Cooper v. Wyeth Ayerst Lederle
| Decision Date | 09 June 2000 |
| Docket Number | No. 98 Civ. 1865 (CM).,98 Civ. 1865 (CM). |
| Parties | Anngela COOPER, Plaintiff, v. WYETH AYERST LEDERLE, International Chemical Workers Union Local 143C, and Richard Dumas, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York |
Kim E. Greene, Deiley, Dautel & Mooney, LLP, Albany, NY, for Plaintiff.
David R. Jewell, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP, New York City, for Defendant AHP.
Robert Lowrey, Randall Vehar, General Counsel, Intern. Chemical Workers Union Council, Akron, OH, Patricia McConnell, Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., Mineola, NY, for Defendant Local 143.
Eugene Zinbarg, New York City, for Defendant Dumas.
Plaintiff Anngela Cooper brings sex discrimination and sexual harassment claims under Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., against her former employer, Defendant American Home Products Corporation ("AHP")(sued here as Wyeth Ayerst Laboratories)1 and her former union, Defendant International Chemical Workers Union Local 143C ("Union") and a state law sexual harassment claim against her former supervisor, Defendant Richard Dumas. She also joins a state law employment claim against AHP.
Both the Defendant employer American Home Products, which has been charged with failure to protect Plaintiff against sexual harassment by her supervisor, and the Defendant Union, which has been charged with discriminatory breach of its duty of fair representation, have moved for summary judgment.
For the reasons stated below, AHP's motion is granted and all federal claims against it are dismissed. The Union's motion to dismiss Plaintiff's claim for discriminatory failure to carry out its duty of fair representation is also granted. The Court declines to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Cooper's remaining state law claims against AHP and Dumas.
Viewed most favorably to Plaintiff, the non-moving party, the facts are as follows:
Plaintiff is an African-American woman who began working at Wyeth Ayerst Lederle (the predecessor in interest to and currently a subsidiary of AHP) in Pearl River, New York in 1977.2 Defendant Union Local 143C served as representative for all bargaining unit employees. Plaintiff had been a member of Local 143C from 1977-1988 and rejoined in March 1996. (Def. Union's 56.1 Stmt.) The Union operated pursuant to a Collective Bargaining Agreement ("CBA") with AHP.
Plaintiff joined the Liquids and Ointments Department ("L & O" or "Department 260"), on or about November 14, 1990, as an Operator I on Shift C, a night shift. (Pl. Admissions ¶ 5.) At that time, Richard Dumas worked on the same shift as an Operator II, a non-supervisory position. (O'Brien Aff. ¶ 22.) On or about May 18, 1992, Dumas transferred from Shift C to Shift B, a day shift, and he and Plaintiff did not work the same shift for three years, until April 1995. (Pl. Admissions ¶¶ 6-8.)
On or about April 10, 1995, Plaintiff transferred to Shift B and was again on shift with Dumas, who at that time held the position of Senior Operator, L & O. (Pl. Admissions ¶ 18-19; O'Brien Aff. Ex. C.) While AHP characterizes this as a nonsupervisory position, in that Dumas has no hire-fire-promote-demote-discipline power, it is undisputed that a Senior Operator, L & O, directed the work of Operators I and II. (O'Brien Aff. ¶ 30.) On or about June 19, 1995, Dumas temporarily assumed the duties of Supervisor, L & O, and seven months later he was formally promoted to that position. (Pl. Admissions ¶ 21.) Plaintiff was promoted to the position vacated by Dumas in February 1996. (Pl. Admissions ¶ 29.) Dumas made the promotional recommendation. (Gibberman Dep. at 21, 116.)
Sometime during the period when Plaintiff and Dumas were not working the same shift, they began a sexual relationship. At various times, Plaintiff or her counsel have alleged that the relationship began as early as March 1993, i.e. three years prior to March 1996 (Minter Letter of June 20, 1996) or as late as February 1995. (Tr. of Cooper's Test. before Workers' Comp. Bd., Mar. 26, 1998 at 15, attached to O'Brien Aff. at Ex. P.) Plaintiff has also characterized, or caused her counsel to characterize, the relationship in diametrically opposing ways: as both consensual (Minter Letter, supra.) and coerced, (Letter of Bert Pepper, MD, attached to Cooper Aff. at Exh C).3 While this changeability bears on Plaintiff's credibility, it is not relevant for purposes of this motion. Whenever and however it started, it appears that Plaintiff stopped having sex with Dumas in or about March 1996, almost immediately after he promoted her into his old job. It is the post-sexual relationship behavior that is at issue in this suit.
