Accurso v. United Airlines, Inc.

• Citation: 109 F.Supp.2d 953
• Decision Date: 23 August 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99 C 8423.,99 C 8423.
• Parties: Suzanne M. ACCURSO, Plaintiff, v. UNITED AIRLINES, INC. and Elise J. Jackson, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

109 F.Supp.2d 953

Suzanne M. ACCURSO, Plaintiff, v. UNITED AIRLINES, INC. and Elise J. Jackson, Defendants.

No. 99 C 8423.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

August 23, 2000.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Lori D. Ecker, Law Office of Lori D. Ecker, Chicago, IL, Richard J. Gonzalez, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff.

Paul R. Brockmeyer, Seyfarth, Shaw, Washington, D.C., Joel H. Kaplan, M. Andrew McGuire, Chicago, IL, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ALESIA, District Judge.

Before the court is defendants United Airlines, Incorporated and Elise J. Jackson's motion for summary judgment pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c). For the following reasons, the court grants defendants' motion for summary judgment.

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Suzanne M. Accurso ("Accurso"), a female Caucasian, worked for defendant United Airlines, Incorporated ("United") from 1986 until 1999 at O'Hare International Airport ("O'Hare"). Defendant Elise J. Jackson ("Jackson"), an African-American female, supervised Accurso.

United hired Accurso in 1986. During her employment, Accurso held various customer service positions and served as an instructor in the training department. In June of 1994, United promoted Accurso to Service Director. As Service Director, Accurso was responsible for ensuring that the customer service representatives under her direction complied with United's rules and regulations.

Until 1999, United had never disciplined Accurso. In fact, in 1994 and 1995, she received very good job-performance reviews.

In January of 1999, United's Manpower Office contacted Jackson to inquire into discrepancies between Accurso's payroll and vacation schedules. After reviewing Accurso's various schedules with Accurso and other supervisors, Jackson brought the discrepancy to her own immediate supervisor Diane LeBeau ("LeBeau"). To determine whether Accurso was working on the days in question, LeBeau asked Jackson to pull Accurso's translog report¹ for the period in question.

While reviewing Accurso's translog report, LeBeau noticed that on a number of days United payed Accurso for overtime yet her translog reports for those days showed no computer activity. (Accurso Dep. 55:21-24 & 56:1-2.) LeBeau then conducted a more thorough evaluation by also examining Accurso's proximity and city swipe cards² for the dates in question. This investigation revealed that Accurso had accepted payment for time she had not worked.

Around the same time, LeBeau also learned that Accurso violated numerous policies when she involved herself in United Flight Number 423 on which her friend, Jeff Glynn, and his friends were booked to fly. Accurso's involvement in this flight included: (1) using another customer service representative's computer to change the name of an individual flying and (2) off-loading Glynn and his party from the flight to issue voluntary denied boarding compensation worth $300 each.³

Based upon the investigation into Accurso's payroll and vacation discrepancies and Accurso's involvement in Flight Number 423, LeBeau made the decision to suspend Accurso without pay. Jackson signed the suspension letter and gave it to Accurso on February 8, 1999. Jackson then escorted Accurso out of O'Hare. According to Accurso, while escorting Accurso from the premises, Jackson responded to Accurso's objections of Jackson's more favorable treatment of African-American employees by stating "some people deserve my protection" and "some people don't cause as much trouble as you do." (Pl.'s Dep. at 193:8-12.)

Following a formal hearing, LeBeau made the decision to terminate Accurso's employment and drafted a letter setting forth the reasons for her termination. Jackson then signed and delivered this letter to Accurso.

During the third-step of the appeal process, Accurso asserted for the first time that she believed her employment was terminated because she had encouraged customer service representatives to assert their complaints of reverse discrimination. Despite this, after a four-step appeal process, Accurso's termination was affirmed by United.

