Cline v. General Elec. Capital Auto Lease, Inc.

• Citation: 757 F. Supp. 923
• Decision Date: 31 January 1991
• Docket Number: No. 89 C 6019.,89 C 6019.
• Parties: Phyllis CLINE, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC CAPITAL AUTO LEASE, INC., f/k/a General Electric Credit Auto Lease, Inc., an Illinois Corporation; and Jerome Burd, Individually and as an agent for and on behalf of General Electric Capital Auto Lease, Inc., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

757 F. Supp. 923

Phyllis CLINE, Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC CAPITAL AUTO LEASE, INC., f/k/a General Electric Credit Auto Lease, Inc., an Illinois Corporation; and Jerome Burd, Individually and as an agent for and on behalf of General Electric Capital Auto Lease, Inc., Defendants.

No. 89 C 6019.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, E.D.

January 31, 1991.

Mary C. Martin, Law Offices of Mary C. Martin, Chtd., and David W. Andich, Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff.

Ellen E. McLaughlin, Robert J. Mignin, Kathleen M. Paravola, Eugene G. Bruno, Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, Ill., for defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

BRIAN BARNETT DUFF, District Judge.

This suit¹ came before the court for trial without a jury and the trial was completed on November 7, 1990. The court has heard the evidence and has considered the testimony, exhibits, memoranda of law, and arguments of counsel. Now fully advised in this matter, the full trial having been concluded, the court finds these facts:

1. Background

1. General Electric Capital Auto Lease, Inc. (GECAL) is a corporation doing business in and organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, with its principal place of business in Barrington, Illinois.

2. Phyllis Cline resides in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. She worked for GECAL from August, 1987 through May, 1988.

3. Jerome Burd resides in Cary, Illinois and has worked for GECAL in various capacities since January, 1977. Between May, 1981 and February, 1989, Mr. Burd was GECAL's National Collections Manager.

4. GECAL was, at all relevant times, an employer as defined by 42 U.S.C. § 2000e.

2. Ms. Cline's Employment at GECAL

5. Marilyn Sabounghi, Ms. Cline's neighbor, referred her to the job. Ms. Sabounghi also worked in the Collections Department. Ms. Cline interviewed with Mr. Burd, the Area Collection Manager, Karen Sweeney and Madelaine Ewing, another collector in the department.

6. Mr. Burd and Ms. Sweeney both told Ms. Cline that the work in the Collections Department, requesting payments from people who had become delinquent on their auto leases, was stressful.

7. Ms. Cline began working for GECAL as a regular, full-time 30-day collector in August, 1987. Her starting salary was $15,500 per year.

8. During her tenure with GECAL, Ms. Cline had a series of immediate supervisors. They were: Ms. Sweeney, George Benson, Ann Philbin and Marilyn Sabounghi. Those supervisors, referred to as "Area Collections Managers", reported to Mr. Burd. Mr. Burd, in turn, reported to Rick Weissner, the "Receivable Controls Manager". Mr. Weissner reported to the Vice President of Operations, who reported, finally, to the President, James Giacomini.

9. Collectors, including Ms. Cline, were responsible for calling lessees who were delinquent in making payments on their accounts. Some of those lessees would use abusive and profane language to the collectors, including Ms. Cline. The collectors' performance was measured by the number (or dollars) of delinquent accounts they collected.

10. Ms. Cline often worked overtime, and, true to her co-workers' predictions, the work was stressful.

11. In January, 1988, Ms. Cline received a 3.6% merit increase ($558/year).

12. In April, 1988, Ms. Cline received another merit increase, this time for 4.5%, or $725 per year.

13. Ms. Cline received a "fully satisfactory" performance appraisal, which was approved by Mr. Burd, on March 9, 1988 (Joint Exhibit 4).

14. She also received a formal written performance appraisal on March 24, 1988 (Joint Exhibit 5). Mr. Burd approved her overall "satisfactory" appraisal.

15. Ms. Cline went on medical disability leave on May 17, 1988 and never returned to work at GECAL.

16. Prior to her employment with GECAL, Ms. Cline had been consistently employed since 1971.

3. Mr. Burd's Treatment of Department Employees

17. Shortly after Ms. Cline began working at GECAL, Mr. Burd began calling her "Filly".² Ms. Cline objected to the `nickname' and consistently asked Mr. Burd to stop using it. One day Mr. Burd acquiesced. He announced to all the workers in Ms. Cline's department that everyone should stop calling Ms. Cline "Filly." Instead, Mr. Burd told the department, they were to call her "Syphilis, the gift that keeps on giving." From then on Mr. Burd called Ms. Cline "Syphilis."

18. Mr. Weissner, Mr. Burd's supervisor, observed this incident, but did not respond to it.

19. At least one female co-worker called Ms. Cline "Syphilis", and the name appears in a note apparently intended to be friendly which some of Ms. Cline's co-workers sent to her while she was on her medical leave from GECAL.

