Gates v. Caterpillar, Inc.

• Decision Date: 16 January 2008
• Docket Number: No. 06-1606.,06-1606.
• Citation: 513 F.3d 680
• Parties: Jeri L. GATES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CATERPILLAR, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

513 F.3d 680

Jeri L. GATES, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. CATERPILLAR, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 06-1606.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued February 7, 2007.

Decided January 16, 2008.

James P. Baker (argued), Baker, Baker & Krajewski, Springfield, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Christopher J. Degroff (argued), Seyfarth Shaw, Chicago, IL, M. Andrew McGuire, Caterpillar Incorporated, Peoria, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before FLAUM, ROVNER and EVANS, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Jeri L. Gates alleges that Caterpillar, Inc. ("Caterpillar") engaged in unlawful sexual discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII. The district court granted Caterpillar's motion for summary judgment, Gates appealed and we now affirm.

I

Gates began working at Caterpillar in 1978 as a clerk and held various administrative positions at the company between 1978 and 1990. In October 1990, Gates joined the New Technology Department ("NTD") of Caterpillar's Technical Services Division ("TSD") as an Assistant Contract Administrator, becoming a Contract Administrator in 1997. As such Gates was responsible for administering various aspects of Caterpillar's contracts including "closing out" contracts by confirming that Caterpillar had fulfilled its delivery obligations, the customer had paid Caterpillar and both sides agreed that the contract was complete.

In late 2001, Randall Richards joined the TSD and became Gates' supervisor. At the outset Richards, with input from Gates, assessed the department's workload and productivity and ultimately determined that the unit would benefit from hiring additional employees. Because Gates was the most experienced employee in the group, she became responsible for training and coaching some of the new unit members. At that time, Richards offered her the role of "Team Leader," which would have involved officially managing the work performance of the others in the group. Gates, dissatisfied with various aspects of the job, declined.

Both before and after Richards joined the TSD, Gates had applied for open positions within other divisions of Caterpillar in an effort to advance her career. Although she consistently sought the support of her supervisors in making this internal job switch, Gates believed that she did not have her superiors' backing because her leaving the group would create a void. In February 2002, Gates met with Barbara Shane, then TSD's Personnel Services Supervisor, to discuss the situation. In an effort to address Gates' concerns, Shane facilitated a meeting between herself, Richards and Mike Simmons (Richards' supervisor). This meeting was followed by a series of meetings between Gates, Shane, Richards and Simmons in mid-to-late-February. Although Gates continued to make clear that she wanted to leave the unit to pursue other opportunities within Caterpillar, her supervisors determined that she should not transition to another position until the new administrators in the department were properly trained. Eventually, in March 2002, Gates, Shane, Richards and Simmons agreed to designate Shane as the "Training Leader" and established new work goals for her.

Shortly thereafter, Richards became critical of Gates' job performance and her failure to meet these new work goals. Also around this same time, Richards began hearing complaints from Gates' co-workers that Gates was spending a lot of time on personal matters. At Richards' request, Shane initiated an investigation, asking Amy Winkler, a Personnel Assistant in Caterpillar's Human Resources Department, to look into Gates' telephone and Internet usage while at work. At that time, Caterpillar employees were subject to an Electronic Communications Policy which, in relevant part, directed that personal use should be limited and governed by good judgment and discretion. Winkler reported that over the course of the 89 recent work days she reviewed, Gates made 489 calls from her telephone exchange, the majority of which (432) were personal. Winkler also found that between January 10 and April 30, 2002, Gates was on the Internet an average of 18 minutes a day, making approximately 2700 "hits" to Bradley University (where Gates was a student) arid approximately 316 hits to other non-work-related websites including tanning equipment websites and a tax website.¹

Shane and Richards reviewed the telephone and Internet usage reports, which they believed to be accurate and which they thought indicated an abuse by Gates of Caterpillar's phone and computer policy. Shane, Richards, Winkler and Randy Koors (the Business Support Manager in the TSD Support Services Department who was scheduled to take over responsibility for supervising the contract administrative employees in the upcoming months) discussed the situation. Upon a recommendation from Shane, Richards decided to suspend Gates.

