Booth v. Houston

• Citation: 58 F.Supp.3d 1277
• Decision Date: 03 November 2014
• Docket Number: Case No. 2:13–CV–903–WKW.
• Parties: Lee R. BOOTH, Plaintiff, v. Randall V. HOUSTON, 19th Circuit District Attorney, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama

58 F.Supp.3d 1277

Lee R. BOOTH, Plaintiff

v.Randall V. HOUSTON, 19th Circuit District Attorney, Defendant.

Case No. 2:13–CV–903–WKW.

United States District Court, M.D. Alabama, Northern Division.

Signed Nov. 3, 2014.

Ashley Nicole Penhale, Copeland Franco Screws & Gill PA, Elizabeth Peyton Faulk, The Law Offices of E. Peyton Faulk, LLC, Montgomery, AL, for Plaintiff.

Benjamin Howard Albritton, Jr., Jack Wilfred Wallace, Jr., Alabama Attorney General's Office, Montgomery, AL, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

W. KEITH WATKINS, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff Lee R. Booth suffered damage to her vocal cords after being on a ventilator for eleven days during an extended hospitalization in August 2009. Upon returning to her job as an assistant district attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit of Alabama, which she had held since August 2004, Plaintiff contends that her employer discriminated against her based upon her speech disability, retaliated against her for opposing unlawful discrimination, and ultimately constructively discharged her in April 2013, in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. Before the court is Defendant's motion for summary judgment (Doc. # 16), which has been fully briefed (Docs. # 17–18, 20–21, 25). After careful consideration of the arguments of counsel, the relevant law, and the record as a whole, the court finds that Defendant's motion is due to be granted in part and denied in part.

I. JURISDICTION AND VENUE

The court exercises subject-matter jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1331. Personal jurisdiction and venue are uncontested.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

To succeed on summary judgment, the movant must demonstrate “that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and [he] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(a). The court must view the evidence and the inferences from that evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. Jean–Baptiste v. Gutierrez, 627 F.3d 816, 820 (11th Cir.2010).

The party moving for summary judgment “always bears the initial responsibility of informing the district court of the basis for its motion.” Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). This responsibility includes identifying the portions of the record illustrating the absence of a genuine dispute of material fact. Id.; Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(1)(A). Or, the movant can assert, without citing the record, that the nonmoving party “cannot produce admissible evidence to support” a material fact. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(1)(B). If the movant meets its burden, the burden shifts to the nonmoving party to establish—with evidence beyond the pleadings—that a genuine dispute material to each of its claims for relief exists. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548. A genuine dispute of material fact exists when the nonmoving party produces evidence allowing a reasonable fact finder to return a verdict in its favor. Waddell v. Valley Forge Dental Assocs., 276 F.3d 1275, 1279 (11th Cir.2001).

III. BACKGROUND

A. Plaintiff's First Five Years as an Assistant District Attorney

On August 16, 2004, Defendant Randall Houston, district attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit of Alabama, appointed Plaintiff as a full-time assistant district attorney. The 19th Judicial Circuit includes Autauga, Chilton, and Elmore counties. Plaintiff began her employment in the Elmore County division, prosecuting cases in district court and traffic court, but at some point later, she began prosecuting felony cases in circuit court. (Pl.'s Dep., at 16.)

In September 2008, Plaintiff received a raise, and in April 2009, Defendant promoted Plaintiff to senior assistant district attorney. For the first five years of her employment, Defendant described Plaintiff as a “loyal and faithful employee” who made “conscientious decisions based on her interpretation of [his] prosecutorial philosophy.” (Def.'s Aff., at 1.) But Defendant's opinion of Plaintiff's job performance was soon to change.

B. Plaintiff's Illness, Vocal Cord Damage, and Return to Work with Accommodations

In August 2009, after five years serving as an assistant district attorney, Plaintiff contracted a sepsis infection, requiring hospitalization. While hospitalized, her condition worsened and became critical, and for eleven days, she was on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma. Her condition stabilized, but important to this litigation, the ventilator caused damage to Plaintiff's vocal cords.

Plaintiff returned to work after fifty-two days paid leave. Although Plaintiff was able to speak, her voice had a low volume, which required “amplification in a courtroom.” (Pl.'s Dep., at 36.) To help Plaintiff transition back into her position, Defendant assigned an intern to assist Plaintiff with her day-to-day responsibilities. Additionally, a speaker system was installed in the courtrooms to accommodate Plaintiff's lack of vocal volume. Plaintiff agrees that the technology in the Elmore County courtrooms, which included microphones at counsel's table, adequately accommodated her voice impairment. (Pl.'s Dep., at 36–37.)

