Bassett v. Minneapolis

• Decision Date: 21 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 99-1147,99-1147
• Parties: (8th Cir. 2000) Helen J.M. Bassett, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. City of Minneapolis, Defendant-Appellee. Submitted:
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1097

211 F.3d 1097 (8th Cir. 2000)

Helen J.M. Bassett, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. City of Minneapolis, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-1147

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

Submitted: October 21, 1999

Filed: April 12, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for theDistrict of Minnesota. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Before BEAM, LAY, and JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judges.

LAY, Circuit Judge.

Helen J.M. Bassett (Bassett) brought this suit against her former employer, the City of Minneapolis (City), pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2, et seq., and the Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA), Minn. Stat. ch. 363. Bassett alleges racial discrimination in her termination and retaliation for a series of complaints she filed against the City.¹ granted the City's motion for summary judgment and Bassett now appeals. We reverse.

We hold sufficient evidence of a genuine dispute of material fact exists as to whether the City's articulated nondiscriminatory reason for termination was a pretext from which racial bias can clearly be inferred. This judgment follows from the well-recognized proposition that in summary judgment cases the nonmoving party is entitled to all favorable inferences that may be drawn from the record. Under the circumstances, we remand both the claim of retaliation and the claim of discrimination for a jury trial.

In remanding for trial, we emphasize the oft repeated phrase that summary judgment should seldom be granted in discrimination cases. See Smith v. St. Louis Univ., 109 F.3d 1261, 1264 (8th Cir. 1997) (Arnold, R., C.J., Beam & Alsop, JJ.); see also Keathley v. Ameritech Corp., 187 F.3d 915, 919 (8th Cir. 1999) (Bowman, Heaney & Longstaff, JJ.); Lynn v. Deaconess Med. Ctr.-West Campus, 160 F.3d 484, 486 (8th Cir. 1998) (Arnold, R., Beam & Arnold, M., JJ.); Helfter v. United Parcel Serv., Inc., 115 F.3d 613, 615 (8th Cir. 1997) (Loken, Arnold, M. & Gunn, JJ.); Bialas v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 59 F.3d 759, 762 (8th Cir. 1995) (Beam, Gibson, F. & Murphy, JJ.); Oldham v. West, 47 F.3d 985, 988 (8th Cir. 1995) (Hansen, Gibson, F. & Will, JJ.); Weissman v. Congregation Shaare Emeth, 38 F.3d 1038, 1045 (8th Cir. 1994) (McMillian, Bright & Loken, JJ.); Crawford v. Runyon, 37 F.3d 1338, 1341 (8th.-3- Cir. 1994) (Arnold, R., C.J., Wollman & Beam, JJ.); Johnson v. Minnesota Historical Soc'y, 931 F.2d 1239, 1244 (8th Cir. 1991) (McMillian, Fagg & Strom, JJ.); Hillebrand v. M-Tron Indus., Inc., 827 F.2d 363, 364 (8th Cir. 1987) (Lay, C.J., Heaney & Larson, JJ.).

I. BACKGROUND

The facts of this case reveal a strained employment relationship between the appellant and her supervisor that began on appellant's second day on the job and ended with her termination. The bulk of the evidence is testimony of two people - the appellant and the supervisor - along with internal investigations that were based in large part on the supervisor's characterization of disputed events. Without attempting to detail every contested incident, we explore the record in terms of whether the appellant's alleged insubordination is disputed and a jury could reasonably find the appellee's reason for termination was pretext for racial discrimination. Because appellant's retaliation and discrimination claim are factually intertwined, our discussion of the record for each claim will overlap.

In 1992, Bassett, an African-American woman, and Mary Roland (Roland), a Caucasian woman, each sought the position of supervisor of the City's newly created Juvenile Diversion Program (Program). The Program was to be staffed by a supervisor and four juvenile diversion specialists who would be located in various police precincts throughout the City to work with at-risk youth as an alternative to the court system. Bassett also applied for a specialist position. At the time, Bassett had been a City employee for over nine years, ranked second for the supervisor position, and was ranked "number one" for the specialist position. Roland was selected as Program Supervisor and, at some time prior to interviewing Bassett for the specialist position, was informed that Bassett had ranked second for Roland's position.

Roland testified that while interviewing for the specialist position, she perceived Bassett as "aggressive" and claims she received negative comments on Bassett's work performance in other City programs. Despite these facts, Roland selected Bassett - the only minority female applicant - concededly because she believed Bassett would file a charge of discrimination if she were not hired.