On May 24, 2002, Richards and Shane met with Gates, informed her that she was suspended for five days and presented her with an Employee Action Plan ("EAP"). The EAP explained that Gates was being disciplined for her misuse of Caterpillar's time and equipment as well as her failure to take adequate responsibility for work assignments. The EAP mandated, and Richards verbally reiterated, that over the course of her suspension, Gates was to contact only Richards, if necessary, and should not contact any other team-members or co-workers at TSD. The EAP cautioned that "fflailure to adhere to the policies specifically noted above, as well as any other company policies will result in termination." R. 18, Ex. V. Richards also told Gates that following the suspension, her performance would be evaluated relative to a specific contract close-out and training schedule, a copy of which he gave to her at that time.

While Gates was on suspension, Richards, through Caterpillar's email system, received an email from Gates protesting her suspension. In the course of preparing a "rebuttal" and in an effort to buttress her position that Richards' closeout schedule was unreasonable, Gates also emailed various Caterpillar customers as well as contractors at other companies to solicit their opinions on contract close-out timing. All of these emails were sent from Gates' Caterpillar account, through Caterpillar's intranet which Gates accessed using her fiancé's "I-Pass" card, an access card issued by Caterpillar to allow access to the Company's information system and intended and authorized only for use by the employee to whom it was issued.

On June 3, 2002, Gates returned to work from her disciplinary suspension, met with Richards, Shane and Koors and presented her written rebuttal of the EAP. When asked by Richards how she had emailed him during her suspension, Gates replied that she logged into her email account using her ID and password. When pressed further about how she gained access to the intranet, Gates replied that she used her fiancé's I-Pass card because hers was in her bag at work.² Although Gates initially claimed that her fiancé logged into the system from home before leaving for work, after which she then used her own password to access her email, Richards and Shane had records indicating that her fiancé was often already at work at the times his I-Pass card was used to access the system remotely. Gates then admitted she had in fact used her fiancé's I-Pass card to log into the system when he was not there.

In a letter dated June 5, 2002, Caterpillar notified Gates that based on its belief that Gates had continued to misuse company property and was dishonest about how she accessed the internal email system during her suspension, Gates was terminated. In May 2004, Gates brought an action against Caterpillar alleging unlawful discrimination and retaliation.

II

A. Gates' Retaliation Claim

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo. E.g., Luks v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 467 F.3d 1049, 1052 (7th Cir.2006), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2251, 167 L.Ed.2d 1090 (2007). Summary judgment is properly granted when, after considering the admissible evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, there is no genuine issue of material fact. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Id.

Gates' primary argument on appeal is that the district court improperly failed to recognize that she could rely on circumstantial evidence to support her retaliation claim under the direct-proof method. Although we agree with Gates that the district court's total reliance on Stone v. City of Indianapolis Public Utilities Division, 281 F.3d 640 (7th Cir.2002) for determination of this issue is misplaced, we nevertheless conclude that there is no reversible error.

In relevant part, Title VII renders unlawful the discrimination against any employee for opposing an unlawful employment practice. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3a. An employee bringing a retaliation claim may use either the "direct" or "indirect" methods of proof to support her claim. Mannie v. Potter, 394 F.3d 977, 983 (7th Cir.2005). In order to successfully establish retaliation under the direct method of proof, Gates would have had to "[1] offer evidence that [she] engaged in a statutorily protected activity, [2] that the defendants subjected [her] to an adverse employment action and [3] that a causal connection exists between the two events." Treadwell v. Office of Ill. Sec'y of State, 455 F.3d 778, 781 (7th Cir.2006). The court below relied on Stone to conclude that "in pursuing retaliation claims under the direct method, a plaintiff must present direct evidence, that is an acknowledgement of discriminatory intent that does not require support from inferences." R. 33, p. 13. However, this Court recently has clarified that, notwithstanding Stone's "misleading dictum," "circumstantial evidence that is relevant and probative on any of the elements, of a direct case of retaliation may be admitted and, if proven to the satisfaction of the trier of fact, support a case of...