Moffett v. Gene B. Glick Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 21 October 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. No. F 84-250.
• Citation: 621 F. Supp. 244
• Parties: Susan K. MOFFETT (formerly Susan K. Partin), Plaintiff, v. GENE B. GLICK CO., INC., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

621 F. Supp. 244

Susan K. MOFFETT (formerly Susan K. Partin), Plaintiff, v. GENE B. GLICK CO., INC., Defendant.

Civ. No. F 84-250.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.

October 21, 1985.

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Ernest M. Beal, Jr., John S. Knight, Parrish, Knight, Jackson & Beal, Fort Wayne, Ind., for plaintiff.

James F. Beatty, James W. Beatty, Virginia Dill McCarty, Landman & Beatty, Indianapolis, Ind., Richard J. Thonert, Fort Wayne, Ind., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND JUDGMENT

WILLIAM C. LEE, District Judge.

This matter is before the court for a decision on the merits following a bench trial. This case deals with alleged violations of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5, and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, as well as state causes of action, arising out of plaintiff's employment with, and eventual termination by, the defendant company. Trial lasted thirteen days, with the court hearing testimony on March 18-21, April 17-19, May 6-8 and 20-21, 1985, and final arguments on August 19, 1985. The trial transcript is 2,423 pages long, and the court heard testimony from twenty-seven witnesses and received over 175 exhibits in evidence. The parties filed 384 pages of trial and supplemental trial briefs. The court has carefully reviewed this entire record. Having examined and considered this extensive record, having determined the credibility of the witnesses after viewing their demeanor and considering their interests, and being duly advised, the court hereby enters the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law pursuant to Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Findings of Fact

The plaintiff, Susan K. Moffett, formerly known as Susan K. Partin ("Partin"), is an adult, white female who currently resides in Houston, Texas. The defendant, Gene B. Glick Company, Inc. ("Glick"), is an Indiana corporation with its principal place of business in Indiana. Glick's corporate headquarters are located in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Glick manages apartment complexes in fourteen states, including Indiana. It manages approximately 20,000 apartment units, and is heavily involved in federal subsidy and housing assistance programs. In the Fort Wayne, Indiana area, Glick manages six complexes, including Cambridge Square Phases I and II.

Glick had a specific managerial hierarchy for managing the apartment complexes. At each complex, a Rental Manager was primarily responsible for the operations of the complex. According to the Rental Manager's job description, "all community rental and maintenance personnel are under the supervision of the Rental Manager." However, that same job description made it clear that the maintenance staff was not exclusively controlled or supervised by the Rental Manager:

With regard to maintenance, the Regional Maintenance Supervisor RMS serves in a staff capacity and assists the Rental Manager by performing the hiring, training and supervisory function. It is the Rental Manager's responsibility to ensure that the project is maintained to GGMC standards, but not to become involved in the day to day scheduling of maintenance activities ... If there is a problem and the project is not up to standards, the Rental Manager is to request that the Maintenance Superintendent take specific corrective action .... If appropriate action is not taken by the Maintenance Superintendent, then she is to request the assistance of the RMS — and then the Regional Property Manager, as a last resort.

Ex. F (emphasis added). The supervisory capacity of the Rental Manager over the maintenance staff was thus largely nominal. She supervised them to the extent that they were on the complex's grounds, but she did not hire, fire, train, or get involved in daily maintenance staff performance. When she had a problem with maintenance staff performance, she could not go directly to the staff; instead, she had to go to the Maintenance Superintendent, the Regional Superintendent or the Regional Property Manager. Thus, while Glick recognized the Rental Manager as the highest ranking employee at a complex, the maintenance staff was more independent of than subordinate to the Rental Manager.¹

At each complex, a Rental Assistant helped the Rental Manager run the complex, although many Rental Assistants split their time at two complexes. In the managerial hierarchy, the Rental Assistant was below the Rental Manager.

Over the Rental Managers was the Regional Property Manager, who acted as immediate supervisor of several Rental Managers in a given region. At all times relevant to this case, the Regional Property Manager for Glick's Cambridge Square complexes was Becky Altmanshofer ("Altmanshofer"). Her immediate supervisor was Jack Kline, a Glick Division Manager.

