Caldwell v. Servicemaster Corp.

• Decision Date: 12 June 1997
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 95-0533(JHG).
• Citation: 966 F.Supp. 33
• Parties: Muriel Anita CALDWELL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SERVICEMASTER CORPORATION, and Norrell Temporary Services, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

966 F.Supp. 33

Muriel Anita CALDWELL, et al., Plaintiffs, v. SERVICEMASTER CORPORATION, and Norrell Temporary Services, Defendants.

Civil Action No. 95-0533(JHG).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

June 12, 1997.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

James Brewster Hopewell, Riverdale, MD, for Plaintiffs.

Lawrence C. DiNardo, Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, IL, Karla Grossenbacher, Washington, DC, for defendant Servicemaster Corp.

Jonathan Richard Mook, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, Washington, DC, Jon M. Gumbel, Leanne Groce, Ford & Harrison, L.L.P., Atlanta, GA, Joshua Moses Javits, Washington, DC, for defendant Norrell Temporary Services.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

JOYCE HENS GREEN, District Judge.

Presently pending are the defendants' motions for summary judgment. For the reasons stated below, Norrell Temporary Services' motion will be granted and ServiceMaster Corporation's motion will be granted in part and denied in part.

I. Background

Except where otherwise noted, the following material facts are not in dispute. Plaintiffs, Muriel Anita Caldwell ("Caldwell"), Malika Haynes-Bey ("Haynes-Bey"), Tawanda Morris ("Morris") and Juanita Maria Nur ("Nur"), four African American women, have filed this action under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (1994), and the Civil Rights Act of 1870, 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (1994), against Defendants ServiceMaster Corporation ("ServiceMaster") and Norrell Temporary Services ("Norrell"). In a 16-count Complaint, Plaintiffs allege that ServiceMaster discriminated against each of them in violation of Tile VII based on their race and sex (Counts 1-4); that ServiceMaster's agents unlawfully retaliated against them (Counts 5-8); that Norrell discriminated against each of them by failing to correct the discriminatory environment that existed at ServiceMaster or to address the adverse actions taken against each Plaintiff by ServiceMaster and its agents (Counts 9-12); and that ServiceMaster discriminated against each Plaintiff in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Counts 13-16).¹

On or about April 1, 1993, Defendant ServiceMaster was hired by the District of Columbia Public School system ("DCPS") to provide construction-related services. ServiceMaster opened an office in the District of Columbia, staffed its new office with managerial personnel and, on June 28, 1993, it entered into a contract with Defendant Norrell to obtain additional employees.

Norrell provides personnel, recruiting and related employment services, and it agreed to do so for ServiceMaster based upon a "Payrolling Services Agreement." Under the terms of this agreement, Norrell would recruit and place employees with ServiceMaster and, using ServiceMaster's funds, would provide payroll services. The Payrolling Services Agreement provided, in relevant part:

The parties acknowledge that Norrell shall have responsibility to control all terms and conditions for the Payrolled Workers except those that are the responsibility of Client. Client shall have the responsibility to supervise, counsel. discipline, review and evaluate the Payrolled Workers .... The Client reserves the right to request the removal and/or replacement of any Payrolled Worker for any lawful reason.

Payrolling Services Agreement at ¶ 5, attached to Norrell's MSJ at Ex. A (emphasis added).

The relationship between ServiceMaster and Norrell is contractual. While ServiceMaster has an ownership interest in Norrell, that interest is only a minority interest (approximately 29 percent) and "each Company is completely separate with regard to operations." Plaintiffs' Opp. to ServiceMaster's MSJ at Ex. 10; Caldwell Dep. TR at 81, attached to Plaintiffs' Opp. to Norrell's MSJ at Ex. 1. The defendants do not share the same space or facility nor do they have the same managers or directors.

Pursuant to the Payrolling Services Agreement, Norrell placed Plaintiffs with ServiceMaster. On July 6, 1993, Plaintiffs Caldwell and Morris were assigned to ServiceMaster to perform clerical and administrative services in connection with the DCPS project. On August 2, 1993, Plaintiff Nur was assigned to ServiceMaster to work at the DCPS project as a customer service representative. And, on August 3, 1993, Plaintiff Haynes-Bey was assigned by Nortell to work for ServiceMaster in connection with taking inventory at various schools and as a customer service representative on the DCPS project. Plaintiffs were told by both ServiceMaster and Norrell that they would be hired for a thirteen-week probationary period, after which, at the option of ServiceMaster, they could be hired as full-time employees in the same positions.

