Watson v. Heartland Health Labs., Inc.

• Decision Date: 25 June 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–2402.,14–2402.
• Citation: 790 F.3d 856
• Parties: Chavonya WATSON, Plaintiff–Appellant v. HEARTLAND HEALTH LABORATORIES, INC., Defendant–Appellee Michelle Gaunt, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

790 F.3d 856

Chavonya WATSON, Plaintiff–Appellant

v.HEARTLAND HEALTH LABORATORIES, INC., Defendant–Appellee

Michelle Gaunt, Defendant.

No. 14–2402.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Feb. 10, 2015.

Filed: June 25, 2015.

Mark A. Buchanan, Kansas City, MO, argued (Ryan M. Paulus, Hollingshead, Paulus & Eccher, Kansas City, MO, on the brief), for appellant.

James A. Durbin, Swanson Midgley, LLC, Kansas City, MO, argued, for appellee.

Before LOKEN, SMITH, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Chavonya Watson appeals the district court's¹ grant of summary judgment in favor of her former employer, Heartland Health Laboratories, Inc. (“Heartland”), on her claims of hostile work environment, constructive discharge, and retaliation under the Missouri Human Rights Act (MHRA). We affirm.

I. Background

Heartland provides laboratory services, including blood work, to facilities that provide long-term healthcare. Watson, an African–American woman, began working for Heartland as a route phlebotomist on June 18, 2012. As a route phlebotomist, Watson's workday included traveling to several facilities, drawing blood and collecting urine or stool samples from those facilities' patients, and returning to the Heartland lab for a few hours to process the samples that had been collected that day. As a new employee, Watson was subject to a 90–day probationary period.

Watson's route included Plaza Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center (“Plaza Manor”). According to her testimony, Watson spent “[a] couple hours” at this facility each day. Watson worked on both the second and the third floors at Plaza Manor. Watson was assigned to draw blood from Charles Ramsey, a third-floor patient.

On September 10, 2012, Ramsey physically accosted Watson. While Watson was attempting to draw Ramsey's blood, he began touching Watson on the inside of her thigh and moved his hand upward. Watson told Ramsey to stop and brushed his hand away several times. When Ramsey touched her “crotch area,” Watson took a different strategy and knelt down to draw Ramsey's blood. At this point, Ramsey “started putting his hand up the side of [Watson] because [her] crotch was no longer in his reach.” After she stopped attempting to draw his blood because of the continued touching, Ramsey “grabbed the back of [Watson's] neck to try to kiss [her].” Watson left Ramsey's room and reported the incident to her employer.

Watson called her phlebotomist team lead, Michelle Gaunt. Gaunt testified that she relayed the information to the phlebotomy supervisor, Tina Akers. Watson testified that she was able to finish the rest of her workday. By 12:24 p.m. that same day, Gaunt entered an alert in Heartland's file on Ramsey stating “[s]end male only to draw.” Watson conceded that “Heartland ... took prompt action to make sure [she] never provided medical services for ... Ramsey after [she] made the complaint.” Further, the record reflects that Heartland's Sales Manager, David Clay, contacted Plaza Manor's Assistant Director of Nursing, Wayne Herring, to address the incident that same day, to which Herring communicated “that he would take care of the situation.” Upon returning to the lab at the end of her workday, Watson testified that she asked Gaunt and another team lead, Trisha Davis, if she “could possibly ... transfer [Plaza Manor] or trade [Plaza Manor]” so that it would no longer be a part of her daily route. Watson testified that both team leads responded affirmatively. Watson testified that when she requested a route change from Akers, however, Akers told her “no, that [Watson] was hired to do that route and if [she] didn't do that route then [she] wouldn't have a job.” Watson continued to go to Plaza Manor as a part of her route.

Watson no longer had to provide services to Ramsey and risk further physical contact while working at Plaza Manor; however, Ramsey still managed to verbally assault Watson on several occasions. On September 11, 2012, while Watson was walking past Ramsey in a hallway, Ramsey called her “just a bunch of b[* * * * *]s and n[* * * *]r b[* * * * *]s.” According to Watson, this contact lasted only “[s]econds.” Watson testified that she reported this incident to Gaunt when she returned to the lab later that day.