On July 7, 1981, Partin was hired as a Rental Assistant at the Cambridge Square complex in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As part of the hiring process, she was given a battery of tests, and received an overall rating of "excellent" from Altmanshofer. At that time, the Rental Manager at Cambridge Square was Deb Smith.

In Fall, 1981, Joseph Mickilini ("Mickilini") began working at Cambridge Square as an Assistant Maintenance Superintendent. Partin and Mickilini became good friends, in part because Mickilini was dating Deb Collier, a groundsperson at Cambridge Square who had become Partin's closest friend. Partin, Mickilini and other members of the Cambridge Square staff socialized together frequently.

In the spring of 1982, Glick decided to split the Cambridge Square complex into two "phases," in effect making two complexes out of one. On June 2, 1982, Glick promoted Partin to the position of Rental Manager for Phase II, effective June 26, 1982. In November, 1982, Partin became the Rental Manager at Phase I, and stayed in that position until her termination in August, 1983.

In February, 1982, Harry Hall ("Hall"), a Maintenance Superintendent at Fairington, another Glick Complex in Fort Wayne, was transferred to Cambridge Square because of a sexual harassment charge filed against Glick.² When Cambridge Square split into two phases, Hall became the Maintenance Superintendent for Phase I, and remained in that position when Partin became the Rental Manager at Phase I. Prior to that managerial change, Hall and Partin had become acquainted because Partin was Rental Assistant at Phase I until June, 1982, and remained in the Phase I office even after becoming Rental Manager at Phase II because Glick had kept the Phase I and II rental offices together.

While Partin was still Rental Manager at Phase II, she met John Moffett ("Moffett"), a black male who, in April, 1982, became a resident at Phase II. During the summer of 1982, Moffett frequently visited the rental office at Cambridge Square, became casual friends with Partin and acquainted with other Cambridge Square employees, including Hall and Mickilini.

During Summer, 1982, Hall and Mickilini began calling Moffett "Black Bart" in conversations with other Glick employees.³ The practice increased in frequency, and by Fall, 1982, Hall and Mickilini even called Moffett "Black Bart" to his face. Partin requested that use of the term be stopped because she believed that it hurt Moffett to hear it, but neither Hall nor Mickilini stopped.

In October, 1982, Partin began dating Moffett casually, and in November, 1982, the relationship became more serious. Mickilini, who learned of the relationship through Deb Collier and through Moffett's presence at Partin's house when Mickilini would visit, was displeased with the relationship. In October, 1982, after observing Partin and Moffett leaving the rental office at the end of the day, Mickilini motioned Partin over to the maintenance garage and asked whether Moffett was trying to get Partin to go out with him. Upon learning that Moffett was, Mickilini became upset and said, "Hey, if you go out with that goddamn nigger, I'm going to kick your ass ... You should have learned from the last one," referring to a previous relationship Partin had with a black man.

In November, 1982, a second incident occurred. Mickilini had been storing his motorcycle in the maintenance garage, but was asked to remove it. He therefore asked Partin if he could store the motorcycle in her garage. Partin agreed, provided that Mickilini cleaned out the garage and promised to have the motorcycle removed from the garage by the first snowfall, when Partin would need to start keeping her car in it so that it would start in the morning. Mickilini agreed, and stored the bike there for a period of time. Partin eventually asked Mickilini to remove the bike. Mickilini asked about who would be using the garage. Upon finding out that Moffett had asked Partin if he could keep his Trans-Am in the garage, Mickilini said that "there is no way I'm going to come get the bike and move it out for any goddamn nigger's Trans-Am."

Racially and sexually oriented comments at the Phase I rental office became commonplace in November-December, 1982. Mickilini and Hall referred to Partin as a "nigger lover," "stupid cunt," "whore," and "dirty bitch" on a regular, daily basis. They warned her that one day she was going to wake up and be black, and that no good white man would ever want her after he knew that she had slept with a black man.

Despite Partin's entreaties, the comments did not stop. In fact, Hall and Mickilini began to threaten Partin that they would tell Altmanshofer about Partin's dating a black man, which they said would get Partin fired. Partin decided to bring the situation to Altmanshofer's attention. At a dinner in early December, 1982, with Moffett, Altmanshofer and herself present, Partin informed Altmanshofer of the situation developing at work and of Hall's and Mickilini's use of terms such as "nigger" and "nigger lover."⁴ Feeling that she should and could...