The ServiceMaster manager at the DCPS worksite was Mr. Randy Ledbetter and the office manager was Ms. Bonnie McClun, both of whom exercised supervisory responsibilities over Plaintiffs Caldwell and Morris. Ledbetter appeared to have overall supervisory responsibility for all of the employees, including Plaintiffs. While Plaintiff HaynesBey performed inventory work at the schools, which comprised a substantial part of her work while with ServiceMaster (ten of fifteen work days), she generally worked under the direction of Ron Fisher, another ServiceMaster manager at the DCPS worksite. For the other five days of her fifteenday tenure, Haynes-Bey worked at the ServiceMaster office site doing typing for Ron Fisher and under the supervision of McClun. (ServiceMaster disputes whether HaynesBey ever worked for McClun. For the purposes of these motions, such dispute is not material.)

Like Haynes-Bey, Plaintiff Nur spent the first two-to-three weeks of her eight week tenure with ServiceMaster working at the schools in connection with the DCPS contract and the last five-to-six weeks at ServiceMaster's office working under the direct supervision of Plaintiff Caldwell. Like Caldwell, Nur also worked under the supervision of Ledbetter and McClun. Although the parties do not make clear his precise responsibilities, Mr. Richard Skoff was also a manager at the DCPS office site and appears to have played a role in some of ServiceMaster's personnel decisions.

The record paints a picture of an office in its infancy. Plaintiffs were hired shortly after ServiceMaster entered into the DCPS contract and shortly after it opened its office. According to Caldwell, at the outset, approximately 25 persons were assigned to one small office. Ledbetter was responsible for not only supervising ServiceMaster's performance under the new contract, but also for hiring personnel (through Norrell) and for supervising the remodeling and opening of the office at ServiceMaster's DCPS worksite. During this time period, the record reflects tension between ServiceMaster managers and Plaintiffs as well as between other ServiceMaster employees and Plaintiffs.

Although the defendants reserved the right to contest the truth of the following allegations, for the purposes of the summary judgment motions, they are willing to assume, as will the Court, that the following allegations are true. See ServiceMaster's Statement of Material Facts as to Which There is No Genuine Dispute at 3 n. 2.

A. Haynes-Bey's allegations.

During her fifteen-day tenure with ServiceMaster, Haynes-Bey contends that:

1. McClun called her "girl," "gal" and "rascal," rather than calling her by her name;

2. That she was called one of the "Uh Huh girls";

3. That other employees, an Asian male and two White males, were treated differently in that they were given company cars to travel from work to the schools while she was required to use her own car and in that she was reprimanded for being late, while the summer interns,² who were also late, were not reprimanded;

4. That while she was terminated for sleeping at the computer, another employee (a White male) was not, even though this was brought to McClun's attention;

5. That when she first arrived at the DCPS worksite, two ServiceMaster managers had difficulty pronouncing her name and she was asked why she did not have a normal name;

6. That while she was in her second week of work with ServiceMaster (and before she had worked in the office where McClun also worked) she attended a meeting between Ledbetter, Skoff, McClun and the other Plaintiffs regarding complaints about McClun's communication skills. Haynes-Bey testified at her deposition that she did not have a complaint at that time.³ (In her deposition, Haynes-Bey testified that she could recall no one-on-one conversations with McClun and never had any discussions with Skoff.);

7. That she found Ron Fisher's dissatisfaction with her work performance (i.e., typing errors) objectionable ("I got offended because he said also that I don't understand why can't you do this without making any errors." Dep. at 82).

See Haynes-Bey' EEOC Affidavit ("Aff.") (unsigned, bearing EEOC date stamp of Nov. 9, 1993), attached to Plaintiffs' Opp. to ServiceMaster's MSJ at Ex. 3; Haynes-Bey Deposition (May 23, 1996), attached to ServiceMaster's MSJ at Ex. A; Norrell's MSJ at Ex. G; Plaintiffs Opp. to Norrell's MSJ at Ex. 2; and Plaintiffs' Opp. to ServiceMaster's MSJ at Ex. 12.

In her deposition, Haynes-Bey testified that, prior to her reassignment from ServiceMaster, she had never complained to Norrell staff regarding the allegations described above. Haynes-Bey Dep. TR at 144-45, attached to Norrell's MSJ at Ex. G. On or about August 24, 1993, after only fifteen work days of employment at the ServiceMaster site, she received a call from Jill Pierce at Norrell, advising her that while she was not being terminated by Norrell, she would no longer be needed at the ServiceMaster site.⁴ Id. at 145-46.⁵

After Haynes-Bey's termination, Norrell met with ServiceMaster staff to discuss the basis for the termination. See Pierce Dep. TR at 80-81. ServiceMaster reiterated its previous reasons. See Pierce Aff. ¶ 2, attached to Norrell's MSJ at Ex. N. Less than a week later, on...