Beverly v. Abbott Labs., 17 C 5590
| Decision Date | 10 July 2019 |
| Docket Number | No. 17 C 5590,17 C 5590 |
| Parties | HENRY BEVERLY, Plaintiff, v. ABBOTT LABORATORIES, an Illinois corporation, and VICTORIA LUO, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois |
OPINION AND ORDER
Plaintiff Henry Beverly, an African American military veteran born in 1965, gradually saw his responsibilities at Defendant Abbott Laboratories ("Abbott") reduced, leading him to request an unprotected leave of absence. After Beverly requested a third extension of that leave, Abbott terminated his employment. Beverly then filed suit against Abbott and his direct supervisor, Victoria Luo. In his second amended complaint, he brings claims against Abbott for interference with and retaliation for the exercise of his rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act ("FMLA"), 29 U.S.C. § 2601 et seq. (Counts I and II); race discrimination in violation of the Illinois Human Rights Act ("IHRA"), 775 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/1-101 et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Counts III and VI); age discrimination in violation of the IHRA (count IV); retaliation in violation of the IHRA and § 1981 (Counts V and VII); discrimination on the basis of past military service in violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act ("USERRA"), 38 U.S.C. § 4301 et seq. (Count IX); and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing (Count VIII). Beverly also claims that Abbott and Luo committed defamation (Count X) and that Luo tortiously interfered with his continued employment at Abbott (Count XI). Abbott and Luo have moved for summary judgment on all of Beverly's claims, and Beverly has moved for summary judgment solely on the tortious interference claim.
The Court grants in part and denies in part Abbott and Luo's motion and denies Beverly's motion. Considering his discrimination claims together, Beverly has not established a genuine issue of fact with respect to his termination, but he may proceed on whether his race, age, or military service caused Abbott to materially reduce his responsibilities prior to his termination. Similarly, Beverly's retaliation claims with respect to his termination fail, but those connected to the reduction in responsibilities may proceed. Because a question of fact surrounds the timing of Abbott's termination decision and Beverly's stated intention to take FMLA leave, his FMLA claims must proceed to trial. Beverly's defamation claim also survives summary judgment because a question of fact exists as to whether Luo acted with actual malice in reporting that Beverly had a history of lying after his termination. But because he has not shown a dispute to overcome Luo's qualified privilege for actions leading up to his termination or that he had a reasonable expectancy of continued employment, the Court grants summary judgment for Luo on the tortious interference claim. Finally, Beverly's breach of contract claim fails because Abbott's actions in terminating his contract accorded with the parties' reasonable expectations.
Beverly served in the United States Army from 1985 to 1997. He worked for Abbott from May to September 2002. Abbott rehired Beverly in February 2007 to a senior financial analyst position. In 2008, Beverly laterally transferred to a demand analyst position for AbbottNutrition International ("ANI"). Kevin Bowler supervised Beverly from 2008 to mid-2012. In late 2012, Luo, a Chinese American born in 1970, and the Senior Finance Manager Demand and Sales Operations and Planning ("SO&P") for ANI, became Beverly's direct supervisor. Luo's group aided ANI affiliates with monthly demand forecasts, published these reports, coordinated monthly SO&P meetings, and provided training to affiliates. When Luo became the manager, Beverly took on some of Bowler's prior duties and handled any duties for which Luo did not have the certification or training. Jeff Young, a commercial controller for Abbott, instructed Beverly to train Luo. Pleased with Beverly's work, Young issued Beverly a monetary Abbott Excellence Award. Luo also enlarged Beverly's role to include more contact with demand managers, with Beverly spending about three to eight hours a week training these managers. In 2012 and 2013, Luo tasked Beverly with preparing templates and programs to allow country representatives to report on their new sales. Beverly also created new financial models, KPI reports, product initiative reports, and a pulse report.
In 2013, Abbott split into two companies, Abbott and AbbVie. Abbott eliminated the Global Pharmaceuticals Operations ("GPO") team, which handled systems work for Luo's group. Luo's group hired Hamid Akhtar, a former GPO employee of Pakistani national origin born in 1975, to fill an IT/systems role. About four to six months after Akhtar began working in Luo's department, Luo shifted some of Beverly's duties, including uploading annual forecasts and new sales transactions, and manipulating data and spreadsheets, to Akhtar. Beverly trained Akhtar on how to perform these duties. In 2014, Akhtar also became responsible for training individuals on systems. Beverly retained responsibility for reporting-related training, and Luofor process-related training. Later in 2014, Luo reduced Beverly's role and his interaction with affiliates, placing him on a new SAP project.
