Draper v. Coeur Rochester, Inc.
| Decision Date | 29 June 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-15178,97-15178 |
| Citation | 147 F.3d 1104 |
| Parties | 77 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 188, 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,497, 98 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 5102, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 7205 Kateri DRAPER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. COEUR ROCHESTER, INC., Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Mark L. Mausert, Reno, Nevada, for the plaintiff-appellant.
Frank Cassas, Jr., Reno, Nevada, for the defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada Edward C. Reed, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-N-95-737-ECR.
Before: CANBY, and REINHARDT, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI, United States Court of International Trade Judge. *
Kateri Draper appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of her former employer. Specifically, she challenges the district court's determination that her claims of hostile work environment, constructive discharge, and quid pro quo sexual harassment under Title VII were time-barred under the applicable limitations period. Because we conclude that genuine issues of material fact exist regarding whether the alleged hostile work environment continued into the limitations period, and because we conclude that the limitations period on Draper's cause of action for constructive discharge began to run at the time she resigned her position, we hold that summary judgment was inappropriate as to these two claims. We affirm, however, as to the claim of quid pro quo harassment.
We set forth below the relevant facts in the light most favorable to Draper, as is necessary for purposes of considering an order granting summary judgment. For the same reason we assume, for purposes of this opinion, that as to all disputed facts, Draper's version is correct.
In November 1992, Kateri Draper, a Hispanic woman, began working for Coeur at its mining operation on the outskirts of Lovelock, Nevada. At the time, she was 23 years old. For the first three months of her employment, she was a temporary laborer; thereafter, she was assigned permanently to Coeur's "D" crew. Initially, her duties included shoveling dirt and snow under crusher trucks, but she soon received additional training and became a haul truck driver and crusher operator. For most of her tenure at Coeur, Draper was the only woman assigned to the "D" crew. Also on the "D" crew was Kevin Machado, a mechanic who started working at Coeur at approximately the same time as Draper. At some point during their employment at the mine, Machado and Draper began a romantic relationship and eventually became engaged to be married.
When Draper and Machado were first assigned to the "D" crew, Joe Anelli was an equipment operator on the crew with occasional supervisory duties. Approximately six months after Draper and Machado joined the crew, he assumed the role of primary crew supervisor.
Draper worked at Coeur for a period of two years. Throughout the course of her employment, Anelli made sexual remarks that caused her to feel uncomfortable and humiliated. Although Anelli's remarks were usually made directly to her when the two of them were alone, he also made frequent comments about her to coworkers outside her presence. At the outset, Anelli's comments to Draper were fairly innocuous, though perhaps inappropriate. He often inquired into her personal life and wanted to know whom she was dating. He frequently referred to her not by name, but as "beautiful" and "gorgeous."
Shortly thereafter, Anelli's comments took on a decidedly sexual tone. He told Draper, for example, that his sex life with his wife was not very good and that he wished he had met Draper before he had married. He also told Draper about his sexual fantasies, including his desire to have sex with both Draper and his wife. This conduct escalated and became more unbearable for Draper when Anelli became the crew's supervisor. During a safety meeting with the entire crew, for example, Anelli asked what a Mexican prostitute was called and joked that the answer was "a frijole." Several times he remarked about Draper's "ass" and commented to other members of the crew that "it would be fun to get into [Draper's] pants." On one occasion, the crew had been working in the rain, and when Draper went to the locker room to change out of her wet clothes, Anelli used the loudspeaker to ask whether she needed any help changing clothes and announced that several guys were willing to provide assistance. On another occasion, he walked up from behind her as she was shoveling dirt and told her to "be careful who you bend over in front of." Another time, Draper had just taken off a sweatshirt that she was wearing over her regular work shirt and Anelli asked over the loudspeaker whether that was all she was going to take off.
Anelli's behavior suggests that he treated Draper differently from her male coworkers in part because of her relationship with Machado. Perhaps out of jealousy, as Draper alleges, Anelli went to great lengths to prevent Draper and Machado from spending any time together. He refused to permit Draper to take her breaks with the rest of her crewmates, including Machado, and forced her to eat lunch with him in his office.
Draper tried to ignore Anelli's comments and his discriminatory treatment, but she felt uncomfortable, angry, and humiliated much of the time. Although she received several salary raises, she believed that Anelli gave her unfavorable work assignments. Instead of assigning her to drive the crew trucks, for example, he assigned her to shovel dirt or perform groundwork. The lack of experience driving trucks prevented her from obtaining enough experience to bid into a better job, such as that of equipment operator.
In June 1994, Draper finally complained to Coeur's management that Anelli was making improper sexual advances toward her and was treating her unfairly. Three managers were present at this meeting, including Anelli's direct supervisor, John Murphy. Draper explained that Anelli was treating her differently from her coworkers in order to prevent her from spending any time with Machado. She further told the managers that she felt that she was being sexually harassed. In response to Draper's complaints, Coeur's management met separately with both Anelli and Machado and then held a meeting with all three (Draper, Anelli, and Machado). Notwithstanding these meetings, and notwithstanding the fact that one of Draper's coworkers had cautioned management that if nothing was done to stop Anelli, Draper could probably sue for sexual harassment, Anelli persisted in his conduct and Draper continued to feel that she was not being treated fairly.
Several months later, on November 14, Draper contacted Kathy Smith, a female supervisor, and told Smith about her problems with Anelli. Smith's notes from the meeting indicate that Draper complained that "Anelli [was] not treating her equally" with respect to "working in shop, lunch breaks, breaks, Kevin Machado, personal business, diary--attitude." Smith thought Draper's complaints were sufficiently serious that she contacted another female supervisor, Julie Moore, to discuss the situation. Smith and Moore met with Anelli, and then all three of them spoke with Murphy, Anelli's supervisor. In spite of this second series of meetings, Anelli's treatment of Draper continued unabated and she continued to believe she was being treated in a discriminatory manner.
Accordingly, on December 7, Draper confronted Anelli in his office and complained that he was still harassing her; she told him that "what he was doing wasn't right." Her comments prompted him to pick up the phone and call Murphy. Anelli told Murphy that Draper was in his office "digging up old bones," and accusing him of sexually harassing her. Anelli then began to laugh. Draper perceived his laugh as derisive and mocking, and she felt frustrated and humiliated. Because she had already presented her concerns to Coeur's management, apparently to no avail, and because, despite all that had happened, Anelli still felt free to disparage her and her complaints of sexual harassment to his supervisor, Draper concluded that there was no chance that the harassment would stop or that anything would be done to alleviate the intolerable conditions. She decided at that point that she had no choice but to quit, and did so on the spot.
Draper filed a charge of sexual harassment with the Nevada Equal Rights Commission on July 5, 1995. Several months later, on September 15, she filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"). At the end of November, having received a right-to-sue letter, she filed an action in federal district court, alleging violations of Title VII on theories of hostile work environment, constructive discharge, and quid pro quo harassment. Coeur moved for summary judgment on the following grounds: (1) Draper failed to file her Title VII claims within the 300-day limitations period, and (2) there was no triable issue of material fact as to any of her discrimination claims.
The district court granted the motion on the ground that her claims were time-barred because no act of discrimination had occurred within the applicable time period. With respect to the constructive discharge claim, it reasoned that "[t]hough the termination of [her] employment may have resulted from some act of unlawful discrimination, discharge by itself is not an 'act of discrimination' under the statute." It did not reach the defendant's second ground.
Draper appeals, contending that the discrimination and harassment of which she complains persisted up until her final day on the job, and that the district court also erred regarding the nature of a constructive discharge. In short, she argues that her claims are not time-barred.
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