Baker v. Wilmington Trust Co.

• Decision Date: 04 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. CIV.A. 01-819 KAJ.,CIV.A. 01-819 KAJ.
• Citation: 320 F.Supp.2d 196
• Parties: Susan BAKER, Regina Debevec, and Roseanne Zarebicki Plaintiffs, v. WILMINGTON TRUST COMPANY Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

320 F.Supp.2d 196

Susan BAKER, Regina Debevec, and Roseanne Zarebicki Plaintiffs, v. WILMINGTON TRUST COMPANY Defendant.

No. CIV.A. 01-819 KAJ.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

June 4, 2004.

Mark L. Reardon, Esquire, Elzufon Austin Reardon Tarlov & Mondell, P.A., Wilmington, DE, for Plaintiffs.

Sheldon N. Sandler, Esquire, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, Wilmington, DE, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JORDAN, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiffs Susan B. Baker ("Baker"), Regina M. DeBevec ("DeBevec"), and Roseanne K. Zarebicki ("Zarebicki") (collectively the "Plaintiffs") brought suit against Wilmington Trust Company ("WTC") pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000 et seq. ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1981a, and Delaware law on December 10, 2001. (D.I.1.) Plaintiffs allege that WTC terminated their employment in retaliation for their resistance to what they claim was a suggestion by WTC to treat customers differently based on the customer's race. (Id.) Presently before me is a motion by WTC for summary judgment (D.I. 25; the "Motion"). I have jurisdiction over this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367. For the reasons that follow, the Motion will be granted.

II. BACKGROUND¹

WTC is Delaware's largest retail bank, and operates a branch system that covers the state. (D.I. 26 at 1.) DeBevec began her employment with WTC as a bank teller on July 17, 1972, and on or about 1978, she was promoted to Head Teller at the Claymont branch. (D.I. 33 at 2) Baker began her employment with WTC as a bank teller on February 5, 1990, and on or about late 1998 or early 1999 she was promoted to Assistant Head Teller at the Claymont branch. (Id. at 3.) Zarebicki began her employment with WTC on September 21, 1965, and she was promoted to Head Teller at the Branmar branch in 1992. (Id. at 4.)

In August 1999, DeBevec advised WTC that she was unable to reconcile a shortage of approximately $2,600 in her cash drawer, and William Gula ("Gula"), a WTC security officer, began an investigation of the matter. (D.I. 26 at 1.) During the course of the investigation, Gula determined from DeBevec's work papers that she had deviated from a WTC policy that required commercial² customers who wished to cash checks made payable to their businesses to first deposit the checks into their WTC accounts. Such customers could then write a check against the deposit account.³ (Id. at 2.) WTC claims its "policy of requiring commercial customers to deposit checks and to then write a check in order to receive cash back was an essential component of [its] ability to track and report large cash transactions, as required by the federal Bank Secrecy Act ("BSA")." (D.I. 26 at 2.)

Specifically, DeBevec's teller materials showed that she regularly cashed checks totaling over $10,000 for each of the businesses of two Indian-Americans known as "Nick" and "Pepi" Patel (collectively the "Patels"). (Id. at 5; D.I. 33 at 2.) The Patels were regular customers of WTC, and the proprietors of several businesses, including Balaji, Inc. ("Balaji") and Nirali, Inc. ("Nirali"). Both Balaji and Nirali operated liquor stores, and each of those liquor stores offered check-cashing services to its customers. (D.I. 33 at 5.) Those services allowed the liquor store customers to endorse their payroll checks to Balaji or Nirali "in exchange for cash in the amount of the paycheck."⁴ (Id. at 6.) The Patels "would then present the checks to [WTC] in exchange for cash to replenish the liquor stores' respective cash supplies." (Id.)

WTC ultimately determined that five tellers cashed checks for the Patels, in violation of the bank's two-step deposit and check-issuance policy and in violation of the BSA, which requires that a Currency Transaction Report ("CTR") be filed when over $10,000 in cash is paid out on related accounts in a business day. (D.I. 26 at 5-6.) The tellers involved with the Patel transactions included DeBevec, Baker, Zarebicki, Criselda Jones ("Jones"), Baker's predecessor as the back-up head teller at the Claymont branch, and Jeanette Preston ("Preston"), the back-up head teller at the Branmar branch. (Id.) WTC claims that "[a]fter interviewing these tellers individually, and in light of the serious nature of the tellers' violations of [WTC] policy and of the BSA, [it] concluded that DeBevec, Baker, and Zarebicki should be terminated."⁵ (Id. at 8.)