20. Mr. Burd called Ms. Cline "Syphilis" when he telephoned her to monitor her progress during her medical leave.

21. Ms. Cline and other workers in her department both saw and heard Mr. Burd yell at workers in the department about work related matters.

22. The evidence at trial demonstrated, however, that Ms. Cline was the subject of particular cruelty at Mr. Burd's hands. Aside from the derogatory nicknames he insisted on using to refer to her, Mr. Burd:

a. Hit Ms. Cline in the arm in January, 1988. The blow was strong enough to leave a mark on Ms. Cline's arm for several hours.

b. Hit Ms. Cline on the head with a file.

c. Speculated about Ms. Cline's sexual relationship with her husband, including asking whether she and her husband were "getting it on" or whether she was "getting enough at home".

d. Referred to Ms. Cline's husband (named "Bob") as "Billy-Bob", despite Ms. Cline's repeated requests that he not do so.

e. Once yelled at Ms. Cline to "sit your ass back down" while Ms. Cline was on the phone with a lessee.

f. Made derogatory comments about Ms. Cline's dress and appearance, including ordering her not to wear a particular dress to work because he hated the color, telling her that she looked like a streetwalker, and telling her that her shoes were the ugliest he had ever seen.

g. Monitored the time she spent in the restroom, told her she could spend no more than five minutes there, and banged on the door when he decided she had been there long enough.

h. Refused to believe Ms. Cline when she told him she had attempted to call in when car trouble caused her to be late to work one day. Mr. Burd docked Ms. Cline's pay for the time she missed, despite the fact that he himself checked the line she had tried to call on, and found that it was not working.

23. Ms. Cline, as any reasonable person would have been, was embarrassed and humiliated by Mr. Burd's treatment of her.

24. The evidence at trial also demonstrated that Mr. Burd treated other women in the department with similar derision:

a. He made fun of Maddie Ewing's large breasts, her dress and her appearance, all in front of other department employees.

b. Mr. Burd hit Ms. Ewing on the head with a metal pen more than once, called her "short shit" and other derogatory names.

c. Mr. Burd obtained an unauthorized personal credit report on Ms. Ewing. He then told her she had too many credit cards and ordered her to turn her credit cards over to him. He cut some of them up, and kept others.

d. Mr. Burd took Ms. Ewing's checkbook, paid her bills, and put her on an allowance. When Ms. Ewing objected, Mr. Burd responded to her in an obscene fashion, indicating that he would not relinquish control over her personal finances.

e. Mr. Burd frequently pinched Marilyn Sabounghi. Several times the pinches were hard enough to leave bruises for days. He repeatedly hit her with a ruler, as "punishment" for biting her nails or reaching for a cigarette.

f. Mr. Burd told Ms. Sabounghi that her legs looked diseased. He called her a "Jewish Princess" or "Jewish American Princess" more than once g. He searched her purse and desk, without authority, several times. When he found cigarettes, he crumbled them over her desk.

h. On October 7, 1988, Mr. Burd grabbed Ms. Sabounghi's arm, twisted it, and blocked her from leaving her office.

i. Karen Sweeney complained to Human Resources on November 6, 1987, that Mr. Burd twisted her arm with enough force to leave a mark. Ms. Sweeney was fired a month later.

j. Mr. Burd hit Ann Philbin on her hand with a ruler, once when she reached for a cigarette and once to punish her for omitting the middle initial of a lessee's name. On the latter occasion, Mr. Burd told Ms. Philbin "if you do it again, I'll hit you harder."

k. Mr. Burd called other women in the department names like "fat ass", "dyke" and "dragon lady".

25. Several of the women in Mr. Burd's department gave him Christmas and/or birthday gifts. Ms. Cline gave Mr. Burd a "cross-stitch" wall hanging which said "This Place Is A Zoo" for Christmas, 1987 (about four months after she began working for GECAL).

26. Some of the women in the department called Mr. Burd "General Burd", "Burd-Man" and "PIA" (pain-in-the-ass).

27. None of these women, except Ms. Sweeney, complained about Mr. Burd to GECAL's Human Resources department. The women sometimes responded to Mr. Burd's comments with laughter, but more often communicated to him that his behavior did not please them.

28. Ms. Cline complained frequently to Mr. Burd and once to Ann Philbin when Ms. Philbin was her immediate supervisor about Mr. Burd's treatment of her. She received no relief and did not press her complaint because she was convinced that Mr. Burd's superiors were aware of, and condoned his behavior (see Findings of Fact 58-72).

29. Based on Mr. Burd's general behavior, as well as her knowledge of what had happened to Ms. Sweeney, Ms. Cline reasonably feared retaliation by Mr. Burd for her complaints.

30. None of the evidence introduced at trial suggested that the terms and conditions of Ms. Cline's employment were conditioned upon her granting sexual favors or engaging in any sexual conduct or behavior with Mr. Burd or any other GECAL manager, supervisor or employee.

31. There was...