Booker v. Budget Rent-a-Car Systems
| Decision Date | 13 July 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 3:94-0048.,3:94-0048. |
| Citation | 17 F.Supp.2d 735 |
| Parties | Anthony BOOKER v. BUDGET RENT-A-CAR SYSTEMS and Guy Grundman, individually and as an agent of Budget Rent-A-Car Systems, Inc. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Tennessee |
Robert Belton, Vanderbilt Law School, Joseph Howell, Johnston, Nashville, TN, for Plaintiff.
Matthew C. Lonergan, John Scannapiew, James Craig Olives from Bonet, Cummings & Berry, Martin H. Steckel from Wimberly, Lawson, Steckel, Nelson & Schneides, Nashville, TN, for Defendant.
Pending before the Court is the Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. No. 40), to which the Plaintiff has Responded (Doc. No. 59), and the Defendants have filed a Reply. (Doc. No. 66.) For the reasons expressed below, this motion is granted in part and denied in part. In light of this ruling, Plaintiff's Motion for a Status Conference (Doc. No. 104) is denied.
In this action, Plaintiff Anthony Booker alleges race discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, as amended. Booker, who is black, was hired in 1979 as a Service Representative with a Nashville branch of Budget Rent-A-Car. In the following years he rose steadily through the ranks of Budget management, obtaining promotions to the positions of Lead Service Representative, Distribution Supervisor, Service Manager, Station Manager, and Local Market Manager. Throughout this period, Booker was the only black person serving in a supervisory position at his Budget branch. The only other black employees at Booker's site were three service workers.
In January of 1992, Defendant Guy Grundman was transferred to the position of general manager of Budget's Nashville operations. (Grundman Dep. at 25.) Grundman's first few months at Budget were, as far as Booker was concerned, relatively uneventful. (Booker Dep. at 41.) During this time, Booker and Grundman had a pleasant working relationship, although their interactions were minimal. (Booker Dep. at 41.) In fact Grundman publicly commended Booker during a general manager's meeting early in 1992, by reading out loud a letter written by one of the employees under Booker's supervision. (Booker Dep. at 43.) In the letter, the employee, Mitzi Keith, praised Booker for helping her through a difficult personal situation. (Id.) Grundman pointed to Booker's handling of the situation as an example of good management skills.
This cordial relationship between Grundman and Booker changed dramatically for the worse, however, in April of 1992. Around that time, Grundman, based on Booker's positive performance evaluations, and recommendations from Booker's supervisors, promoted Booker from Local Market Manager to Location Manager. (Grundman Dep. at 30.) This promotion made Booker an immediate subordinate of Grundman, and required Booker to report to Grundman directly. Shortly after this promotion, Booker, prompted by other managers' reports about Grundman's abusive behavior, began to keep a diary. (Booker Dep. at 54.) The diary entries recount numerous incidents of abuse by Grundman, many of which Booker relies on to establish his discrimination claims.
As reflected in the diary, Booker alleges that one of the first incidents of mistreatment occurred during the last days of March, when Booker returned from a vacation and was informed that Grundman had called in all of the managers late on the previous Friday night and demanded that they shuttle cars back and forth from the Budget locations. (Booker Dep. at 55.) This task was not completed until one o'clock the next morning. (Booker Dep. Ex. 1 at 1.) Grundman allegedly cursed at the managers who were present and criticized their performance, comparing them to the more diligent employees he encountered in Hawaii. Booker was not present because, being on a vacation, he could not be reached. When Booker returned to work on March 30, Grundman was allegedly upset at Booker's absence and stated that all the managers who could not be reached that past Friday would have to come in the following Friday to work. (Booker Dep. at 58 & Ex. 1 at 1.) Booker follows that entry with the comment: (Emphasis added.)
The next diary entry, dated April 15, 1992, tells of Grundman's announcement at a management meeting that the managers were prohibited from having a second job or going to school, because that would interfere with their responsibilities. He further indicated that the managers should be on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, if necessary. Booker again reports that Grundman frequently used foul language when communicating with the managers, and that he was offended by this because of his religious beliefs. He adds that the remainder of April was difficult because of Grundman's abuse. (Booker Dep. Ex. 1 at 2.)
