Booker v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 03 July 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-1331,88-1331
• Citation: 879 F.2d 1304
• Parties: 50 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 365, 50 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,135, 58 USLW 2083 LaVaughn BOOKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CO., INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Page 1304

879 F.2d 1304

50 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 365,

50 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 39,135, 58 USLW 2083

LaVaughn BOOKER, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BROWN & WILLIAMSON TOBACCO CO., INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 88-1331.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

Argued May 15, 1989.

Decided July 3, 1989.

Frank D. Eaman (argued) Bellanca, Beattie and De Lisle, Detroit, Mich., for plaintiff-appellant.

Charles H. Tobias, Kevin I. Green (argued), Detroit, Mich., for defendant-appellee.

Before MILBURN and NELSON, Circuit Judges; and PECK, Senior Circuit Judge.

MILBURN, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-appellant LaVaughn Booker appeals from the summary judgment entered by the district court in favor of defendant-appellee Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation ("Brown & Williamson") in this civil rights action. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

A.

Booker initiated this action on March 3, 1987, pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. Secs. 2000e-2000e17, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981. Following the close of discovery, Brown & Williamson filed a motion for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, alleging that plaintiff Booker could not establish a prima facie case of race discrimination and that he was demoted for legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons which he could not establish as pretextual. Following a hearing on October 23, 1987, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of Brown & Williamson, concluding that there existed no genuine issue of material fact as to Brown & Williamson's proffered nondiscriminatory reasons for his demotion. Summary judgment dismissing Booker's federal claims was entered on October 28, 1987.

However, the day before the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, the magistrate granted Booker's motion for leave to file an amended complaint thereby allowing him to add state law claims under the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, Mich.Comp. Laws Ann. Secs. 37.2101-37.2804 ("Elliott-Larsen" or "the Act"). An order to this effect was entered on October 22, 1987. Due to the timing of the magistrate's decision, Brown & Williamson's original motion for summary judgment was limited to Booker's federal claims.

Booker filed his amended complaint on November 30, 1987, wherein he alleged two different claims of race discrimination under Elliott-Larsen; viz., one count of discrimination and one count of retaliation. Brown & Williamson subsequently filed a second motion for summary judgment on December 17, 1987, contending that the state law claims were barred under the doctrine of res judicata and that Booker had still failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to the proffered reasons for his demotion. On March 1, 1988, the district court again concluded that there existed no genuine issue of material fact and granted summary judgment on the remaining claims. A final judgment was entered on March 7, 1988, and this timely appeal followed.

B.

Brown & Williamson is a manufacturer of cigarettes and tobacco products and employs a nationwide sales force to promote and assist in the distribution of its products. The sales force is divided into departments and further subdivided into divisions. Each division has sales representatives who are supervised by a division manager.

Plaintiff Booker, a black male, was hired by Brown & Williamson on March 13, 1978, and worked as a sales representative in North Carolina until November 21, 1979, when, according to Booker, he was promoted to the position of account manager. He held the position of account sales manager until April 1, 1982, at which time he was promoted to the position of division manager in Troy, Michigan. Booker held the position of division manager from 1982 until his demotion on October 1, 1985. However, following his demotion, he continued to receive the same rate of pay as that of a division manager.

Brown & Williamson contends that Booker was demoted from his supervisory position because of his management style and, in particular, his handling and treatment of his subordinates and customers. Lanny Butler (Brown & Williamson's vice-president of sales), Charles Pavona (Booker's immediate supervisor), and Glen Korfhage (Pavona's supervisor), all of whom recommended Booker's demotion, testified in their depositions that from the outset of his employment as division manager, Booker was repeatedly advised of the need to improve his managerial style, primarily his manner of directing and handling people, and that his failure to correct this deficiency ultimately led to his demotion.

