Alexander v. Vesta Ins. Group, Inc.

• Decision Date: 18 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. CV 00-BU-2877-S.,CV 00-BU-2877-S.
• Citation: 147 F.Supp.2d 1223
• Parties: Shirley ALEXANDER and Jo Ann Grayson, Plaintiffs, v. VESTA INSURANCE GROUP, INC. and J. Gordon Gaines, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

147 F.Supp.2d 1223

Shirley ALEXANDER and Jo Ann Grayson, Plaintiffs, v. VESTA INSURANCE GROUP, INC. and J. Gordon Gaines, Inc., Defendants.

No. CV 00-BU-2877-S.

United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

June 18, 2001.

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C. Michael Quinn, Kyle T. Smith, Gordon, Silberman, Wiggins & Childs, Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiffs.

Jeffrey A. Lee, Janell M. Ahnert, Maynard, Cooper & Gale, Birmingham, AL, for Defendants.

Memorandum Opinion

BUTTRAM, District Judge.

In their complaint in the above-styled action, Plaintiffs Shirley Alexander and Jo Ann Grayson assert claims against their former employer, Defendants Vesta Insurance Group, Inc. ("Vesta") and J. Gordon Gaines, Inc. ("JGGI"), alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. ("Title VII"); 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ("Section 1981"); the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. ("ADEA"); the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq. ("FLSA"); and Alabama fraud law. Now before the Court is a motion for summary judgment filed by Defendants on May 1, 2001, seeking the dismissal of Plaintiffs' race discrimination claims and their fraud claims, and Defendants further contend that they are entitled to an order limiting the maximum amount of overtime compensation that Plaintiffs might recover at trial on their FLSA claims. (Doc. 20). The parties have filed evidence and briefs in support of their respective positions on the motion, which is now ripe for decision. Upon consideration of the record and the arguments of counsel, the Court concludes that Defendants' motion for summary judgment is due to be GRANTED IN PART AND DENIED IN PART. It is due to be granted to the extent that it seeks the dismissal of Plaintiffs' race discrimination claims brought under Title VII and Section 1981 and their fraud claims. In addition, although Defendants have not moved for summary judgment on Plaintiffs' ADEA claims, the Court has determined sua sponte that the evidence demonstrates that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that Defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law on those claims as well. However, Plaintiffs will be afforded an opportunity to present evidence and argument in support of their ADEA claims prior to the Court's final decision on their dismissal. Defendants' motion is due to be denied to the extent it seeks an order placing a cap on the amount Plaintiffs might recover on their FLSA claims.

I. BACKGROUND¹

Plaintiffs Grayson and Alexander are African American, and they were both born in 1950. They were also both originally hired by Liberty National Insurance Company to work in its commercial lines department in Birmingham, Alabama. Alexander was hired in 1991 as an underwriter assistant, with duties that included rating, coding, and processing policy cancellations and non-renewals. Grayson also performed rating and coding work in the commercial lines department upon being hired by Liberty National in 1992, and in about 1995 she was also given the title of underwriter assistant. In 1993, both Plaintiffs became employees of Defendant Vesta, which was created in a spinoff from Liberty National's parent company, Torchmark Insurance. Plaintiffs' job duties, however, did not change in any substantial way when they became Vesta employees. Defendant JGGI is the services administration company for Vesta. It is undisputed that Vesta's employees are also considered employees of JGGI for purposes of their paychecks and benefits.

In July 1997, Vesta purchased Shelby Insurance Companies ("Shelby"), located in Shelby, Ohio, and Greensboro, North Carolina. Soon thereafter, Alexander began working on the Shelby commercial lines. The work on the Shelby lines differed significantly from the Vesta commercial line work, as the former was more automated and used different computer systems. As a result, Alexander was sent to Ohio where she received training on the Shelby systems, although she continued to work in Birmingham. Also in 1997, Grayson was assigned to work as an underwriter assistant servicing Vesta's commercial customers located in Texas, which involved a rating and coding system that was different from the systems Vesta used in connection with its business in other states.