Dumas thereafter began harassing Plaintiff, by bumping his body into hers, calling her names, demanding sex from her, depriving her of overtime activities, assigning her to menial tasks and threatening to have her fired. (Cooper Aff. ¶¶ 26-28.) Commencing in April 1996, approximately one month after the harassment began, Plaintiff complained to at least five Union shop stewards about Dumas. (Cooper Aff. ¶¶ 29, 32, 52, 54.) Her complaints included claims that Dumas was assigning her and others in her work area menial tasks, that she was not being fairly awarded overtime hours and that Dumas was showing her disrespect. On at least one occasion, Plaintiff told shop steward Michael Youhas that Dumas was "talking dirty" to her, although she never told Youhas what words Dumas used. (Youhas Dep. at 73.) Youhas asked Dumas whether he was harassing Plaintiff, asked if any of her co-workers could corroborate her story, and walked into the department several times in order to try to catch Dumas "in the act." Everyone denied Cooper's allegations. Unable to corroborate Plaintiff's story, Youhas did not file a grievance and referred Plaintiff to AHP's EEO personnel. (Youhas Dep. at 59, 84-85, 110.) It is undisputed that Cooper did not tell Youhas anything about her sexual history with Dumas.
On May 24, 1996, following what she deemed a particularly egregious incident of physical contact, Plaintiff went to Joanne Descher-Rose, the Human Resources Manager at the facility, and complained that Dumas was "harassing" and "disrespecting" her. (Descher-Rose Dep. at 27-9.) Cooper did not mention her prior sexual relationship with Dumas or give Descher-Rose any information that would have placed her complaint in the "sexual harassment" context. Descher-Rose recorded in her notes that Plaintiff had raised a Union, not an EEO, issue. (Descher-Rose Dep. at 115; PX 98.) Descher-Rose nevertheless spoke to both Dumas and his supervisor, Gary Muscarella, about Plaintiff's complaints of unfair treatment in work assignments. Dumas and Muscarella told her that Plaintiff was experiencing serious performance problems. (Descher-Rose Dep. at 59-60.)
Plaintiff obtained medical leave from the plant nurse immediately after her interview with Descher-Rose. When she returned to work on June 3, bearing a doctor's note that established treatment for stress and anxiety, Plaintiff met with Descher-Rose once again. Descher-Rose told Cooper that she was having performance problems and suggested that further complaints should be handled through the Union. (Descher-Rose Dep. at 60.) Again, Plaintiff did not enlighten Descher-Rose about the matters that would have alerted Descher-Rose to the sexual aspect of the situation. Instead, she became upset and asked for another disability leave. Descher-Rose refused to grant her request and sent her back to work, under Dumas' supervision. (Descher-Rose Dep. at 61.)
No sooner had Plaintiff arrived back at work than Dumas presented her with a disciplinary Interview Record, in which he alleged that Cooper had committed six serious violations of company rules during the week of May 21. Shop steward Youhas represented Plaintiff when Dumas presented the Interview Record to her. Youhas was concerned that the Interview Record had been given in retaliation for Plaintiff's prior complaints about Dumas, but he took no action other than to ask Dumas if he was retaliating—which Dumas of course denied. (Youhas Dep. at 107.)
At Cooper's request, the Union filed a grievance on her behalf concerning the Interview Record. Despite Youhas' prior investigation into "sexual harassment," and his concerns about retaliation, the grievance referred neither to sexual harassment nor to retaliation. Cooper, stressed, went again to the company nurse, who again placed her on medical leave and assisted Plaintiff in drafting a letter to report the harassment to AHP. (Burke Dep. at 38-9; Cooper Dep. at 28-52.) Plaintiff revised the letter Burke drafted for her, typed it and mailed it on June 11 to Stephen White, the Plant Manager, with copies to Charles Hildenbrand, Director of Consumer Health Products, Joanne Descher-Rose, and Robert Glover, President of the Local Union. The letter stated as follows:
I, Anngela Cooper, am a Senior Operator in department # 620. My immediate supervisor is Richard Dumas.
The purpose of this letter is to advise management of a situation I'm confronted with an a daily basis. I have been consistently harassed for the past 6 to 7 weeks. Due to this its [sic] been difficult to maintain my normally high productivity at work. It has been a constant interference, also creating problems in my personal life.
I brought this to the attention of C. Hildenbrand Director of Consumer Health Products, J. Descher Rose—Human Resources and Robert Glover—Union president, verbally. To this date, it is still unresolved. Because of emotional, mental and physical harassment, I feel intimidated at this time I'm scared [sic].
At this point I'd like to resume my normal activities at work without feeling threaten [sic]. I'm hoping you can address this matter immediately.
(Cooper...
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