C. Additional Surgeries and Medical Leave

Post-dating her return to work in 2009, Plaintiff has undergone nine surgeries to help improve her breathing and voice quality. Her speaking impairment has improved with each reparative surgery (see Pl.'s Dep., at 35–36); however, as of April 2014, as indicated in her medical records, Plaintiff continues to have a mildly “low” and “[r]aspy” voice, and her “[v]oice quality [is] abnormal for [her] age and gender.” (Apr.2014 Clinic Notes (Doc. # 21–7, at 4).) Plaintiff's physician notes that, although her voice has improved when “speaking in quiet environments,” it “is still very weak” when there is “background noise.” Her physician also rendered the following postoperative diagnoses: “chronic hoarseness,” “laryngeal insufficiency,” “right true vocal fold motion restriction,” “posterior commissure web status post reconstruction,” and “secondary laryngomalacia from surgical treatment of # 4.” (Apr.2014 Clinic Notes.)

It is undisputed that Defendant never denied Plaintiff leave or benefits for her medical absences. (Pl.'s Dep., at 34; see also Order on Pretrial H'rg, at 6 (Doc. # 50), in which Plaintiff stipulates that she “was provided with all the leave she requested and was never denied leave.”) Plaintiff also says that, when she took leave for additional surgeries, her leave was not “excessive” and that she tried to “make sure that [she] either had something continued” or “that the cases were worked up, and [that she had] talked to people about the cases that [she] had.” (Pl.'s Dep., at 31–32.)

D. Plaintiff's Work Performance Issues from Defendant's Perspective¹

Within a few months of Plaintiff's return to work in 2009 after her initial hospitalization, James Houts, who at the time was the chief deputy district attorney and Plaintiff's supervisor, complained to Defendant that Plaintiff was not able to “multi-task,” was “not supervising effectively,” “wasn't doing her work,” and “was in and out of the office all the time.” (Def.'s Dep., at 73, 74; see also Def.'s Aff., at 1.) Mr. Houts recommended that Defendant terminate Plaintiff based on “her inability to do her job effectively and excessive absences from work, which for the most part, were due to post medical events.” (Def.'s Aff., at 1.) Defendant did not concur with the recommendation and suggested that Mr. Houts discuss these issues directly with Plaintiff and give her “an opportunity to correct whatever it was he was not happy with.” (Def.'s Dep., at 73–74.) Defendant believed that Plaintiff “needed additional time to recover and [that] her inability to multi-task was mostly due to the stress of returning to work after her illness.” (Def.'s Aff., at 2.) It is unclear from the record whether Mr. Houts discussed his concerns with Plaintiff. Defendant says, though, that Mr. Houts removed Plaintiff from assisting with scheduling docket events for Elmore County and that he “do[es] not think that [Mr. Houts] mentioned [Plaintiff's performance] to [him] again.” (Def.'s Aff., at 2.)

During the same time frame, Beverley Stone, Defendant's chief of staff and director of special services, also began receiving complaints on a weekly basis from employees in the Elmore County office, primarily from support staff and interns. They complained that Plaintiff “was passing off her own work to others to complete,” was “frequently leaving the office for unknown reasons,” and generally was not available to provide direction to the staff. (Stone's Aff., at 2.) Because these individuals did not want to confront Plaintiff with their concerns and risk “hurt[ing] her feelings,” Ms. Stone informed them that “there was nothing [she] could do.” (Stone's Aff., at 2.)

At least once, Ms. Stone “casually spoke” with Defendant about some of the “morale problems” she believed that Plaintiff's job performance created in the Elmore County office, but Defendant “instructed [Ms. Stone] to try to get everyone to work with [Plaintiff] until she got back to 100%.” (Stone's Aff., at 3.) Ms. Stone had at least one meeting with Plaintiff in late 2009 or early 2010 to address concerns that her leave resulting from the combination of her and her family members' medical appointments was excessive. Plaintiff “became very aggressive” when Ms. Stone suggested that Plaintiff try to find other family members or friends to help cover some of her family appointments. (Stone's Aff., at 3.)

Notwithstanding the complaints about Plaintiff's job performance, and Defendant's concerns about Plaintiff's steady decline in work performance, in March 2011, Defendant awarded a discretionary merit-based pay raise exclusively to Plaintiff, and a month later, Plaintiff received an additional two-percent, across-the-board raise. (Def.'s Dep., at 48–50.) When Plaintiff thanked Defendant by email for the merit raise, he replied, “You deserve it, wish it could be much...