The second incident happened a few days later when Ramsey saw Watson leaving the elevator. Ramsey declared “that they were going to put him out.” Watson also confirmed that this incident lasted “[j]ust a couple of seconds.” Watson understood Ramsey's statement to mean that Plaza Manor was going to remove Ramsey from the facility, but she was never notified specifically when this would happen. The third incident was similar to the second. When Watson was leaving the elevator, Ramsey was again walking by and said to another patient that “[t]his b[* * *]h is getting me put out.” Watson notified Akers of Ramsey's continued verbal abuses, to which Akers allegedly responded that “it comes with the territory.”

The fourth incident happened sometime later when Ramsey was “hanging out of his door and he saw [Watson] and he came down to the nurses station and just stood there and stared at [Watson] the whole time [she] was there.” Watson admitted that this incident was “offputting,” but that Ramsey did not “harass [her] sexually” or “harass [her] racially in any way.”

The fifth incident happened when Watson was walking past Ramsey's room and “he called [her] a b[* * *]h.” A nurse standing nearby heard the comment and immediately confronted Ramsey.

The sixth incident happened when Watson was assigned to draw the blood of Ramsey's roommate. When Watson got the assignment and went to the patient's room, she did not realize that the patient was Ramsey's new roommate. Upon arriving at Ramsey's room, Ramsey promptly asked her “what the f[* *]k are you doing over here[?]” Watson confirmed that this incident only “lasted a couple of seconds.” Watson called Gaunt, who told Watson that she would have another person draw Ramsey's roommate's blood. Watson testified that when she returned to the lab later that day, however, Gaunt told her that she should have drawn the roommate's blood and that Gaunt said she was going to write Watson up for failing to do so. Watson never saw this write-up, nor was she asked to sign the write-up. Heartland's policy for disciplinary procedures requires employees to sign write-ups.

The seventh and last incident happened on Friday, September 21, 2013. Watson was waiting for an elevator when Ramsey walked past her and said “[t]hey're putting me out, bitch. I'm going to get you.” Watson confirmed that this incident “lasted less than a minute” because Ramsey “kept walking as he was saying it.”

The next Monday, September 24, 2012, Watson sent a text message to someone at Heartland saying that she had a flat tire. Watson did not come into work that day or the succeeding two days. Coincidentally, September 24 was the same day that Ramsey was removed from Plaza Manor. Watson testified that “there was nobody else [at Plaza Manor] I had a problem with but just [Ramsey].” Watson even confirmed that “if [she] had gone to work that day, [her] problem would have been alleviated[.]”

Under Heartland's employment policy, an employee is considered to have voluntarily abandoned his or her job after two consecutive days of absence without properly notifying Heartland. Thus, by September 26, Heartland considered Watson to have abandoned her job. On September 24–26, Heartland called Watson and left multiple voicemail messages for her. Watson admitted that she “stopped answering [her] phone for [Heartland], [even though] they were leaving [her] messages but [she] was deleting them. [She] didn't even listen to them.” Watson returned to Heartland's lab on September 27, 2012, to return their equipment. Heartland's position has always been that if not for her voluntary abandonment, Watson would still have a job at Heartland.

During her short employment at Heartland, Watson received several disciplinary write-ups. She received a write-up on August 14 and a verbal warning on August 16, 2012, both of which she considered legitimate. Contemporaneous with Ramsey's offensive conduct, Watson also received two disciplinary warnings. On September 13, 2012, she received a verbal warning for an incident unrelated to Ramsey. Watson agreed that the verbal warning was legitimate and that the document recording the incident accurately described what actually happened. On September 18, 2012, Watson received another warning for an incident that happened while she was working away from Plaza Manor. Watson contests the legitimacy of this warning, which was for her alleged failure to draw blood from a patient who refused to permit it. Based on these warnings, Watson suffered no adverse consequences, was not “docked,” was never “told not to report to work,” and her “job assignments [were not] changed in any manner.”

Also on September 18, 2012, Watson was notified that Heartland was extending her 90–day probationary period. Watson confirmed that Heartland “believe[d] that [her] missing so much work interfered with [her] consistency” and that she “needed to have 30 days without an absence” because she “hadn't gone 30 days without an absence up to [that] point.” Further, Watson admitted that she “didn't have a problem with extending the period” because she “needed more time ... to be consistent and things like that.”

Watson filed the instant lawsuit alleging violations of the MHRA. Watson alleged that Ramsey's actions constituted sexual and racial harassment that created a hostile work environment, that Heartland constructively discharged her, and that Heartland retaliated against her when she reported Ramsey's harassment. The district court granted Heartland summary judgment on all of Watson's claims. First, the district court found that Ramsey's actions were not enough to affect a term, condition, or privilege of Watson's employment to constitute a hostile work...