Carlton v. Interfaith Medical Center

• Decision Date: 18 June 1985
• Docket Number: No. 83 CV 1485.,83 CV 1485.
• Citation: 612 F. Supp. 118
• Parties: Minnie CARLTON, Plaintiff, v. INTERFAITH MEDICAL CENTER, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

612 F. Supp. 118

Minnie CARLTON, Plaintiff, v. INTERFAITH MEDICAL CENTER, Defendant.

No. 83 CV 1485.

United States District Court, E.D. New York.

June 18, 1985.

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Charles E. Morrison, New York City, for plaintiff.

Guggenheimer & Untermyer, David H. Diamond and Richard A. Covin, New York City, for defendant.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

McLAUGHLIN, District Judge.

Plaintiff, a former employee of defendant Interfaith Medical Center ("Interfaith"), brings this action for damages and injunctive relief arising from the conditions of her former employment and from her ultimate discharge. Plaintiff alleges violations of the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 626; Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5; and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. In addition, plaintiff contends that her lay-off was in breach of an alleged employment agreement and of an implied covenant of good faith. Finally, plaintiff alleges that Interfaith fraudulently induced her to continue working at the hospital and that she relied on that inducement to her detriment.

Defendant moves for summary judgment. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. For the reasons set forth below, defendant's motion is granted in part and denied in part.

Facts

Plaintiff, a fifty-nine year old black female, was employed by Jewish Hospital and Medical Center of Brooklyn ("JHMCB") from October 9, 1969 until December 31, 1982. From 1969 until 1974, plaintiff worked as a registrar in the outpatient area of the accounting department. From 1974 until her discharge, plaintiff held the title of Supervisor-OPD Registration. Interfaith contends, however, that plaintiff did not perform supervisory work.

On January 1, 1983, Interfaith, a New York not-for-profit corporation, commenced operations of an acute health care facility on the former site of JHMCB, which had filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Act, 11 U.S.C. § 701 et seq. All JHMCB employees initially were retained by Interfaith to insure continuity of patient care. As a condition to approving the establishment and operation of Interfaith, however, the State of New York mandated a substantial reduction in the number of patient beds and employees. Accordingly, significant lay-offs took place at Interfaith in early 1983. Plaintiff was among the several hundred employees, including 33 non-union¹, non-professional employees, laid off.

Plaintiff contends that on February 5, 1983, she was advised by her supervisor, Ms. Porter, that no staff member's job would be in jeopardy as a result of the merger. Ms. Porter, a black female, states in her affidavit that she cannot recall making such a representation. In any event, plaintiff was advised on or about February 7, 1983 that she would be laid off effective February 18, 1983.

Discussion

Equal Pay Act

29 U.S.C. § 206(d) states that:

No employer ... shall discriminate ... on the basis of sex by paying wages to employees ... at a rate less than the rate at which he pays wages to employees of the opposite sex ... for equal work....

Plaintiff bears the burden of proving equality of work. Strecker v. Grand Forks County Social Service Board, 640 F.2d 96, 99-100 (8th Cir.1980). The relevant inquiry is "whether the performance of the jobs requires substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions." Orahood v. Board of Trustees, et al., 645 F.2d 651, 654 (8th Cir.1981).

Plaintiff claims that she was paid less than a male supervisor who performs an allegedly comparable function in the in-patient accounting department. Interfaith contends, however, that a supervisor of in-patient accounting deals with more paper work and supervises more employees than does his out-patient counterpart, and, thus, that the two jobs are not equal.

"On a motion for summary judgment the Court cannot try issues of fact; it can only determine whether there are issues to be tried." Heyman v. Commerce and Industry Insurance Company, 524 F.2d 1317, 1319-20 (2d Cir.1975). Clearly, material questions of fact exist as to (a) whether plaintiff did, in fact, perform supervisory duties, and (b) whether the supervisory positions in the in-patient and out-patient departments involve equal skill, effort and responsibility performed under similar working conditions. Accordingly, defendant's motion for summary judgment on the Equal Pay Act claim is denied.²

Discriminatory Discharge

Plaintiff alleges that her lay-off constitutes age, sex and race discrimination, in violation of the ADEA, Title VII, and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The Supreme Court has set forth the controlling legal standards regarding the burden of proof in such cases:

First, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence a prima facie case of discrimination. Second, if the plaintiff succeeds in proving the prima facie case, the burden shifts to the defendant "to articulate some legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the employee's rejection." ... Third, should the defendant carry this burden, the plaintiff must then have an opportunity to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the legitimate reasons offered by the defendant were not its true reasons, but were a pretext for discrimination.

Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 252-53, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981) (quoting McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973)).

Even assuming that plaintiff has made out a prima facie case of discrimination, she has adduced no evidence whatsoever to demonstrate that Interfaith's proffered reasons for her discharge are pretextual.

Interfaith asserts, initially, that plaintiff's lay-off was part of a massive reduction in force which was mandated by the State of New York as a condition to certifying Interfaith's operation. This fact cannot be disputed, and indeed, is substantiated by a newsletter article attached to plaintiff's responsive papers. See Plaintiff's Ex. #4. Of course, the mere existence of a reduction in force scenario does not remove defendant's actions from the scrutiny of this Court, since the method defendant chooses to carry out that force reduction could be discriminatory. See Hagelthorn v. Kennecott Corp., 710 F.2d 76, 81 (2d Cir.1983). When faced with such a scenario, however, the courts have placed greater emphasis on the requirement that plaintiff prove intent to discriminate. See Williams v. General Motors, Corp., 656 F.2d 120, 128 (5th Cir. 1981); Coburn v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 711 F.2d 339, 343 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 104 S.Ct. 488, 78 L.Ed.2d 683 (1983).

Interfaith provides a legitimate non-discriminatory business reason for laying off plaintiff Carlton. The affidavits submitted by Interfaith reflect that to achieve the mandated force reductions, a business decision was made to reorganize the out-patient accounting department. The plan was to eliminate the two intermediate supervisory positions held by plaintiff and another female and to create, instead, a new position of assistant manager. That position, which entails an expanded range of duties, was filled by a black female who was transferred from the in-patient accounting area where her position also had been eliminated.

Plaintiff's former supervisor, Valerie Porter, a black female, indicated that she recommended plaintiff's lay off, in part, because she concluded that plaintiff was not performing supervisory work.³ Clearly, it is the perception of the decision-maker, and not that of plaintiff herself, which is relevant. Smith v. Flax, 618 F.2d 1062, 1067 (4th Cir.1980). Moreover, Porter states in her affidavit that neither race, sex nor age was a factor in her recommendation.

Inasmuch as Interfaith has articulated a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for plaintiff's discharge, plaintiff, to survive a motion for summary judgment, must "prove the existence of factual issues demonstrating that the stated reasons were merely a pretext for discrimination." Meiri v. Dacon, 759 F.2d 989, 997 (2d Cir. 1985). Mere conclusory allegations of discrimination will not suffice. Zahorik v. Cornell University, 729 F.2d 85, 94 (2d Cir.1984).

Plaintiff asserts that direct and circumstantial evidence exists in the form of "memorandums, notices, letters and statistics" tending to show that age was a factor in Interfaith's decision to discharge her. Insofar as the memoranda, notices and letters are concerned, plaintiff fails to provide details as to what documents she is referring to and how they indicate that age is a factor. Clearly, the documents she has submitted fail to provide the slightest hint that either age, race or sex was a factor in Interfaith's decision.

Moreover, plaintiff admits that no one in a supervisory capacity at Interfaith ever made any disparaging remarks about her race, sex or age; nor did anyone indicate that her lay-off was because of her race, sex or age.

Plaintiff relies primarily upon statistical evidence. Although it is clearly proper for a plaintiff to rely on statistical evidence in proving pretext, McClain v. Mack Trucks, Inc., 532 F.Supp. 486, 489 (E.D.Pa. 1982), aff'd, 707 F.2d 1393 (3d Cir.1983), the mere existence of such evidence does not preclude summary judgment, Kahn v. Pepsi Cola Bottling Group, 547 F.Supp. 736, 739 (E.D.N.Y.1982). As the Second Circuit has noted, "where, as here, the statistical evidence ... leads to an indisputable result, the judge is justified in taking the evaluation of the statistics away from the jury." Geller v. Markham, 635 F.2d 1027, 1034 (2d Cir.1980).

The statistical evidence in this case reveals that while 57% of the 33 non-union, non-professional employees laid off by Interfaith in 1983 were forty years of age or older, 58% of those retained were over forty. Likewise, while 66% of those laid off were black, 61% of those retained...