Boggs v. The Scotts Company, 2005 Ohio 1264 (OH 3/22/2005)
| Decision Date | 22 March 2005 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 04AP-425. |
| Citation | 2005 Ohio 1264 |
| Parties | Robbie A. Boggs, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The Scotts Company et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, C.P.C. No. 01CVH09-8944.
Law Offices of Russell A. Kelm, Russell A. Kelm and Joanne W. Detrick, for appellant.
Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease, LLP, Jonathan R. Vaughn and David A. Campbell, for appellees.
{¶1} Plaintiff-appellant, Robbie A. Boggs, appeals from a judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas that granted summary judgment in favor of defendants-appellees, The Scotts Company and related parties ("Scotts"), in this employment action alleging age discrimination, retaliation, promissory estoppel, and spoliation of evidence.
{¶2} Appellant was a 28-year employee of Scotts in July 2001 when Scotts terminated her position. Scotts maintains that appellant's termination was part of a company-wide workforce reduction plan designed to cut costs during a period of financial difficulty. Appellant asserts that Scotts orchestrated a sequence of events, leading up to and including her termination, that were designed to humiliate and harass her, and that Scotts did so because she was 46 years old.
{¶3} Headquartered in Marysville, Ohio, Scotts is a multi-national corporation specializing in lawn care and other horticultural products. The company has two divisions, its Consumer Business Group ("CBG"), and its Professional Business Group ("PBG"). Throughout most of appellant's tenure with Scotts, each of these groups included a subgroup servicing domestic accounts and a subgroup servicing international accounts. During the year prior to appellant's termination, Scotts reorganized the company so that appellant, who had been a customer service manager of the North American segment of the international subgroup of PBG, was reporting to Shirley Wulff, a customer service manager of PBG's domestic subgroup. Thus, appellant, who had worked independently of Wulff, and was at the same pay-grade and performed many of the same job duties as Wulff, became subject to Wulff's supervision.
{¶4} This arrangement did not sit well with either Wulff, a 61-year-old, long-time Scotts employee, or with appellant, and friction developed. Prior to the restructuring, appellant, who had been highly regarded by the company, apparently had performed her job largely without supervision. After restructuring, appellant told Human Resources Representative Rosemary Smith that, among other things, Wulff was following her as she went about her daily duties, complaining without justification about appellant's performance and use of time, and canceling appellant's business trips at the last minute. Wulff complained to her supervisor, Vice President of North American PBG Raju Boligala, and to Human Resources Manager Kristen Black, that appellant was unwilling to accept the changes in management structure, uncooperative in implementing Wulff's directives, and uncommunicative regarding her daily work duties.
{¶5} Smith's response to appellant's complaints was to urge appellant to communicate more directly with Wulff, and to attempt to be more cooperative. Appellant remained dissatisfied and became convinced that Wulff's actions, and those of others in the company, were part of a scheme intended to harass her and coerce her departure. In May 2001, appellant's attorney sent a letter to Scotts, stating in part:
It appears that during the past six months, despite her exceeding expectations during her last performance review and performing satisfactorily for more than 28 years, Robbie Boggs has been exposed to a systematic course of harassment, through a concerted effort of applying unreasonable work expectations, unrelenting intense supervision, and constant review. She has been periodically removed at the last minute from attendance at trade shows, followed from place to place at work, and treated in a manner inconsistent with that of other similarly situated employees. We assume that this systematic harassment and pressure is being orchestrated by Rosemary Smith, who was also involved in a similar program against another Scotts employee, Hap Baer, which eventually led to his resignation.[1] We believe that this treatment constitutes age and sex discrimination, in violation of Ohio Revised Code [Section] 4112.02. Unless this treatment ceases, we intend to proceed with an appropriate action to halt this activity, which is inconsistent with a [sic] treatment accorded to all other nontargeted Scotts employees.
{¶6} In July 2001, Scotts terminated appellant's employment. In September 2001, appellant instituted this action in the trial court, alleging age discrimination in violation of R.C. 4112.02(A),2 and retaliation in violation of R.C. 4112.02(I).3 The court later granted appellant leave to amend the complaint to include counts alleging promissory estoppel and spoliation. In all counts, appellant sought compensatory and punitive damages, as well as attorney fees, for a total of $7,850,000 in damages.
