Trigiani v. New Peoples Bank, Inc.

599 F.Supp.3d 372

Mary Yolanda TRIGIANI, Plaintiff,

v.NEW PEOPLES BANK, INC., Defendant.

Case No. 1:21CV00001

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

Signed April 20, 2022

Thomas E. Strelka, L. Leigh R. Strelka, and N. Winston West, IV, Strelka Employment Law, Roanoke, Virginia, for Plaintiff.

Charles G. Meyer, III, and Mary Grace Miller, O'Hagan Meyer, PLLC, Richmond, Virginia, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

James P. Jones, Senior United States District Judge In this employment case, the plaintiff asserts claims against her former employer under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for sex and religious discrimination. The plaintiff alleges that she was terminated from her position as an executive with a financial institution because she was "a strong-willed woman" and because she was of the Catholic faith. The defendant employer has moved for summary judgment, contending that the plaintiff was chosen to be terminated in a reduction-in-force because of her high salary and performance issues. For the reasons that follow, and following briefing and oral argument, I will grant the motion.

I.

The following facts are taken from the summary judgment record.

The plaintiff, Mary Yolanda Trigiani, is a former employee of the defendant, New Peoples Bank, Inc. (Bank), a regional financial institution located in Central Appalachia.¹ In July 2017, she was hired as the Senior Vice President (SVP) of Strategic Planning and Development. She had previously worked for the Bank as a consultant since June of 2016, assisting with business development and marketing. While Trigiani did not have prior banking experience, she had significant experience in marketing, business development, and strategic planning and had previously owned and operated a business consulting firm that she founded in 1990.

It was the Bank's CEO and President Todd Asbury's decision to hire Trigiani. Asbury has served in that role since 2014, after the Board of Directors hired him to oversee and stabilize the Bank's struggling financial situation following the 2008 recession, which left it saddled with over $40 million in troubled loans. Asbury embarked on a campaign of fiscal austerity to eliminate underperforming departments and to reduce headcount. Trigiani disputes that at the time of her termination in 2019, the Bank was in difficult financial straits, since it had recently opened a new office in Bristol, Virginia. The Bank claims, however, that the office was an investment to establish a greater presence in that particular community. It also provided financial statements that show it did not report positive earnings until August of 2021.

Asbury recruited Trigiani to assist the Bank with its rebranding efforts to help grow the business. He created the SVP of Strategic Planning and Development role specifically for her; no other individuals were considered for the position. The Board approved the position with a $100,000 annual salary. Asbury wanted the Bank to expand its foothold in southwest Virginia and to become more community oriented, and he directed Trigiani to lead this outreach effort, implementing a strategic plan and supporting internal and external communications, particularly social media. Notably, her role was not directly focused on generating revenue.

As the President and CEO, Asbury strongly embraced cultivating a workplace culture of compassion and empathy. One of the Bank's core values is "Golden Rule Banking," which asks every employee to treat others with the same kindness and respect they would expect to receive themselves.

It became part of the Bank's strategic plan and was integrated into all of its marketing materials. Asbury testified that the Bank follows the Golden Rule because it is a "good common practice. It's good relationships. That's what banking's about is relationships." Pl.’s Br. Opp'n Ex. 2, Asbury Dep. 44–45, ECF No. 46-2. However, Asbury, who is also the pastor at a local Protestant evangelical church, recognized that the tenet has a religious aspect. Id. at 45.

In her new role, Trigiani reported directly to Asbury. She contends that her working environment deteriorated soon after she started with the Bank. She testified that she had received pushback from colleagues, particularly men in senior leadership roles, whenever she had advocated for change or asserted herself in meetings. She claims that it is because the Bank's culture is infused with gender and religious bias, that she was reviled as a strong woman who did not share the Bank's evangelical worldview of subservient women. It is undisputed, however, that numerous employees, both women and men, made complaints about Trigiani to Human Resources Director Lori Counts and to Asbury. Asbury testified that he had received the first complaint only one month after Trigiani started at the Bank. The complaints detailed a similar pattern of misconduct regarding how Trigiani treated and communicated with her colleagues. Specifically, the complainants alleged that she would yell or raise her voice, that she would speak in a disrespectful and belittling tone, that she would slam her door, and that she frequently bullied employees, some to the point of tears.

