Doe v. RR Donnelley & Sons Co.

• Citation: 843 F. Supp. 1278
• Decision Date: 24 January 1994
• Docket Number: No. IP 93-524C.,IP 93-524C.
• Parties: Jane DOE and Mr. Jane Doe, Plaintiffs, v. R.R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: United States District Courts. 7th Circuit. United States District Court (Southern District of Indiana)

843 F. Supp. 1278

Jane DOE and Mr. Jane Doe, Plaintiffs, v. R.R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY, Defendant.

No. IP 93-524C.

United States District Court, S.D. Indiana, Indianapolis Division.

January 24, 1994.

Divina K. Westerfield, Westerfield & Associates, Carmel, IN, for plaintiffs.

Richard H. Schnadig, C. Elizabeth Belmont, Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz, Chicago, IL, Ariane Schallwig Johnson, Locke Reynolds Boyd & Weisell, Indianapolis, IN, for defendant.

BARKER, Chief Judge.

Defendant R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company ("Donnelley") moves for summary judgment on Counts I and II of Plaintiffs Mr. and Mrs. Jane Doe's ("Plaintiffs") Complaint. Defendant also moves to dismiss Counts III and IV of the Complaint. For the reasons stated below, we grant defendant's motion for summary judgment as to Counts I and II and defendant's motion to dismiss Counts III and IV.

BACKGROUND

Donnelley prints and binds encyclopedias and books at its two plants (North and South) in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Plaintiff Mrs. Jane Doe has worked for Donnelley for eleven years as a Production Expeditor, first temporarily and then after April 1985, regularly at the North Plant bindery, where she packaged and shipped her department's finished products. Throughout her bindery employment from April, 1985 to late December 1989, Charles Stewart supervised Plaintiff.

Plaintiff contends that during her employment with Donnelley, Stewart sexually harassed her by: 1) commenting on her clothing and stating that he thought she would "look nice in a bodysuit"; 2) asking what she wore to the gym when she worked out and what she wore at home and how she looked in it; 3) telling her how beautiful she was and asking her how much weight she had lost; 4) telling her during her 1988 annual performance evaluation, "don't ever have an affair at Donnelley's because it's not worth it, someone will always get burned"; 5) patting her rear end on two occasions and after being told that such conduct offended Plaintiff, saying that he would not do it again. At no time did Plaintiff report the incidents involving Stewart to another Donnelley manager or supervisor.

Plaintiff also told Anthony Malandro, the company's Human Resources Supervisor, during a meeting in which she was disciplined for her tardiness and other matters that a co-employee, Curt Buethe left four "heavy breathing" voice messages for her. Buethe, who had initiated the complaint about Plaintiff's tardiness, denies making any such calls. The claim concerning Buethe is the only sexual harassment complaint Plaintiff ever brought to the attention of any member of Donnelley's supervision or management.

Other incidents of sexual harassment during her employment with Donnelley which Plaintiff raised for the first time in her Complaint and depositions include: 1) co-worker Ron Brown's hugging her and kissing her hand on various times of her employment; 2) co-worker Mark Dagley's asking Plaintiff out on dates (even though she is married), inquiring if she tanned in the nude, questioning her about her lingerie and what she wore to bed, giving her a note which read "Fellatio — her on him/Cunninglus sic — him on her" and asking her if she knew what the words meant and asking Plaintiff whether she knew what "coitus interruptus" meant and explaining all terms to her; 3) co-worker Donny Williams' commenting that "whenever he wanted to feel good, he would come around and look at Plaintiff's breasts and that would make him happy" and asking her personal questions regarding her breasts and chest; 4) co-worker Bob Gilliland's telling Plaintiff that he "saw a singer in Las Vegas that looked like her and ... wished it had been her so that they could have fun together"; asking her "How about if you and I get a glass of sherry and go to a motel"; and on five other occasions, suggesting that Plaintiff and he "make love"; 5) co-worker Randy Stark's telephoning Plaintiff on three or four occasions and asking her what size her breasts were and stating when she visited the plant during her sick leave, "Good, now I can sexually harass you, because you are not with the Company anymore." Plaintiff never reported any of the above incidents involving her co-workers to any Donnelley manager or supervisor and never initiated any formal or informal complaint under Donnelley's policy prohibiting sexual harassment or the Company's internal grievance procedure.