DeBevec's employment was terminated on September 13, 1999, and Zarebicki's and Baker's employment was terminated on September 16, 1999. (Id.) According to WTC, Preston was not fired since the amount of her transactions did not reach or exceed the $10,000 limit, and therefore she had not violated the BSA and "had not placed WTC at the same risk as had the other tellers." (D.I. 33 at 8.) WTC claims that Jones was not terminated because she was no longer involved with the Patels' transactions, and to the extent that she violated WTC policy, she did so "unwittingly at the direction of DeBevec." (Id.)

The Plaintiffs offer several reasons for their belief that their firing was pretextual. First, Plaintiffs claim that cashing payroll checks endorsed to businesses such as the Patels was the "precise type of transaction [that] had been conducted for years at [WTC] by a number of other customers at [WTC]." (Id.) Second, Plaintiffs assert that none of the Plaintiffs were ever reprimanded for failure to follow WTC policies and that each had received positive performance evaluations.⁶ (Id. at 2-4.) Third, Plaintiffs state that the WTC teller manual speaks to checks made payable to a corporation, see supra n. 3, but does not reference the situation where checks are initially payable to an individual who then endorses the check, as occurred with the Patel transactions. (Id. at 8.) Fourth, Plaintiffs claim that the training given by WTC with respect to the BSA was inadequate. (Id. at 12.) Fifth, Plaintiffs allege that in their final meeting with WTC's Compliance Officer, "the Plaintiffs were admonished that they had been taken by `con men' ... involved `shady goings on' ... who were trying to find a weak link ... and that with names like `Nirali' and `Balaji' ... `they should have known better.'" (Id. at 15.)

Furthermore, Plaintiffs point out that the Patels were notified as early as October 1, 1999 to "make other banking arrangements." (D.I. 27 at A56.) Plaintiffs allege that this was done long before the completion of Gula's investigation, which did not extend beyond the scope of the Patel transactions, "and even though nobody had any reason to suspect the Patels of any criminal activity or other wrongdoing." (D.I. 33 at 16.) Plaintiffs also note that, on October 20, 1999, WTC bank officials met with the Patels and that WTC's General Counsel indicated that the Patels were not at fault for not following WTC's policy.⁷ (Id.) Plaintiffs point out that this meeting, however, did not cause WTC to reconsider its decision to terminate the Patels' accounts. (Id.)

On December 10, 1999 the Plaintiffs filed a charge of discrimination with the Delaware Department of Labor and the Equal Opportunity Commission alleging discrimination on the basis of age, and retaliation for opposing a discriminatory employment practice. (D.I. 33 at 1.) Thereafter, the Department of Labor and the EEOC issued Plaintiffs a "right to sue letter." (Id.) On December 10, 2001, Plaintiffs filed a complaint with this court alleging that Plaintiffs' termination from WTC was "retaliation for [their] resistance to WTC's suggestions to treat customers differently based on the customer's race" (D.I. 1 at ¶ 17, ¶ 24, ¶ 31), and thus violated Title VII and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1981a,⁸ and breached the covenant of good faith and fair dealing implied in their employment contracts under Delaware law. (Id. at ¶¶ 33-40.) Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment, a permanent injunction, damages, attorney's fees and costs. (D.I.1.)

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c), a party is entitled to summary judgment if a court determines from its examination of "the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any," that there are no genuine issues of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c) (2003). In determining whether there is a triable dispute of material fact, a court must review all of the evidence and construe all inferences in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Goodman v. Mead Johnson & Co., 534 F.2d 566, 573 (3d Cir.1976). However, a court should not make credibility determinations or weigh the evidence. Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 150, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000).

To defeat a motion for summary judgment, Rule 56(c) requires the non-moving party to:

do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts ... In the language of the Rule, the non-moving party must come forward with `specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.' ... Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the non-moving party, there is `no genuine issue for trial.'

Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 586-87, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Accordingly, a mere scintilla of evidence in support of the non-moving party is insufficient for a court to deny summary judgment. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

IV. DISCUSSION

A. PLAINTIFFS' TITLE VII CLAIM

The anti-retaliation section of Title VII states that "[i]t shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against any of his employees ... because [the employee] has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this subchapter." 42 U.S.C. §...