Smith v. Sheahan

• Decision Date: 27 August 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-2445,98-2445
• Citation: 189 F.3d 529
• Parties: (7th Cir. 1999) Valeria Smith, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael F. Sheahan, Sheriff of Cook County, in his individual and official capacities; Cook County Sheriff's Department; and Ronald Gamble, Defendants-Appellees
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 529

189 F.3d 529 (7th Cir. 1999)

Valeria Smith, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michael F. Sheahan, Sheriff of Cook County, in his individual and official capacities; Cook County Sheriff's Department; and Ronald Gamble, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 98-2445

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Argued December 4, 1998

Decided August 27, 1999

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 95 C 7203--William T. Hart, Judge.

Before Bauer, Diane P. Wood, and Evans, Circuit Judges.

Diane P. Wood, Circuit Judge.

Valeria Smith and Ronald Gamble are both guards at the Cook County Jail, a facility administered by the Cook County Sheriff's Department under the supervision of Sheriff Michael Sheahan. Gamble was none too pleasant to his female colleagues in general, but one day he took matters further and violently assaulted Smith while she was working her shift. Smith complained internally, but to little avail. She also filed a criminal assault claim against Gamble (which resulted in a conviction), and finally, in light of the unsatisfactory reaction of the Sheriff's Department to her complaints, she brought the present action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e et seq., claiming that she had been subjected to sex discrimination in the form of a hostile work environment. The district court granted summary judgment to the Sheriff on the ground that Smith's experiences of harassment were too isolated to be actionable under Title VII and that, in any event, the Sheriff's Department's response to the assault was sufficient to shield it from liability. Although we agree that the district court correctly granted summary judgment for Sheriff Sheahan in his individual capacity, we find that the evidence Smith presented requires a trial on her claims against the Sheriff's Department (i.e. the official capacity claims). We therefore reverse and remand this part of the case for further proceedings.

I

Because this matter was resolved at summary judgment and no credibility determinations have yet been made, we relate the facts and draw our inferences in the light most favorable to Smith. Popovits v. Circuit City Stores, Inc.,183 F.3d 726, 732 (7th Cir. July 15, 1999).

On August 30, 1992, during their regular shifts at the Cook County Jail, Gamble entered Smith's work station to collect inmate commissary slips. A dispute ensued, during which Gamble called Smith a "bitch," threatened to "fuck [her] up," pinned her against a wall, and twisted her wrist severely enough to damage her ligaments, draw blood, and eventually require surgical correction. Smith immediately reported the incident to her supervisor, Lieutenant Jessie Anderson, who recommended that Smith seek medical treatment. Lieutenant Anderson also questioned witnesses, reported the attack up the chain of command, and took action to keep Smith and Gamble separated thereafter.

The Sheriff's Department's response was an institutional shrug of the shoulders. It neither investigated further nor did it discipline Gamble. Instead, in response to Smith's request that further action be taken, one Investigator Sullivan made light of the incident and jokingly suggested that Smith should "kiss and make up" with Gamble. The Department responded in much the same way to other complaints of Gamble's hostile behavior toward women in the workplace. In order to show that Gamble's actions were because of her sex, rather than randomly violent, Smith presented affidavits from six other female Cook County Jail guards tending to show that Gamble has an inglorious history of offensive interactions with his female co-workers, and that the Department knew this. For example, Yvonne Averhart's affidavit related two separate incidents with Gamble. In 1991, he made sexualized comments about her body as she passed through the scanning device he was operating at the entrance to the jail. When she objected, he became hostile and called her a "bitch." Other officers intervened to keep the situation from escalating further. In 1995, Gamble demanded that Averhart give him extra food for some of the inmates from the central kitchen, where she was working. She refused because he lacked the proper authorization. Gamble again became hostile, repeatedly calling her a "bitch" and threatening to "kick [her] ass." Another officer intervened, pulling Gamble away from Averhart and trying to calm him down. Averhart reported the latter incident to her supervisor, but no action was taken on her complaint.