Bassett began working in the Program on June 15, 1992. From the Program's inception, there was tension between Roland and Bassett. Roland documented numerous instances of unpleasant and hostile interchanges at team meetings and kept extensive hand-written notes regarding Bassett.² Roland admits her notes were not made contemporaneously and were transcribed from her personal time management calendar (which is now unavailable). Similar personal logs were not maintained on Bassett's co-specialists until Roland's supervisor, Captain Pufahl, and the Supervisor of the Personnel Section, Pam French, advised her to maintain notes on all the specialists. This occurred approximately six months after Roland began her notes on Bassett. Despite Roland's copious notes describing Bassett's negative effect on the. Program and her peers, Roland gave Bassett a favorable six-month performance evaluation on December 22, 1992.

In early 1993, Bassett contacted the City's Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Officer, Larry Blackwell (Blackwell) following a disagreement with Roland about union employee seniority rights. Blackwell responded by letter addressed to Bassett, which was misrouted to, and wrongfully opened by, Roland on or about March 20, 1993. While the substance of the ensuing conversation is in dispute, Roland had what she described as a "[v]ery annoying conversation" with Bassett about Blackwell's letter in which she disapproved of Bassett's inquiry.³ Approximately six weeks later, on May 11, 1993, Bassett received a written reprimand from Roland admonishing her for "misconduct," "insubordination," and "substandard performance" dating back to October 26, 1992 (thus pre-dating the December 22, 1992, favorable evaluation).⁴ Bassett challenged the written reprimand as unfounded, excessively harsh, and inconsistent with the City's policy of progressive discipline which provides for the administration of oral reprimands prior to written reprimands After a series of negotiations between Roland and Bassett's union representative, the written reprimand was revised on September 20, 1993, deleting all references to misconduct and insubordination and eliminating two of the six negative performance issues. One day later, Bassett filed charges of race and sex discrimination and retaliation with the Minnesota Department of Civil Rights (MDCR). Roland learned of Bassett's charges on October 25, 1993. Two weeks later, Roland gave Bassett a negative performance evaluation.

On August 1, 1993, Bassett submitted to Captain Pufahl a four-page complaint letter alleging Roland participated in or condoned unprofessional behavior by some specialists. Bassett asserted that the behavior was, at times, racial and sexual in nature. In one instance, Roland failed to address a statement by a specialist encouraging Roland to lift her skirt in order to increase youth contacts. Bassett also described a statement by Roland about "cleaning up" after a teen-night-out program, which Roland later recognized as sexist. In another incident, a white specialist, Sheila Isaacson (Isaacson), said she presumed Lorenzo Harris, a black specialist, would prefer "watermelon" candy; Bassett's complaint to Roland about this incident went unheeded. Further, Bassett complained that Roland required her, as a measure of the discipline imposed in a previous reprimand, to use vacation time to attend a conference while Isaacson was not required to do so. In the letter, Bassett also complained about hair pulling, taunts, physical pushing and inappropriate gestures during team meetings, and voiced frustration over Roland's unwillingness to discuss these matters with other specialists despite requests to do so. The behavior complained of in the letter was the basis for Bassett's September 21, 1993, charge with MDCR.⁵

The record reveals that Bassett's complaints are not without support. Harris, the African-American male specialist in the Program, averred that Roland had a very erratic management style, lacked an understanding of City policy, and "simply made things up as she went along." He also testified, by affidavit, that Roland went out of her way to provoke Bassett, consistently chose to "play hardball" with Bassett, and was disrespectful to Bassett or punished her for minor infractions. Harris, however, also acknowledged that Bassett could be very "intense" when discussing work issues, and could not refrain from reacting to Roland's provocation.

On January 11, 1994, Bassett filed another charge with MDCR alleging race and sex discrimination and retaliation.⁶ On that same date, Roland received notice of the discrimination charge and gave Bassett two oral reprimands, each later reduced to writing. One reprimand was based on Bassett's tardiness to a team meeting and her refusal to sit in a chair Roland had "designated" for her; it also noted Bassett's disruption of a previous meeting by asking co-workers for change to buy a soft drink The second reprimand cited Bassett's late arrival to a meeting with Captain Pufahl and Roland, despite Bassett's explanation that she had been on the phone with the mother of a youth on her caseload.

On March 7, 1994, Roland gave Bassett an oral reprimand admonishing her for failing to record lunch breaks on her daily attendance logs as directed. That same date, Bassett wrote to the MDCR claiming...