Cuffee v. Tidewater Community College

• Decision Date: 17 January 2006
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 2:04cv381.
• Citation: 409 F.Supp.2d 709
• Parties: Delzola CUFFEE, Plaintiff, v. TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE; Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

409 F.Supp.2d 709

Delzola CUFFEE, Plaintiff, v. TIDEWATER COMMUNITY COLLEGE; Defendant.

Civil Action No. 2:04cv381.

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Norfolk Division.

January 17, 2006.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Henry Levander Marsh, III, Hill Tucker & Marsh, Richmond, VA, for Plaintiff.

Martha Murphey, Parrish Office of the Attorney General, Richmond, VA, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

KELLEY, District Judge.

Plaintiff Delzola Cuffee voluntarily requested and received a transfer from her accounting position to a lower classified position within Tidewater Community College ("TCC"). Although her new position falls within a lower pay band, TCC allowed plaintiff to retain her existing salary. Once TCC accommodated plaintiff's requests, she filed this action alleging, among other things, that TCC discriminated against her by failing to reclassify upward her old position (prior to her voluntary demotion) and assigned her a heavy workload in retaliation for considering the filing of an EEOC complaint some four years earlier. This conduct is alleged to have violated both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., and sections 1981 and 1983 of Title 42 of the United States Code. The matter is now before the Court on TCC's Motion for Summary Judgment. (Docket No. 9). For the reasons stated below, the Motion is GRANTED.

I. Factual and Procedural History

Plaintiff Cuffee is an African-American female who graduated from high school. TCC first hired Cuffee in 1976 for a part-time staff position in the library. In 1977, she transferred to the Continuing Education Office of TCC as a Clerk Typist B. In 1979, she applied for and received a position with the Business Office as Clerk Typist C. Once there, TCC repeatedly promoted Cuffee from Typist to Cashier to Fiscal Assistant to Fiscal Technician, and finally to Senior Fiscal Technician.

In June 1995, TCC's Vice President for Finance, Phyllis F. Milloy, transferred Cuffee to TCC's main office as the Supervisor of Accounts Receivable.¹ Once in the main office, Cuffee began to have problems with her immediate supervisor, Vizel Townsend, who is also an African-American. In the 1996-97 time frame, Cuffee met with Chief Accountant Reyne Buchholz to discuss her personality clash with Ms. Townsend. Cuffee claims that Ms. Buchholz was unreceptive to her concerns and actually spat on her. At another meeting, Ms. Buchholz allegedly told Townsend that she had "broken" Cuffee.² (Cuffee Affidavit 4).

On November 11, 1998, Cuffee asked Ms. Buchholz to reclassify³ upward her job from Fiscal Technician Senior to Accountant. Ms. Buchholz had a high workload at the time, and did not respond immediately to Cuffee's request. On November 20, Ms. Buchholz informed Cuffee that she had not yet reviewed Cuffee's request. Cuffee interpreted this delay as racially motivated and told Ms. Buchholz so in an email sent on November 28, 1998. Cuffee further claimed in the email that she was being treated unfairly because she had requested the reclassification of her position a year earlier. Cuffee also complained that TCC had reclassified upward the positions of her entire staff, but not her position.

Upon receiving Cuffee's November 28 email, Ms. Buchholz asked Cuffee to direct her reclassification request to Kathleen Williamson, who was TCC's Compensation and Classification Specialist. After reviewing the situation, Ms. Williamson recommended on December 1 that Cuffee's position be reclassified upward to that of Accountant. This reclassification moved Cuffee's job from a Grade 8, Step 9 ($31,794) to a Grade 9, Step 9 ($34,756). Ms. Williamson did not know about Cuffee's November 28 allegations of discrimination, and based her recommendation solely on an independent assessment of Cuffee's performance and responsibilities. Cuffee was advised on January 13, 1999 that her reclassification request was approved and would become effective on January 25, 1999.

At some point between November 11, 1998 and January 13, 1999, Cuffee partially filled out an EEOC complaint form. The would be complaint asserted that the delay in reclassifying Cuffee's position was motivated by racial discrimination. Specifically, Cuffee claimed in the unfiled EEOC complaint that the reclassification upward of her job was delayed while others received favorable reclassifications. Vice President Milloy of TCC became aware of the possible EEOC complaint, and requested that Cuffee give the school five days to investigate before Cuffee filed it. Cuffee received her promotion in the interim, and the compliant was never filed with the EEOC.