By 2015, Beverly no longer prepared pulse reports, forecast roll-ups, key performance indicator reports, product index reports, or ad hoc reports, all reports he had prepared in the past. He testified that all that remained for him in 2015 was to prepare part of a PowerPoint presentation for a meeting and to answer ad hoc requests from affiliates. This amounted to about one to two hours of work per week, including forty-five minutes to an hour each month on the PowerPoint presentation and about an hour per week on requests from Abbott affiliates. Beverly also only worked from home on the phone approximately once a month.
Prior to 2013, Beverly regularly attended system and supply chain meetings. This changed to sporadic attendance in 2013, with Beverly excluded from meetings regarding the deployment of the new enterprise resource planning system and supply chain meetings with the ANI finance team, which Luo, Akhtar, and Young attended. Beverly no longer had the opportunity to attend desired training sessions, although, in 2014, Luo approved Beverly to attend the annual AvaMed conference, which dealt with healthcare information systems. Beverly also traveled to receive training in Mexico. Over the same period of time, Akhtar attended an SAP advanced planner and optimizer training, as well as a Demand & Supply Management Course in Basel, Switzerland. Akhtar took on overseas training responsibilities, with Beverly stepping in only when Akhtar could not make the trip. Abbott instituted a travel freeze in 2014, meaning that all overseas travel for meetings and trainings ceased.
Beverly testified that, in early 2015, he had a cordial working relationship with Luo. Beverly recalled having lunch with Luo once after she became his supervisor. He also testified that he only met with Luo and Akhtar approximately once a quarter. At some point in 2014 or2015, Beverly recalls helping Luo's daughter with a school project on military veterans at Luo's request. On another occasion, Luo asked Beverly to drive her family friends from downtown Chicago to Abbott's office. Bruce Tsai, who started at Abbott in August 2015 in Beverly's former role, testified he had lunch with Luo every few weeks and with both Luo and Akhtar about five or six times.
Beverly's base rate of pay in April 2012 was $94,820.74. This increased to $97,902.41 in April 2013 and $100,839.48 in March 2014. Abbott never disciplined Beverly or placed him on a performance improvement plan, with Beverly instead receiving various letters of recognition and awards during his employment. Luo was impressed with Beverly, even before she became his manager. She knew of positive feedback Beverly had received from Steve Brodner, a manager on the Business Excellence team, who told Luo that Beverly was the "best tester we have." Doc. 68 ¶ 9. In his 2012, 2013, and 2014 performance reviews, Luo gave Beverly an achieved expectations rating. Luo testified that she did not include in his performance reviews that he sometimes failed to provide deliverables as promised because she did not want to negatively impact his chances for other opportunities at Abbott.
Abbott has a personal leave of absence ("PLOA") policy that "provide[s] Abbott with a means to allow employees in good standing to be reinstated with past service credit . . . if they need to suspend active employment status." Doc. 62 ¶ 10. Employees must provide requests for a PLOA in writing to Abbott's leave vendor and include an estimate of the duration and purpose of the leave. Abbott retains the discretion to grant or deny the leave based on operational needs and the employee's performance. A PLOA may last between four continuous work weeks and six months, with extensions allowed only for a total of six months of leave. Abbott does notguarantee reinstatement from a PLOA. Instead, the PLOA policy states that, "[i]f an employee's position is no longer available and if an employee is qualified and selected for an open position, the employee will be reinstated and the employment date (start date) is adjusted if the PLOA exceeded three (3) calendar months." Id. ¶ 70. "If an employee obtains full-time employment while on a PLOA, the leave will be canceled and termination will be automatic." Id. ¶ 14. The PLOA policy does not limit or prohibit Abbott's ability to terminate the employment of an at-will employee. Abbott's termination policy also provides that nothing in that policy limits Abbott's ability to terminate an at-will employee at any time...
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