Accurso brought this suit against United and Jackson (collectively "defendants") pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ("§ 1981"), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq. and 28 U.S.C. § 1367. In Counts I, II and V, Accurso alleges that defendants retaliated against her for encouraging others to complain about reverse discrimination in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3. In Counts III, IV and VI, Accurso alleges that defendants discriminated against her because she is Caucasian when they suspended her and terminated her employment. In Count VII, Accurso alleges that United breached an employment contract with her when it suspended and terminated her employment. Finally, in Count VIII, Accurso alleges that Jackson interfered with Accurso's employment relationship with United.

The matter is currently before the court on the defendants' motion for summary judgment. The defendants contend that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Counts I-VI because (1) Accurso has failed to establish a prima facie case of retaliation or discrimination and (2) even if Accurso has established a prima facie case, Accurso is unable to establish that the defendants' legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for suspending and terminating her employment are pretextual. The defendants also contend that they are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on Counts VII and VIII because Accurso has failed to establish the requisite elements of each cause of action.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard for deciding a motion for summary judgment

A motion for 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.P. 56(c). A genuine issue of material fact exists for trial when, in viewing the record and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in a light most favorable to the non-moving party, a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the non-movant. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Smith v. Severn, 129 F.3d 419, 425 (7th Cir.1997).

The burden is on the moving party to show that no genuine issues of material fact exist. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson, 477 U.S. at 256, 106 S.Ct. 2505. Once the moving party presents a prima facie showing that it is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the non-moving party may not rest upon the mere allegations or denials in its pleadings but must set forth specific facts showing that a genuine issue for trial exists. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Anderson, 477 U.S. at 256-57, 106 S.Ct. 2505; Schroeder v. Lufthansa German Airlines, 875 F.2d 613, 620 (7th Cir.1989).

B. Counts I, II and V — Retaliation claims

In Counts I, II and V, Accurso alleges that the defendants violated § 1981 and Title VII by suspending her — and ultimately terminating her employment — in retaliation for her encouraging others to complain about reverse-race discrimination. To establish a prima facie case of retaliation, Accurso must show that: (1) she engaged in statutorily protected expression; (2) she suffered an adverse employment action; and (3) there is a causal link between the protected expression and the adverse employment action. Eiland v. Trinity Hosp., 150 F.3d 747, 753 (7th Cir. 1998). Once Accurso establishes her prima facie case, the defendants have the burden of producing a valid, non-retaliatory reason for their action. See Sanchez v. Henderson, 188 F.3d 740, 746 (7th Cir. 1999). In order to prevail, Accurso must then rebut the defendants' proffered reason by establishing that it is merely pretextual. Id.

The defendants do not address the first element of Accurso's prima facie case; thus, the court will assume that Accurso has established she was engaged in a statutorily protected activity. Furthermore, Accurso has sufficiently alleged that she suffered from an adverse employment action, her suspension and termination. Thus, she has established the first and second element of her prima facie case. Accordingly, the court will focus on the required causal link between the adverse employment action and the protected activity.

A plaintiff can establish the causal link "by showing that there was a suspiciously short period of time between" her complaint and the adverse employment action. Parkins v. Civil Constructors of Illinois, Inc., 163 F.3d 1027, 1039 (7th Cir. 1998). As the time period between the two events increases, the hint of a causal link decreases. Davidson v. Midelfort Clinic, Ltd., 133 F.3d 499, 511 (7th Cir. 1998) (citing McClendon v. Indiana Sugars, Inc., 108 F.3d 789, 796-97 (7th Cir. 1997)). In this case, assuming that the decision-makers at United were aware of Accurso's involvement in encouraging others to complain about reverse-race discrimination, Accurso's latest encouragement of others to complain of reverse-race discrimination occurred in November of 1998. However, United did not suspend and terminate her employment until February of 1999. This three-month time period is not sufficient to establish a causal link. See Parkins, 163 F.3d at 1039 (finding that a time period of three months between the protected activity and the adverse employment action is insufficient in establishing a causal link). Thus, Accurso has failed to establish her prima facie case of retaliation.

Furthermore, even if Accurso had established her prima facie case, she has failed to establish that the defendants' proffered nondiscriminatory, legitimate reason for suspending and terminating her employment, see Part...