For example, in July of 2018, Dorothy Meade emailed Trigiani to tell her that on a recent call, she "came across as being a little harsh and demanding." Def.’s Mem. Supp. Ex. F, Counts Decl. Ex. D at 21, ECF No. 40-6. Meade included on her email a copy of a recent company-wide note from Asbury, reminding all employees about the Bank's "Golden Rule Banking" ethos. Meade told Trigiani that she was "not accustomed to being talked to that way and will not tolerate it," and that she was a "team player" who "treat[ed] co-workers with respect." Id.

Meade forwarded the email exchange to her supervisor, Andy Mullins, and another senior executive, J.W. Kiser. Mullins responded that Trigiani had "ticked off half of [his] staff," while Kiser remarked that her behavior was "getting old" and questioned "[h]ow many people must be victim of her tongue before she either gets reprimanded or goes home." Id. at Ex. Q, ECF No. 40-17. Kiser further stated that he had "no desire to be a team member of someone who has been so disrespectful to so many." Id.

Kiser also complained to Asbury that Trigiani attacked his character following a disagreement over her proposed plan to require supervisory approval for marketing expenses. He strongly opposed the measure because he wanted his employees to be able to approve low-level expenses without his sign-off. Kiser testified that Trigiani has said that his "ego wouldn't allow her plan to work and that she knew that she was supposed to bow down to [him] because commercial made all the money at the bank." Id. at Ex. S, Kiser Dep. 17, ECF No. 40-19. Trigiani denies that she commented on his ego but said Kiser simply "didn't like [her] process because [she] was a woman" that was "[a]sserting [her] responsibility." Pl.’s Br. Opp'n Ex. 1, Trigiani Dep. 138, ECF No. 46-1.

Trigiani's assistant, Beth Dalton, complained to Counts and Asbury about Trigiani's behavior. Trigiani hired Dalton in March of 2018 after Asbury had recommended her. She contends that Asbury pressured her into hiring Dalton because she was a parishioner at his church. Trigiani testified that they had a cordial and friendly relationship and that she was unaware of any workplace issues. Dalton testified that Trigiani would often "lose her temper" and that she would raise her voice, while "pacing and stomping the floor." Id. at Ex. 6, Dalton Dep. 24, 48, ECF No. 46-6. In September, Dalton sent Counts a list of the workplace incidents involving Trigiani that she had experienced over the past six months; she reported that she was "in tears almost every day and [became] physically sick." Counts Decl. ¶ 17, ECF No. 40-6. A few months later, Emily Fulkerson-Murphy, a marketing assistant who worked for Trigiani, came to Counts’ office crying and said that Trigiani would "explode over small things" and that she heard her yelling through the walls at others on the phone. Id. ¶ 19. HR Director Counts claims that she never received more complaints about a single employee in her 15 years at the Bank. There were complaints from at least 10 different employees about Trigiani's conduct, often multiple times.

Trigiani does not dispute that complaints were made about her, including that Asbury counseled her about them on a nearly quarterly basis. She does, however, contend that Asbury never informed her of specifics and that she lacked notice of the particular conduct that upset her colleagues. She claims that Asbury made only vague statements, such as, "you know what you did." Asbury Dep. 74–75, ECF No. 46-2. Trigiani also complained to Asbury that others, including Counts, were "throwing the Golden Rule at her," Id. at 71. She disputes that she ever slammed the door or yelled at anyone; rather, her voice is "very loud to begin with" and her office door had a "weak hinge[ ]" that would make it slam even if she only "tap[ped] it." Trigiani Dep. 99–100, ECF No. 46-1.

Asbury's concerns regarding Trigiani's workplace issues nonetheless reached a critical point in December 2018, and he met with Trigiani about them. He testified that "[t]here was too much of the continual having to deal with ... continual complaints, [him] telling her what's going on." Asbury Dep. 115, ECF No. 46-2. He claimed that during the meeting, she "was being loud in [his] office and yelling," when he told her that she could just leave the Bank and that he had already directed Counts to draft a separation agreement. Trigiani asked to remain in her position, and Asbury ultimately backed off of his threat to terminate her.

In early 2019, Trigiani was moved to be under the direct supervision of Gary Keys. A few months later, in April, Trigiani met with Asbury and Keys to discuss her performance review for 2018. This was her first and only performance review. The Bank's...