Rennie v. Dalton
| Decision Date | 27 August 1993 |
| Docket Number | No. 92-2644,92-2644 |
| Parties | 62 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1497, 62 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 42,526 Mary Ann Carter RENNIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John DALTON, Secretary of the Navy, * Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Richard L. Darst, Mantel, Cohen, Garelick, Reiswerg & Fishman, Indianapolis, IN, for plaintiff-appellant.
Winfield D. Ong, Office of the U.S. Atty., Indianapolis, IN, for defendant-appellee.
Before COFFEY and EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judges, and WOOD, Senior Circuit Judge.
In 1982, after being dismissed from the Naval Avionics Center ("NAC"), Mary Ann Carter Rennie filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Office ("EEO") at NAC alleging sexual harassment during the course of her employment. Several years later, after an EEO investigation, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission ruled that no sexual harassment occurred. Thereafter, in 1986, Rennie filed this suit against the Navy for sexual discrimination and unlawful retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 2000e et seq. (1988). After a bench trial in which both parties called numerous witnesses to testify, the district court issued an opinion listing 117 separate factual findings and held that the Navy had not discriminated against Rennie on the basis of sex nor retaliated against her for making an EEO complaint. Rennie appeals. We affirm.
At the time of the alleged incident at the Naval Avionics Center ("NAC"), Mary Ann Carter was a twenty-five year-old single female living with her parents and one child. She was a high school graduate with previous employment experience at Ford Motor Company, Research Engineering, and Contact Metal Welding as an assembler of parts. NAC is a civilian facility operated by the Navy in Indianapolis, Indiana, that manufactures customized electronic components for the Navy including classified military and navigational equipment. Due to the sensitive military equipment NAC manufactures, soldering is one of the most essential skills required in NAC's manufacturing process and thus its soldering standards are considerably higher than in commercial settings.
In March 1982, Mary Ann was hired for a temporary position at NAC as an electronics mechanics helper ("EMH") contingent upon her passing a government soldering course. Prior to the time she commenced employment with NAC, she had had no previous soldering experience. She alleges that NAC failed to inform her that she would have to do soldering work until after she was hired. Since 1962, NAC has required everyone who does soldering to take a soldering course and pass a two-part exam consisting of written and practical components designed to test their soldering skills.
The course curriculum and requirements of the test were set forth in the Quality Workmanship Standard, which also set forth NAC's soldering quality standards. The soldering course included several days of instruction after which the students underwent both a written exam (graded by the instructor) and a practical exam which involved applying various soldering techniques on a chassis. The instructor graded the practical exam and forwarded it to Quality Audits which gave the final binding grade on the practical exam. 2
At the time of the alleged incident the full-time soldering instructor at NAC had retired and Joseph Cafrelli had been transferred from an NAC soldering unit and employed as a part-time instructor. Before taking over the soldering course, Cafrelli received two weeks of instructor training from the NAC Quality Audits Department. It should be pointed out that Cafrelli has never been the subject of a sexual harassment complaint before now.
On April 8, 1982, the plaintiff and three other students commenced an NAC soldering course that was completed on April 16, 1982. The classroom was very "cramped and small" and it was most difficult for more than one person to move around at the same time. The students were under more than the normal classroom pressure for if they failed the course they would lose their temporary employment. The record reflects that to the best of his ability, Cafrelli tried to ease the tension by permitting the class members to engage in casual conversation. On the first day of class his communication took the form of what might be classified as an ill-advised off-color joke. Cafrelli admitted to telling the joke and was later rebuked by one of the students, Lamona Leal, for his actions. Later, he apologized to Leal and the class for his exercise of poor judgment and bad taste. Cafrelli also participated in a discussion in the class regarding a strip bar known as the "Harem House." Rennie claims that Cafrelli said he had gone to the Harem House, "paid five dollars and didn't even get a feel," and he asked her if she had ever been to Scarlet's Strip Bar. The court found that neither the off-colored joke nor the discussion regarding the strip bar were directed towards Rennie nor did she ever mention much less complain to Cafrelli about these comments.
Rennie alleged that Cafrelli touched her and stared at her for long periods of time which in turn made her quite nervous. Surprisingly none of the other students testified that they observed any type of staring or physical contact, let alone any offensive touching between the two. On the other hand, the students testified that Cafrelli was a good instructor and they observed special efforts on Cafrelli's part to help Rennie because she was the only one in the class experiencing difficulty with the soldering program due to her lack of manual dexterity. The district court found that because of the limited area in the classroom (20 feet by 40 feet including many cabinets and work benches), the other students would obviously have been aware of any harassing contacts. The trial court attributed Cafrelli's attention to Rennie as nothing but the usual observation an instructor pays to a student having difficulty in a classroom environment.