Brown & Williamson presented proof of several instances of Booker's alleged poor supervisory skills. In December of 1984, Booker wrote a letter to one of his sales representatives, severely criticizing him for communicating directly with Pavona, the department manager and Booker's immediate supervisor. The sales representative was harshly chastised for failing to submit the letter first to Booker, was informed that "intelligence is a luxury, sometimes useless, sometimes fatal," and that "those who are greedy of praise prove they are poor in merit." As a result of this correspondence, as well as with other problems he was allegedly experiencing with Booker, the sales representative contacted Pavona and requested a transfer out of Booker's division. Pavona testified that he denied the transfer at that time because he was unfamiliar with the situation, but that he did discuss the matter with Booker.

In the same month, Pavona was contacted by a customer who complained about Booker's handling of that customer's account. After various attempts to resolve the problem, Pavona ultimately removed Booker from the account and replaced him with a division manager who had previously handled it. Pavona testified that during his investigation into this matter, he also discovered that Booker had improperly provided confidential information concerning one customer to another customer, a competitor.

On July 17, 1985, Pavona received a request from a second representative, Joseph Beale, for a transfer out of Booker's division. In making his request, Beale outlined a number of problems which he was having with Booker, including alleged unfair treatment, harassing telephone calls, threats of termination for minor offenses, and the repeated use of foul language. A second meeting was held, attended by both Pavona and Pavona's supervisor, Korfhage, the area manager. At this second meeting, Beale confirmed his earlier discussions with Pavona and went into greater detail concerning the treatment which he had received from Booker. At the time, however, Beale was on probation, and Pavona and Korfhage questioned his credibility. Therefore, they determined that Beale's charges should be the subject of further investigation.

As a result, Pavona met with five other sales representatives within Booker's division to investigate Beale's allegations. These meetings were conducted between July and August 1985, and Beale's allegations were substantially confirmed. For example, Pavona was told that many of the representatives were afraid of Booker, that he repeatedly used profanity, that he was demanding and militaristic, that he repeatedly threatened his subordinates with termination for even the most minor mistakes, and that he used physical intimidation and often verbally abused subordinates until they began to cry.

Pavona and Korfhage met with Booker on August 14, 1985, and advised him that his managerial behavior and style were unacceptable and that if he did not improve, he would be demoted or terminated. This warning was also confirmed in writing in the form of a letter given to Booker dated August 13, 1985. The letter explicitly stated that Booker would be terminated or demoted if his managerial style did not improve.

There were three subsequent events which Brown & Williamson allege ultimately resulted in Booker's demotion. First, after learning of Beale's conversation with Pavona, Booker prepared a termination report on Beale, which, according to Brown & Williamson, contains inappropriate statements and allegations. The report contends that Beale had absconded with company funds because of drug usage and sexual fantasies and that Beale was making plans for a robbery of the company. Beale admits that an audit resulted in discovery of a fund shortage for which he was responsible, but contends that Booker made up the allegations of drugs, sexual misconduct, and robbery in an apparent attempt to punish him for talking to Pavona.

Second, on August 26, 1985, Booker sent a letter to the head of Brown & Williamson's Human Resources Department in which he attacked and attempted to blame all of his problems on his supervisor, Pavona. He contends that the remarks in his employer's letter of August 13, 1985, were "slanderous" and that his subordinates have been forced, against their will, to discredit him. ¹ In his letter, Booker contends that Pavona, when referring to Blacks, has stated that "I don't know if these people can comprehend asset management." Booker contested all the company's complaints about his managerial style and claimed that "this is a case of ethnocism, which should be investigated immediately. I respectfully request, that no decision be made to transfer me until I have been formally exculpated of Mr. Pavona's charges."

Finally, Ed Carman, one of Booker's customers, complained to Butler and Pavona about Booker's mistreatment and lack of respect for him and his employees. Carman refused to allow Booker back into his establishment because of Booker's lack of respect and authoritarian manner. ²

In light of the above three instances which occurred shortly after the warning to Booker, Pavona and Korfhage recommended to Butler, vice-president of sales, that Booker be demoted. They contended that these incidents confirmed his poor management style and were evidence of his...