Guimaraes v. Supervalu, Inc.

Decision Date23 May 2012
Docket NumberNo. 11–1046.,11–1046.
Citation674 F.3d 962,114 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1032,95 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44460
PartiesKatia GUIMARAES, Appellant, v. SUPERVALU, INC., Appellee.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Daniel Gray Leland, argued, Clayton Dean Halunen and Frances Eva Baillon, on the brief, Minneapolis, MN, for appellant.

Julie Fleming–Wolfe, argued, St. Paul, MN, for appellee.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge, LOKEN and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

BENTON, Circuit Judge.

Katia Agiuiar Guimaraes sued her former employer SuperValu, Inc. for national-origin discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA). See 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e–2(a)(1), 2000e–3(a); Minn.Stat. §§ 363A.08, 363A.15. The district court 1 granted summary judgment to SuperValu, dismissing all claims with prejudice. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, this court affirms.

I.

Guimaraes, a native of Brazil, has dual Brazilian and Canadian citizenship. She speaks English with an accent; her native language is Portuguese. She moved from Brazil to Canada in April 2002 through a skilled-workers program. In October 2005, Albertson's Inc., a grocery retailer, hired her to work in its Boise, Idaho, headquarters as an Assistant Category Manager (ACM). Her review with Albertson's was positive, rating her overall performance “above expectations.” SuperValu, a grocery retailer and wholesaler, acquired Albertson's in 2006. Guimaraes accepted an ACM position with SuperValu, relocating to its Minneapolis headquarters in 2007.

Lisa Delia Bautista Grubbs 2 joined SuperValu as a manager in January 2008. She is from Mexico and someone introduced her to Guimaraes, mistakenly stating the two could speak Spanish together. The two laughed at the misunderstanding. Later that day, Grubbs approached Guimaraes about getting lunch together, because Grubbs was new to SuperValu and wanted to meet people. Over lunch, each shared her story of coming here, with Grubbs saying she wanted to go to Brazil.

At Albertson's and SuperValu, Guimaraes worked under an H–1B visa, an employer-sponsored non-immigrant visa allowing temporary residence for specialty workers and requiring renewal after three years. In early 2008, Guimaraes renewed her visa. SuperValu sponsored the renewal, posted her job internally and externally, interviewed U.S. residents, and certified that none were more qualified than Guimaraes. SuperValu also sponsored her application to be a legal permanent resident and receive her “green card.” 3

In March 2008, SuperValu blended its management with Albertson's, in a “SUPERFusion” restructuring. After SUPERFusion, each product's marketing is assigned to a team of three employees: a Business Development Manager (BDM), a Business Support Manager (BSM), and a Business Support Specialist (BSS). The BDM manages the other two, reporting to a Director. Guimaraes became the BSM for the Print Media/Checkout product category. Although the core responsibilities remained the same, Guimaraes's new role as a BSM was broader than as an ACM, requiring wholesale as well as retail marketing. She estimated her workload increased by 20 percent.

In May 2008, Grubbs became Guimaraes's BDM. At about the same time, Guimaraes's annual review was due. Because of the BDM change, Lanny L. Hoffmeyer (her second-level supervisor) completed the review, rating her an overall 3 of 5 or “consistently meets expectations.” Grubbs signed the review and discussed it with Guimaraes. Guimaraes received a 9.14 percent merit raise in June.

Once Grubbs began supervising her, Guimaraes disagreed with the assignment of work, believing that Grubbs was giving her tasks meant for either Grubbs or the BSS. Guimaraes, however, waited to raise a complaint, believing the mistakes were due to Grubbs's inexperience and would be corrected.

In July 2008, Grubbs asked Guimaraes to perform a task that Guimaraes particularly believed was meant for Grubbs. Guimaraes responded she already had too much on her desk and thought it was Grubbs's responsibility. At Guimaraes's request, the two met. Grubbs asked Guimaraes to describe the work on her desk and then told her how to handle it better. Guimaraes stated that Grubbs was improperly delegating her work and giving unreasonable time frames for tasks. Grubbs said that the company demands a lot from Guimaraes and the BSS, and that they needed to work harder or be replaced. Guimaraes responded that she felt threatened and did not think a boss should talk to her employees that way. Grubbs felt insulted by Guimaraes's response and said she would never talk to her boss like that. Guimaraes said she was only giving honest feedback (as Grubbs had requested when she became BDM).

