy of COSVI's Personnel Manual (Docket No. 42, Exhibit 14). COSVI again requested the information to no avail on several subsequent occasions: in February 1997, in a meeting between Torres, Evelyn Burgos (COSVI's Director of Human Resources) and Dr. Jaime Zorba (COSVI's Medical Director), and on March 14, 1997 (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 16) and March 26, 1997 (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 17) via letters to plaintiff.

Torres finally authorized COSVI to review her medical records in April 1997 (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 18). The result of said review, resulted in Dr. Zorba coinciding with Torres' own physician's conclusion that she was able to return to work (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 19). On May 16, 1997, COSVI wrote a letter to Torres requesting that she report to work on May 22, 1997(Docket No. 29, Exhibit 19). Torres did not return to work that day. COSVI again wrote to Torres requesting she report to work on June 2, 1997 (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 20). On that date, Torres' lawyer asked COSVI for a seven day extension of time (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 21). COSVI granted the request and asked that Torres report to work on June 13, 1997 and provide a medical certificate (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 22). On that date, Torres only provided COSVI a medical certificate dated June 3, 1997, stating that it was recommended that she remain at rest until July 3, 1997 "at which time she would be re-evaluated" (Docket No. 29, Exhibit 23)(Docket No. 42, Exhibits 7 and 8). COSVI replied that in order to...