At some point, Cuffee became dissatisfied with her reclassified position because of the additional responsibility that came with the newly defined position and the understaffing of her department. Cuffee was also dissatisfied because after the reclassification she did not receive substantial additional increases in pay (she received cost of living increases, but no "pay band" increase). Although it is undisputed that understaffing was a chronic problem within many departments in the college, Cuffee claims that the understaffing of her department was a purposeful, racially motivated attempt by her superiors to cause her to fail.

In 2003, Tosca T. Gavin became Cuffee's supervisor. Gavin prepared a memo in February 2003 recommending that the jobs of Cuffee and two other employees, Sylvia York and Latricia Russell-Wilkerson, be reclassified upward and that these employees get "pay band" increases. Gavin believed, and apparently told Cuffee, that she did not receive the full pay increase that she deserved in 1999 and that she should have been moved one step higher on the pay band scale. Cuffee was a pay band level 4. Gavin's memo recommended promoting Cuffee to a pay band level 5, the same level as Gavin herself.

TCC's Classified Salary Administration Plan requires that reclassification/promotion requests be decided upon by management before they are discussed with the affected employees. Contrary to this procedure, Gavin shared her recommendation with Cuffee before obtaining approval for the pay band promotions. Despite Gavin's mishandling of the situation, her recommendations were reviewed by Kathleen Williamson who, as stated before, was TCC's Compensation and Classification Specialist. Of the three promotions that Gavin recommended, only Sylvia York, a Caucasian, eventually received a pay increase. Although York still had a lower salary than Cuffee and did not perform the same duties, Cuffee claims racial discrimination because only the white person in the group got a raise while the two African-Americans were refused a raise.

In late March, 2003 Lisa Barnes, a white employee, received a higher paying offer from a private company. Ms. Buchholz, in consultation with TCC's Director of Human Resources, agreed to match the higher offer in order to keep Barnes at TCC. Gavin's recommendation that TCC reclassify upward Cuffee's job was still pending at the time this occurred. Cuffee characterizes Barnes' pay raise as another example of discrimination: Barnes gets more money while Cuffee's reclassification is delayed.

On April 8, 2003, Cuffee requested that TCC transfer her to the Norfolk office because she felt her workload at the main office was "unbearable." (Cuffee Affidavit 49). Cuffee rescinded her request for transfer when she learned that the Norfolk office was even more understaffed than the main office.

On April 24, 2003, Vice President Milloy expanded the study of the three positions suggested in Gavin's memo to one encompassing all of TCC's accounting positions. Milloy thought it unfair to consider only three positions for reclassification and believed that a review of the whole department would ensure fairness and the best use of resources. Cuffee, however, asserts that the expanded study was "a means to not have [her raise] materialize," or at best a delaying tactic.

After Tosca Gavin resigned in July, 2003, Ms. Buchholz resumed direct supervision of Cuffee. Cuffee claims that she thereafter "reached the height of [her] frustration" with her position (Cuffee Affidavit 23). On September 26, 2003, Cuffee once again requested a transfer, though this time for a demotion to the job of Cashier Supervisor at the Chesapeake Campus. Cuffee claims that this transfer request was a "constructive involuntary demotion" caused by her heavy workload. (Cuffee Affidavit 49).

After Cuffee's request for a transfer, Ms. Buchholz decided not to recommend Cuffee for a pay band increase, and Ms. Williamson decided not to recommend Cuffee for a promotion/reclassification. Ms. Williamson concluded from her investigation that Cuffee's position and responsibilities warranted the same pay band level she was already receiving. Later, when the full Accounting study was completed by John Kunz, Human Resource Manager, he also concluded that Cuffee's position was not appropriate for upward reclassification.

Cuffee's request for transfer was granted and became effective in December 2003. Despite the fact that her transfer was a demotion to a lower pay band job with less responsibility, Cuffee was allowed to stay at the same pay band level, and has continued to receive cost of living increases in her salary. Indeed, the average person at Cuffee's new level makes approximately $10,000 per year less than Ms. Cuffee.

On October 31, 2003 Cuffee filed a complaint with the EEOC alleging that TCC discriminated against her. She did not immediately serve the complaint on the school. On November 21, Cuffee instead requested from Ms. Buchholz "retroactive" compensation for the money Cuffee claims she should have been paid since 2000 due to her increased duties. Ms. Buchholz responded by reminding Cuffee that her position had been reclassified upward in 1999, which subjected her to the additional responsibilities about which she now complained. On December 11, 2003 Cuffee wrote back...