{¶7} Scotts moved for summary judgment, claiming that appellant's evidence failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact supporting her claims. In a comprehensive, 49-page decision, the trial court granted Scotts' motion, specifically finding:
1. [Appellant] failed to present a prima facie case of age discrimination because she submitted no evidence that Scotts replaced her with a younger worker.
2. [Appellant's] statistical evidence, by which she attempted to demonstrate that Scotts had repeatedly discriminated on the basis of age, showed only age and management level and did not account for other factors, such as individual performance, experience, education, or seniority level.
3. Scotts presented a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for [appellant's] termination, which was the elimination of redundancy as a cost-saving measure.
4. [Appellant] did not present evidence to counter this legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason, nor did she present evidence she was treated differently from similarly-situated persons outside her age group.
5. [Appellant] did not support her retaliation claim with evidence of a causal connection between her counsel's letter to Scotts and her termination.
6. [Appellant] failed to present evidence she was anything other than an at-will employee, and therefore could not support her claim for promissory estoppel.
7. [Appellant] failed to present evidence that Scotts employees willfully destroyed evidence pertinent to her lawsuit.
{¶8} Appellant now assigns the following as error:
I. The trial court erred in granting defendant's motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of age discrimination.
II. The trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of retaliation.
III. The trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of promissory estoppel.
IV. The trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's claim of spoliation of evidence.
V. The trial court erred in excluding testimony contained in plaintiff's affidavit.
VI. The trial court erred in failing to compel the production of discovery.
{¶9} Assignments one through four raise issue with the trial court's decision to grant summary judgment. Appellate review of summary judgment motions is de novo. Helton v. Scioto Cty. Bd. of Commrs. (1997), 123 Ohio App.3d 158, 162. "When reviewing a trial court's ruling on summary judgment, the court of appeals conducts an independent review of the record and stands in the shoes of the trial court." Mergenthal v. Star Banc Corp. (1997), 122 Ohio App.3d 100, 103. Civ.R. 56(C) provides that summary judgment may be granted when the moving party demonstrates that: (1) there is no genuine issue of material fact; (2) the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; and (3) reasonable minds can come to but one conclusion and that conclusion is adverse to the party against whom the motion for summary judgment is made. State ex rel. Grady v. State Emp. Relations Bd. (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 181, 183.
{¶10} When proper evidence supports a motion for summary judgment, a non-moving party may not rest on the mere allegations of his pleading, but his response, by affidavit or as otherwise provided in Civ.R. 56, must set forth specific facts showing a genuine triable issue. Civ.R. 56(E); Jackson v. Alert Fire & Safety Equip., Inc. (1991), 58 Ohio St.3d 48, 52. To establish the existence of a genuine issue of material fact, the non-moving party must do more than simply resist the allegations in the motion. Rather, that party must affirmatively set forth facts entitling him to relief. Wing v. Anchor Media, Ltd. of Texas (1991), 59 Ohio St.3d 108, 111. If the non-moving party "does not so respond, summary judgment, if appropriate, shall be entered against the party." Civ.R. 56(E).
{¶11} Appellant's first assignment of error charges that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment with regard to her age discrimination claim. Absent direct evidence, a plaintiff seeking to establish a prima facie case of age discrimination in an employment discharge action must show that he or she "(1) was a member of the statutorily protected class, (2) was discharged, (3) was qualified for the position, and (4) was replaced by, or the discharge permitted the retention of, a person of substantially younger age." Coryell v. Bank One Trust Co., N.A., 101 Ohio St.3d 175, 2004-Ohio-723, paragraph one of the syllabus.
{¶12} The trial court found that appellant's affidavit did not constitute admissible evidence that Scotts replaced appellant with a younger employee. According to the court, appellant's affidavit, which alleged that 35-year-old Scotts employee Loretta Weeks replaced appellant in a substantial portion of...
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