Goldsmith v. City of Canton
| Decision Date | 14 February 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 93-4270,93-4270 |
| Citation | 47 F.3d 1168 |
| Parties | NOTICE: Sixth Circuit Rule 24(c) states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Sixth Circuit. Cynthia M. GOLDSMITH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CITY OF CANTON, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Before: JONES, NORRIS, and DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants, principally the City of Canton and its Chief of Police, Thomas Wyatt, in an employment discrimination action filed by the plaintiff, Cynthia M. Goldsmith, an officer in the Canton Police Department. The district court found that the plaintiff had not presented evidence sufficient to create a jury question under Title VII on either her "hostile work environment" claim or her "disparate treatment" claim and therefore dismissed both those claims and also a derivative equal protection claim brought under Sec. 1983.
We have examined the record and the briefs in this case and conclude that the district court did not err in granting summary judgment and dismissing the complaint, pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The gist of the plaintiff's complaint was that she, a Caucasian woman, had been discriminated against because she had "oriental friends" and an African-American boy friend. As proof, she pointed to her supervisor's reference to her friends as being Korean, when in fact they were Vietnamese; a comment by her supervisor that there would be "no hugging and kissing anybody on city property while you're working"; and a question about her religious affiliation by a co-worker who apparently assumed from her last name that she was Jewish.
The district judge noted that the plaintiff's allegation that she had been subjected to a "hostile work environment" was based on these three isolated and relatively innocuous comments that purportedly evidenced racial animosity and sexual harassment on the part of her supervisor, Lieutenant Thomas, and the unidentified co-worker. The district court concluded that these remarks "could not rise to the level or harassment in the mind of a reasonable person," citing as authority Rabidue v. Osceola Refining Co., 805 F.2d 611, 620 (6th Cir.1986).
Since the district court's opinion was filed, the Supreme Court in its ...
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Bloomfield v. Whirlpool Corp.
...to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment. See, e.g., Hafford, 183 F.3d at 514;Goldsmith v. City of Canton, 47 F.3d 1168, at *1 (6th Cir.1995) (unpublished table decision). Whirlpool is entitled to summary judgment on this claim.IV. Title VII Retaliation In her motion for......
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Bloomfield v. Whirlpool Corp.
...create an objectively hostile or abusive work environment. See, e.g., Hafford, 183 F.3d at 514; Goldsmith v. City of Canton, 47 F.3d 1168, at *1 (6th Cir. 1995) (unpublished table decision). Whirlpool is entitled to summary judgment on this claim. IV. TITLE VII RETALIATION In her motion for......