During the first soldering course, Rennie became defensive as well as argumentative when Cafrelli critiqued her work product. At this juncture, Cafrelli requested the assistance and advice of his immediate supervisor, Aubrey Ward, as well as his and Rennie's supervisor, Everett Rance, on how to deal with Rennie in class. Rance advised him to be careful not to aggravate the situation. At one point, Cafrelli asked Rennie if she appreciated how he was trying to help her. Thereafter, Rennie complained to two students, Lamona Leal and Robbie Sharp, that the instructor was making her nervous. Rennie implied to Sharp (whom she dated) that Cafrelli was sexually harassing her but Sharp never observed any harassment.
At the end of the course, the students took the two-part examination. Cafrelli graded the written exams and gave Rennie a passing score of seventy-six. In addition, he scored the other students' practical exams (except for Rennie's) and forwarded them to Quality Audits which also graded them. In order to avoid questions of personal bias, Cafrelli felt that it was best that he did not grade Rennie's practical test; consequently, he sent Rennie's practical test directly to Quality Audits for an anonymous grading without evaluating it himself. Larry Songer graded Rennie's test for Quality Audits (not knowing it was Rennie's because of the blind grading system) and gave her a failing grade of thirty-eight (a passing score of seventy was required). Songer characterized Rennie's work as "grossly unsatisfactory." He then forwarded Rennie's practical test to Charles Rueter, Chief of Quality Audits and one of only three "grade A" senior examiners in the military. Rueter confirmed the score and later met with Rennie to discuss her performance and how she could improve. Rennie never mentioned anything about Cafrelli during this conversation.
After learning that Rennie had failed the class, Everett Rance, her supervisor, arranged for her to repeat the course. Rennie and one other student who had also failed a prior course began a second course with Cafrelli as the instructor on April 26, 1982. Initially, Rennie's performance in the repeat course demonstrated marked improvement but shortly thereafter, her soldering work began to deteriorate. When Cafrelli tried to instruct her she again responded defensively. In response to a critique of her work, Rennie told Cafrelli that she was considering filing an EEO complaint which Cafrelli perceived as a threat. On April 27, 1982, Cafrelli went to his supervisor (Everett Rance) to discuss this attempted intimidation. Rance asked Fred Seddon, Rennie's immediate supervisor to meet with her in hopes of identifying and solving the problem. Rennie told Seddon that although she previously had a small problem, it had been taken care of and that now "everything was okay." Rance also suggested to the instructor that he keep his distance from Rennie and that he be careful not to exacerbate the situation. The next day Cafrelli cautioned Rennie about the quality of her work, at which time she responded that if she failed the class she would go to the EEO office at NAC. That same day, Rennie carried out her threat and went to the EEO office and complained to Jackie Miller that Cafrelli was staring at her and "giving her the eye."
Subsequently, Rance spoke with Cafrelli and suggested that because Rennie felt intimidated by him, it would be advisable for him to remain as "separate" or "absent" from Rennie as possible during the practical test in order to avoid further accusations and/or problems. Cafrelli stayed in the room during the test in order to monitor the students and answer questions but he placed a movable blackboard between himself and Rennie to prevent any further accusations of staring. 3 Despite the placement of the blackboard, Jesse Crosby,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Welch v. Delta Air Lines, Inc.
...off-color jokes made to a subordinate were insufficient as a matter of law to support a hostile work environment claim. Rennie v. Dalton, 3 F.3d 1100 (7th Cir.1993). The Rennie Court asserted that even though a statement or conversation may be considered to be offensive and in very poor tas......
-
Hubbard v. Blue Cross Blue Shield Ass'n
...adverse action by her employer; and (3) there is a causal link between the protected expression and the adverse action. Rennie v. Dalton, 3 F.3d 1100, 1108 (7th Cir.1993); Samuelson, 976 F.2d at 1114. If Hubbard establishes a prima facie case of retaliation, the burden of production shifts ......
-
Nolen v. South Bend Public Transp. Corp.
...in creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, and (4) there is a basis for employer liability. Rennie v. Dalton, 3 F.3d 1100, 1107 (7th Cir.1993), cert. denied; see Guess v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 913 F.2d 463, 465 (7th Cir.1990), reh'g denied. Additionally, the pla......
-
E.E.O.C. v. Mitsubishi Motor Mfg. of America, Inc.
...was adversely affected by the conduct, and (2) that a reasonable person would also have been adversely affected. Rennie v. Dalton, 3 F.3d 1100, 1107 (7th Cir.1993). In addition, for the employer to be liable, the plaintiff must establish both that the employer had notice of the harassment a......
-
Theories of liability
...1995) (two incidents of o൵ensive conduct and unsubstantiated claims of sexually suggestive atmosphere not su൶cient). Rennie v. Dalton , 3 F.3d 1100, 1106-7 (7th Cir. 1993) (o൵-color jokes and discussions about a strip bar are “isolated and trivial remarks of a sexual nature … [and] do not......