Officer Kim Pemberton described an incident with Gamble in 1990 or 1991 that occurred as he was passing through the entrance at which she was posted to check identification badges. He refused to show her his ID, and she in turn refused to let him enter. When she relented, Gamble made a derogatory comment, to which she responded in kind. Gamble then tried to storm the area where Pemberton was working, issuing vulgar threats of physical harm similar in tone and content to those that we have already recounted. A supervising officer held Gamble back to keep him from making good on his threats and told Pemberton to write up the incident. When she gave her report to another superior, he ripped it up with the explanation that "it takes two to fight."

Female Cook County Jail Officers L.A. Hempen, Renee Hardimon, Myra Greene, and Constance Wilson had similar encounters with Gamble. Together with Officers Averhart and Pemberton, these women officers related a total of seven incidents in which Gamble became verbally abusive and physically threatening, though none of the other incidents escalated into the type of assault Smith suffered. Three of the incidents pre-dated Gamble's August 1992 assault on Smith (one in 1989 and two in 1991), and four have occurred since then. Two of the disturbances went unreported, but reports were filed about the other five. To the officers' knowledge, the Sheriff's Department took no action in regard to the latter group. Gamble was well aware that the Department had a practice of taking no action on such matters, according to Officer Hardimon, who noted that Gamble taunted her after she reported her December 1992 run-in with him by saying that his supervisor "won't do anything, anyway."

Disappointed with the response of the Sheriff's Department, Smith turned to the courts. She filed a criminal complaint against Gamble in Cook County Criminal Court. On February 25, 1993, that court found him guilty of criminal battery and placed him under court supervision. Although Gamble's superiors at the Sheriff's Department were aware of this criminal conviction, not only did they disregard it--they promoted him instead. Smith, on the other hand, has been reassigned to guard inmates with psychiatric problems, a transfer she considers tantamount to a demotion.

Smith filed charges with the EEOC, and she also initiated a two-count civil action in the Circuit Court of Cook County, filing her third amended complaint on November 8, 1995 after she received her right-to-sue letter. The defendants removed the case to federal court on December 8, 1995. Count I of the complaint alleged a hostile work environment, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e et seq., against Sheriff Sheahan in his official and individual capacities and against the Cook County Sheriff's Department. (Smith has since conceded that she cannot state a claim against Sheriff Sheahan individually, and that the Sheriff's Department has no legal existence separate from that of Sheriff Sheahan in his official capacity.) Count II alleged a state law tort claim against Gamble for assault and battery. In light of Gamble's admitted criminal conviction for these acts, the district court entered judgment on the pleadings in Smith's favor on Count II and later dismissed that part of the case based on a settlement. Smith instead appeals from the court's entry of summary judgment in favor of Sheriff Sheahan in his official capacity on the Title VII claim.

II

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo because it presents pure questions of law. Stop- N-Go of Madison, Inc. v. Uno-Ven Co., 184 F.3d 672, 676-78 (7th Cir.1999). Summary judgment may not be entered unless there are no disputed issues of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). Where, however, there are such disputed questions of fact, and the plaintiff has presented some evidence to support the bare allegations of her complaint, Chemsource, Inc. v. Hub Group, Inc., 106 F.3d 1358, 1361 (7th Cir. 1997), she is entitled to proceed to trial.

When sexual harassment in the workplace alters the terms and conditions of someone's employment, it falls within the scope of the prohibition against sex discrimination in Title VII. See Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 2264 (1998). In order to survive summary judgment, the employee must present evidence that would establish that the actions in question created the sort of hostile work environment that offends Title VII. Perry v. Harris Chernin, Inc., 126 F.3d 1010, 1013 (7th Cir. 1997); Carr v. Allison Gas Turbine Div., Gen. Motors Corp., 32 F.3d 1007, 1009 (7th Cir. 1994). Not all offensive workplace behavior violates the law. See Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Servs., Inc., 118 S.Ct. 998, 1002 (1998) (Title VII is not a code of civility); Gleason v. Mesirow Fin., Inc., 118 F.3d 1134, 1144 (7th Cir. 1997); Baskerville v. Culligan Int'l Co., 50 F.3d 428 430 (7th Cir. 1995); Carr, 32 F.3d at 1009. Title VII does, however, prohibit certain forms of workplace discrimination. To be actionable, the offensive conduct must be based on one of the characteristics protected by Title VII, such as sex. 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e-2(a)(1); see also Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 23 (1993) (Ginsburg, J., concurring) ("The critical issue, Title VII...