Honor v. Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc.

Decision Date02 September 2004
Docket NumberNo. 03-2076.,03-2076.
Citation383 F.3d 180
PartiesJohn C. HONOR, Jr., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BOOZ-ALLEN & HAMILTON, INCORPORATED, Defendant-Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Claude M. Hilton, Chief Judge.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: Peter Charles Cohen, Charlson Bredehoft, P.C., Reston, Virginia, for Appellant. Everett Clifford Johnson, Jr., Latham & Watkins, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: ON BRIEF: Elaine Charlson Bredehoft, Charlson Bredehoft, P.C., Reston, Virginia, for Appellant. Stephen W. Robinson, McGuirewoods, L.L.P., McLean, Virginia, for Appellee.

Before WIDENER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and Robert R. BEEZER, Senior Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Senior Judge BEEZER, wrote the opinion, in which Judge WIDENER and Judge WILLIAMS joined.

OPINION

BEEZER, Senior Circuit Judge:

Appellee Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc. ("Booz Allen") employed appellant John C. Honor, Jr. as its Director of Human Resources, Worldwide Technology Business ("WTB"), in September 2000. During the course of his employment, Honor's compensation increased from $235,000 per year to $250,000 per year. On January 15, 2002, Honor accepted an offer for a position with U.S. Airways. He submitted a letter of resignation to Booz Allen on January 31, 2002.

We consider the circumstances of Honor's employment and departure from Booz Allen, including whether Honor's departure was voluntary.

I

Booz Allen employed a Director of Recruiting and a Director of Diversity. Honor claims that Booz Allen directed him, in part, to increase diversity at Booz Allen, particularly the number of African-Americans in senior level positions. Honor alleges that Booz Allen did not support his efforts to accomplish these goals and that colleagues actively undermined these efforts.

Jean Callahan, the Senior Director of Recruiting, was allegedly one such colleague. Callahan and Honor were in separate departments; neither had any supervisory or managerial power over the other. Honor alleges that Callahan's bias against African-Americans resulted in the disparate treatment of African-American employees and recruits and created a hostile work environment for Honor.

Honor claims that he complained about Callahan's discriminatory behavior to a number of partners and principals to no avail.

According to Honor, on November 16, 2001, C.G. Appleby, Booz Allen's General Counsel, told him, "you are going to lose your job." [JA 261.] Honor met with Appleby again on November 19, 2001; this time, Sam Strickland, Vice President of Operations at WTB and Honor's direct supervisor, also was present. Honor claims that Strickland and Appleby refused to talk about Callahan's and Honor's strained relationship: "[W]e don't want to talk about Jean because we all agree that Jean has relationship problems, but we want to try to make you successful, John. We want you to be successful, and we just don't think that you can continue in your current role." [JA 67.] At this same meeting Strickland encouraged Honor to explore other opportunities at the firm, including consulting. [JA 69, 261.] Honor believes that this meeting started the process of terminating his employment.

During the fall of 2001, Booz Allen was involved in an unrelated management restructuring, in addition to being concerned about Honor's tumultuous relationship with Callahan.

In September or October of 2001, Booz Allen decided to integrate within one department the human resource functions of WTB and that of Worldwide Commercial Business ("WCB"), another of Booz Allen's business units. Booz Allen created the position of Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) to oversee the entirety of the company's human resources operations. The CHRO position required prior WCB client-service experience. Booz Allen gave the new CHRO position to Horacio Rozanski, the then-Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of WCB. Rosanski accepted his expanded position in November 2001.

Booz Allen's integration rendered Honor's position largely superfluous. At the November 19, 2001 meeting discussed above, Honor maintains that Appleby and Strickland told him that"[his] job as director, Human Resources Services, at Booz Allen Hamilton, Inc. would not be continued in its current form." [J.A. 74.]

Ten days later, on November 29, 2001, Honor spoke to a group of off-site training leaders in New York and there he announced that he was leaving Booz Allen. [J.A. 269.]