Until 1999, the combined Vesta and Shelby companies offered two different lines of insurance-personal lines and commercial lines. As the name suggests, commercial lines, with which Plaintiffs worked, dealt with insurance for various types of commercial customers. In about March 1999, after Vesta's industry rating was downgraded, it was announced that all of the Vesta and Shelby commercial lines, with the exception of its small business owner policies ("BOP"), would be discontinued. Vesta advised the commercial lines underwriters in Birmingham that several of them would lose their jobs later that month while other underwriters and underwriter assistants, including Plaintiffs, and clerical workers in commercial lines would be moved to work on the BOP lines.

At a meeting in about late May or early June 1999, however, Vesta announced that even its BOP lines would be eliminated and that the entire commercial lines department where Plaintiffs worked would be phased out. At that time, all of the remaining commercial lines underwriters in Birmingham were laid off, except one African-American woman, Adrienne Jones, who was transferred to an underwriting position in Vesta's personal lines department in about June 1999. All of the employees working on commercial lines in Shelby, Ohio, were also told they would be laid off. Vesta officials told Plaintiffs and the other underwriter assistants and clerical employees who had been working on the BOP lines in Birmingham, however, that they would eventually all be moved to other positions within the company, based upon the fact that some personal lines work from the company's Ohio offices was going to be relocated to Birmingham and upon expectations that Vesta's personal lines business would expand.

In fact, Vesta provided to the Plaintiffs and the other remaining BOP staff members a document entitled, "C.L. Moves,"² which set forth a schedule for each employee's planned transfer to the personal lines department. It states that fifteen employees, of which seven were white and eight were black, would be moved to personal lines almost immediately, as of June 7, 1999.³ Of these fifteen, it appears that five were underwriter assistants, four of whom were white.⁴ Fifteen other employees, also seven white and eight black, were listed under the section entitled, "Later Moves to P.L.," meaning the personal lines department. Of these fifteen, eleven, including both Plaintiffs, appear to have been underwriter assistants, five of whom were white.⁵ All of these employees were to remain in commercial lines department to work on the "runoff team," i.e., they would service and administer outstanding Vesta and Shelby commercial lines policies until their eventual lapse. According to this schedule, five "runoff" employees would be transferred to personal lines in December 1999; Plaintiffs and three other employees would be transferred in June 2000; and the last five employees would be transferred in August 2000.

It is undisputed, though, that this initial schedule ultimately was not followed, even with respect to the first round of planned transfers, as several employees resigned after the announcements were made. While underwriter assistant positions did not exist in Vesta's personal lines department, in June 1999 Vesta provided training to five underwriter assistants in commercial lines in preparation for moving them into underwriter positions in personal lines. Each of these five employees was white.⁶ The one black underwriter assistant in commercial lines who was originally scheduled to be transferred to personal lines in June 1999, Adrienne Ellis, apparently resigned before any move was actually made. However, two of the white underwriter assistants who did receive the training and were transferred, Michelle Standige and Dianna Oaks, were not originally scheduled to be moved to personal lines until December 1999 and August 2000, respectively. After these five white employees finished their training, they were transferred into underwriter positions in personal lines by September 1999. This, according to Plaintiffs, left eight commercial lines underwriter assistants, including themselves, who were assigned to the runoff team.⁷ Five of these employees were black, and three were white, including one, Debbie Corbin, who was originally on the list to be moved to personal lines in June 1999.⁸

After the underwriter assistants who had been working in commercial lines were initially assigned to the training classes or to the runoff team in June 1999, as described above, there were several other personnel moves made between that time and May 2000. At some point within that time frame, Vesta moved two of the underwriter assistants working in runoff to other positions within the company. However, neither employee, Debbie Corbin nor Bernice McCants, was given an underwriter position. Corbin, who is white, was trained for and moved to a "testing" position in personal lines, which Alexander claims was "created" for Corbin. McCants, who is African-American, was assigned to Vesta's accounting department. At another point, one of the white underwriter assistants working in runoff, Millie Kelly, resigned. Meanwhile, in January 2000, Carrie Davis, one of the white underwriter assistants who had transferred to an underwriter position in personal lines in June 1999 resigned from her position. None of the assistant underwriters working in runoff were offered the position. Instead, Plaintiffs assert, Davis was replaced by an unidentified white woman who was not working in commercial lines and who had been employed by Vesta for...