On May 18, 1992, Booker reports in his diary that one of the managers, Amber Sisson, requested to be laid off because she was "fed up dealing with Guy." (Booker Dep. at 65.) Booker explained in his deposition that he recalled Amber's problem with Grundman to be related to the way that Grundman abused Booker. Sisson was one of several employees who left Budget or requested a demotion because Grundman was so difficult to work with. On June 15th, Barbara Barrett, the truck supervisor, requested a demotion so that she would be removed from Grundman's direct authority. (Booker Dep. at 7 .) Another employee, Russell Duggan, also decided to leave his managerial position at Budget because of problems he had with Grundman. (Duggan Dep. at 27-29.)
The remainder of the journal details several incidents in which Booker was verbally harassed by Grundman. On May 30, Grundman, upset at Booker because a customer at the Opryland location had been forced to wait four hours for a van, loudly cursed at Booker at the front counter in front of an hourly employee. Booker states that he was embarrassed by this outburst. Grundman purportedly stated that the incident with the van was Booker's "fucking responsibility," that Booker should not leave the "goddamn counter until the vans arrived," and that he would "take this goddamn location and show you how to fucking run it." (Booker Dep. Ex. 1 at 5.)
On June 22, Booker, Gaye Calloway, and Melody Goodwin were all called into Grundman's office to discuss Goodwin's incentive program. Grundman, apparently upset at the way the incentive program had been structured, loudly berated and cursed at Booker and Calloway. Booker stated that Grundman's verbal abuse was so extensive that one of the customer service representatives indicated that a customer had observed the altercation and had been disturbed by it. (Booker Dep. Ex. 1 at 10.) Melody Goodwin was so upset by the incident that she started crying. (Booker Dep. at 83.) There were other instances in which Grundman's conduct was observed by customers or other employees. On July 23, Booker recorded an incident in which, while he was at the Opryland location helping a customer Grundman called him and asked to see him. Booker asked to call him back after he was finished with the customer. Grundman allegedly replied, The customer commented to Booker that it seemed that Grundman was giving him a "hard time." (Booker Dep. Ex. 1 at 12.)
On July 9th, Booker reports that Grundman gave Booker a written reprimand. (See Booker Dep. Ex. 2.) Booker agreed with some of the criticisms mentioned in the reprimand but not with others.
The journal also details several incidents in which Grundman cursed at Booker and verbally berated him because the rental locations had exceeded the revenue goals, and Grundman was forced to pay out incentive bonuses. The first time the matter was discussed with Booker was on August 1, through a phone call initiated by Grundman to Booker's residence at two in the morning. Grundman was purportedly "yelling and cursing and never said good job or anything to that effect." The following day, Grundman and Booker together implemented increased revenue goals for the car and rental truck locations for the remainder of the year. However, Grundman again verbally harassed and cursed at Booker at the end of August because the locations had once again exceeded their revenue goals and Grundman was forced to pay out the incentives. (Booker Dep. at 99-100 and Ex. 1 at 12-16.)
On September 8, 1992, Booker was informed that the vacation he had scheduled beginning September 14 and which had been approved in August had been canceled. (Booker Dep. at 101, 104 and Ex. 1 at 16-17.) Booker was told that the instructions to cancel all vacations until November had been given by the corporate headquarters. (Booker Dep. at 104.) The reason given was that since Budget was losing money, managers should not be allowed to take vacations. (Booker Dep. at 105.)
Booker's journal reflects at least two instances in which he was singled out from the other managers. On November 30, 1992, Booker recounts that he found out that all of the managers who reported directly to Grundman, except for him, were asked to fill out a questionnaire which inquired as to Grundman's management skills. Booker reports that although the completion of the questionnaires was not mandatory, he felt that he was discriminated against by not being given the opportunity to fill one out. (Booker Dep. Ex. 1 at 21.) Again, on December 13, Booker writes about the company Christmas party at the Opryland golf course, where Grundman indicated in a speech that the Nashville employees had a tough year, but that they had worked hard. Grundman proceeded to mention every manager's name with the exception of Booker, although people from the audience were asking for Booker to be...
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