On December, 17, 2001, Rozanski and Strickland sent an email to "Worldwide HR Staff" entitled "HR Organization in Transition." The email explained generally Booz Allen's goals of integration and announced the newly-structured Human Resources Leadership Team. Honor was not listed in any capacity. After listing the various positions, the email stated the following: "Please note that the role of Director — HR Services has yet to be filled.... We will be talking about this with the HR Services team in the near future." [J.A. 556.] Rozanski explains that he did not consider Honor for that position because Rozanski believed Honor would no longer be working at Booz Allen.

On December 20, 2001, Honor received a proposed consulting agreement that offered him his full salary and benefits through January 31, 2002, and a six-month consulting contract, which did not include health or other benefits, conditioned upon his resignation as Director of Human Resources on January 31, 2002 and waiver of his right to file suit against Booz Allen.

Prior to this offer, on December 2, 2001, Honor emailed Gil Griffen, a headhunter, to obtain assistance with "the job search" Honor had initiated. [J.A. 189.] That email stated the following regarding Honor's circumstances at Booz Allen:

I decided to initiate this search after deciding to change my relationship with my employer, Booz Allen, for irresolvable ethical reasons on which I cannot compromise.

...

Also, note that I have neither terminated my employment nor informed the firm of my intent to do so. When I advised my supervisor that I could not in good conscience continue as Director of HR for the firm, I was asked to consider alternatives such as consulting for the firm or as an external consultant to the firm. In the spirit of `not burning bridges,' I agreed to consider any options they wanted to present. Nonetheless, after many discussions with my wife of 34 plus years, and many friends and professional colleagues, I have concluded that it is appropriate for me to sever my relationship with the firm entirely.

[J.A. 189.]

On January 14, 2002, U.S. Airways offered Honor the position of Vice President-Human Resources and Development. [J.A. 185.] The next day, Honor faxed the Senior Vice President of Human Resources at U.S. Airways, accepted the company's offer and stated, "I will notify my current employer, Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc .... of my decision to resign my employment." [J.A. 184.] On January 16, 2002, Honor informed Strickland via voice mail and e-mail of his decision to resign effective January 31, 2002. [J.A. 183.] On January 31, 2002, Honor tendered a self-titled "Letter of Resignation." [J.A. 192.]

Honor filed an action against Booz Allen in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County on December 12, 2002. Booz Allen removed the action to United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on January 13, 2003. Following the district court's dismissal of certain of Honor's claims, Honor filed an Amended Complaint on March 11, 2003, alleging claims of wrongful termination, retaliation, failure to promote and hostile work environment. On August 26, 2003, the district court granted Booz Allen's motion for summary judgment on all claims.

II

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and review a district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. See United States v. Kanasco, Ltd., 123 F.3d 209, 210 (4th Cir.1997). The moving party must demonstrate the absence of an essential element of the nonmoving party's case and that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 56; see also Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-26, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Once the moving party discharges its burden by showing that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case, the nonmoving party then must come forward with specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). We consider the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). Summary judgment will be granted unless a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party on the evidence presented. See Anderson, 477 U.S. at 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

III

The issue at the heart of Honor's wrongful termination and retaliation claims is whether he was terminated by Booz Allen or resigned voluntarily. We begin our analysis with that issue.

A.

An employee may show that he was discharged by direct or circumstantial evidence. See Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa, 539 U.S. 90, 99-100, 123 S.Ct. 2148, 156 L.Ed.2d 84 (2003); United States Postal Serv. v. Service Bd. of Gov., 460 U.S. 711, 714 n. 3, 103 S.Ct. 1478, 75 L.Ed.2d 403 (1983). The words "fired" or "terminated" need not be used by an employer to constitute actual termination. See EEOC v. Service News Co., 898 F.2d 958, 962 (4th Cir.1990).

In this case, Honor bases his claim of termination on the following: (1) his November 16, 2001 meeting with Appleby in which Appleby allegedly told Honor that he was going to be fired; (2) his November 19, 2001 meeting with Strickland and Appleby, in...

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