The next day, Guimaraes met with Hoffmeyer—who had already heard about the meeting from Grubbs—because she was worried Grubbs may have gotten some things wrong about the need for honest feedback. He suggested that it was up to Guimaraes, the subordinate, to smooth things over with Grubbs, the boss. Guimaraes requested that the three of them together address the issues. Hoffmeyer promised to schedule a discussion within five days, but did not.

After the July meeting, Grubbs's behavior toward Guimaraes changed. Grubbs often became upset with her; did not help when requested; acted as if she could not understand her and constantly asked her to repeat herself 4; rolled her eyes, smirked, and walked away when she was speaking; asked her to repeat Grubbs's directions verbatim; and excluded her from meetings with vendors, which made her job more difficult. Grubbs also began to criticize Guimaraes's job performance, claiming she did not prioritize her work, missed project deadlines, did not promptly reply to emails, and could not communicate effectively. Grubbs did not treat the BSS, her other subordinate, the same way. Grubbs never referred to Guimaraes's accent or made derogatory comments about her being from Brazil.

Guimaraes again asked Hoffmeyer to schedule a meeting to discuss the issues raised in the July meeting, because her attempts to fix the situation had failed. Hoffmeyer agreed, setting up the meeting on August 19. At that meeting, Grubbs and Hoffmeyer gave Guimaraes a diagram prepared by Grubbs, clarifying the roles of the BDM, BSM, and BSS. Guimaraes was surprised that the meeting did not address what happened in July. She disagreed with Grubbs's characterization of her responsibilities as the BSM, specifically “pulling data,” which she considered beneath her pay scale and properly the duty of the BSS.

After the August meeting, Grubbs and Guimaraes were supposed to meet weekly to discuss Guimaraes's need for improvement. Sometimes Grubbs rescheduled or canceled the meetings; it is not clear how many actually occurred. Guimaraes considered them a “set-up,” because Grubbs continued to criticize her without giving meaningful assistance. Guimaraes disagreed with the criticism based on her years of experience. At the end of every meeting, Grubbs told Guimaraes she was not improving.

On Friday, October 3, Grubbs met with Richele Lynn Butler,5 the human resources partner for her department, to discuss Guimaraes's performance issues and to initiate disciplinary action. Butler told Grubbs she was about to leave the office for two weeks to get married and asked whether Grubbs wanted to work with another HR partner or await her return. Grubbs—with Hoffmeyer's input—decided to wait.

Later in October, Hoffmeyer told Guimaraes that Grubbs was still dissatisfied with her performance. He suggested Guimaraes meet with HR to seek out a different position within the company. She met with Katie Held, an HR partner, on October 15. While inquiring about other positions, Guimaraes told Held that Grubbs was discriminating against her. She did not mention a basis (or any specifics) of the discrimination. Held took notes and told Guimaraes to schedule a meeting with Butler, the HR partner for Guimaraes's department, when she returned from her honeymoon.

On October 20, Butler returned to work, reviewed Held's notes, and decided to investigate before beginning the disciplinary process requested by Grubbs over two weeks before. On October 23, Butler met with Guimaraes, who complained about Grubbs's discriminatory treatment and—for the first time—linked it to her accent and national origin. Specifically, she said that Grubbs's practice of asking her to repeat herself was linked to her accent and that was linked to her national origin. Butler responded, “I'm sorry you think that way.” Butler took notes during the meeting, but did not write anything about national-origin discrimination.

The next day, Butler met with Grubbs and Hoffmeyer to investigate Guimaraes's allegations. Butler took notes, which again did not mention national-origin discrimination. Grubbs denied any discrimination or mistreatment of Guimaraes. Hoffmeyer confirmed that Grubbs's expectations for Guimaraes were no different than for any other BSM. Butler ultimately sided with Grubbs and did not further investigate.

Some time in September or October, Grubbs went to lunch with Donna Roberts, another SuperValu employee. Grubbs told Roberts she was “targeting Katia Guimaraes, and that she was trying to get Katia fired and stop Katia's Green Card process.” Grubbs then complained about how long it would take to terminate her. She also told Roberts she stood outside the window during the August meeting between Guimaraes and Hoffmeyer to glare at Hoffmeyer and was purposefully cold to him after the meeting in order to show she was upset he was talking to Guimaraes about her. Grubbs boasted that the manipulation worked and he had taken her side. Roberts responded that Grubbs should try to get along with Guimaraes, which prompted Grubbs to ignore Roberts for weeks. (Roberts did not tell anyone at SuperValu...

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