In addition to all of these incidents of alleged harassment, Plaintiff claims that on September 10, 1992, around 8:00 p.m., she was raped by an unknown assailant while working in the South Plant's plate storage room after the lights had been turned off. After the rape, Plaintiff did not report the rape to anyone and returned to work, completing her shift. Donnelley was first apprised of the rape three months later when Plaintiff's lawyer informed the Crawfordsville plant manager about it. Plaintiff's husband first found out about the rape in the spring of 1993 when he opened mail addressed to Plaintiff from her lawyer.

Plaintiffs' Amended Complaint alleges four counts: Counts I and II are sexual harassment claims grounded in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Count III is a negligence claim based on premises liability for Plaintiff's rape; Count IV is a loss of consortium claim brought by Mr. Jane Doe.

II. DISCUSSION

A. SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

Under Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, summary judgment is proper "if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ. Proc. 56(c). In passing on a motion for summary judgment, the judge's role is not to evaluate the weight of the evidence or determine the truth of the matter, but it is instead to decide whether there is a genuine issue for trial. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The burden rests squarely on the party moving for summary judgment to show "that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case." Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2554, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). If doubts remain as to the existence of a material fact, then those doubts should be resolved in favor of the nonmoving party and summary judgment denied. See Wilson v. Williams, 997 F.2d 348, 350 (7th Cir.1993); Wolf v. City of Fitchburg, 870 F.2d 1327, 1330 (7th Cir.1989).

B. SEXUAL HARASSMENT CLAIMS

Title VII of the Civil Rights act of 1964 makes it "an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). A plaintiff may establish a violation of Title VII by proving that discrimination based on sex has created a hostile or abusive work environment. See Meritor Sav. Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 66, 106 S.Ct. 2399, 2405, 91 L.Ed.2d 49 (1986). An "abusive environment" arises when the workplace is permeated with "discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult," that is "sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment...." 477 U.S. at 65, 106 S.Ct. at 2405.

There are two categories of sexual harassment—quid pro quo and hostile environment. In quid pro quo harassment cases, an employer or supervisor requires sexual favors from an employee or subordinate to obtain a job benefit or to avoid a detriment. See A. Conte, Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Law and Practice (1990), at 15. In hostile environment harassment cases, no deal is sought or struck; however, the sexual harassment is so pervasive and debilitating to the employee that a hostile environment has been created from the verbal or physical abuses. Id.

1. Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment

We first consider whether quid pro quo harassment existed in this case. Plaintiff admitted in her deposition that during the course of her employment with Donnelley, no one offered to promote her in exchange for sexual favors nor did any manager or supervisor state that they would not take an adverse action against her in exchange for sexual favors. Deposition of Jane Doe, Vol. II, at 127. Plaintiff's only claim that in late 1989, a Donnelley supervisor told her that her supervisor Chuck Stewart promoted her to the head lay-up position because he "liked to look at her" does not meet the requirement for quid pro quo harassment. We find as a matter of law that no quid pro quo sexual harassment occurred.

2. Hostile Environment Sexual Harassment

Plaintiff's sexual harassment claims in Counts I and II rely therefore solely on a hostile environment sexual harassment theory. In order for a plaintiff to establish a prima facie case of sexual harassment based on "hostile work environment," she must show:

(1) that she was a member of a protected group; (2) that she was subjected to unwelcome sexual harassment in the form of sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature; (3) the harassment complained of was based upon sex; (4) the harassment had the effect of unreasonably interfering with her work performance in creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment or affected a term, condition, or privilege of employment.

See Meritor, 477 U.S. at 63-69, 106 S.Ct. at 2403-07; Cosgrove v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 9 F.3d 1033, 1042 (2d Cir.1993); Rennie v. Dalton, 3 F.3d 1100, 1107 (7th Cir.1993) (quoting Swanson v. Elmhurst Chrysler Plymouth, Inc., 882 F.2d 1235, 1237 (7th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1036, 110 S.Ct. 758, 107 L.Ed.2d 774 (1990)). Most recently, the Supreme Court has noted that to determine whether the plaintiffs work environment is...