Dawson v. Bumble & Bumble

• Decision Date: 24 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01 Civ. 8814(VM).,01 Civ. 8814(VM).
• Citation: 246 F.Supp.2d 301
• Parties: Dawn DAWSON, Plaintiff, v. BUMBLE & BUMBLE, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

246 F.Supp.2d 301

Dawn DAWSON, Plaintiff, v. BUMBLE & BUMBLE, Defendant.

No. 01 Civ. 8814(VM).

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

February 24, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Rick Ostrove, Leeds, Morelli & Brown, P.C., Carle Place, NY, for plaintiff.

Ellen M. Martin, Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, New York, NY, Kathleen L. Jennings, Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, L.L.P, New York, NY, for defendant.

DECISION AND AMENDED ORDER

MARRERO, District Judge.

Plaintiff Dawn Dawson ("Dawson") brought this action alleging employment discrimination by defendant Bumble & bumble, LLC ("Bumble" or the "Salon") on the grounds of sex, gender, sex stereotypes, and/or sexual orientation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., the New York State Human Rights Law ("NYSHRL"), Executive Law § 290 et seq., and the New York City Human Rights Law ("NYCHRL"), N.Y.C. Admin. Code, Title 8. Before the Court is Bumble's motion for summary judgment. By Order dated January 30, 2003, the Court granted the motion and indicated that its findings, conclusions and reasoning would be set forth in a separate decision to be provided to the parties.

I. FACTS

Dawson commenced employment as a hair assistant at Bumble's "high-end" beauty parlor in midtown Manhattan in February 1999. When she started at the Salon, Dawson had seven years of prior experience in hair cutting and styling. She had worked as an assistant in the educational programs of three Manhattan hair studios, which she left before completing each course, and at several other smaller shops that did not require training classes. At Bumble, she was interviewed and hired by the Salon's Manager, Connie Voines ("Voines"), who was in charge of supervising employees and directing operations at the Salon's floor, including work assignments and performance evaluations.

Bumble hires assistants who aspire to be hairdressers to work on the floor of the Salon four days per week and to participate in its educational program on the fifth day. The employment consists of performing various tasks for an assigned hair stylist. These duties include greeting and escorting clients, serving them beverages, shampooing and blow-drying their hair and cleaning the stylist's tools and workstations. Bumble's educational training, which the assistant must satisfactorily complete in order to be promoted to work as a hair stylist at the Salon, requires advancement through four successive levels of classes in Bumble's hair cutting and styling methods: basic blow-drying, basic scissor cutting, basic razor cutting and advanced razor.

To enable assistants in the basic classes to develop their skills, they are required to recruit for the class every Monday four models on whom they practice shampooing, blow-drying and applying the Salon's hair cutting and styling techniques. For this purpose each model's hair must have the necessary length, style and texture to enable the assistant to perform the haircut being demonstrated during the given day's instruction. As a supplement to the training, the educational program also periodically schedules more limited special seminars, usually consisting of six Tuesday classes for a smaller number of selected assistants, concentrating on advanced styling and "editorial" hairdressing of professional models for photographic print advertising and promotion of Bumble products and techniques.

For assistants to advance from the basic classes, the Salon requires them to demonstrate satisfactory skills in executing four particular haircuts: the bob, the graduated bob, long layers and short layers. In addition, the program considers the assistant's general attitude, work ethic and interpersonal skills. According to Bumble, it typically takes an assistant between two and three years to successfully complete the Salon's educational program and graduate to stylist, and only 10 to 15 percent of those hired are so promoted.

Bumble contends that Dawson did not advance to stylist and was not selected for the advanced seminars because, after seventeen months in the program, she never satisfactorily finished the most essential part of her training, mastery of all four basic haircuts, and because her general attitude, work ethic and overall performance were inadequate.

Not surprisingly, the parties present sharply conflicting versions of Dawson's performance in the Salon's training program and her work on the floor. According to Dawson, she was fully qualified to be a hair stylist by reason of her prior experience and her work at the Salon, which she claims was consistently praised by Voines, by Elizabeth "Coco" Santiago ("Santiago"), the Salon's Educational Coordinator, by other Salon stylists for whom she worked, and by clients, thus giving her confidence that she would graduate expeditiously from assistant in the training program to full stylist. In support of her contention, Dawson introduced the deposition of Monica Cunningham ("Cunningham"), one of the stylists in the Salon's educational program. Cunningham testified that she regarded Dawson as a very good assistant who had done an exceptional job at the Salon and that she thought the Salon's other staff and clients were fond of her. (Deposition of Monica Cunningham, attached as Exhibit "Cunningham Dep" to Declaration of Rick Ostrove dated October 7, 2002 ("Ostrove Dec"), at 108-109.) Dawson also presented an affidavit of Amy Strober, a former Head Assistant at the Salon, who stated that she had reported to Bumble her view that Dawson had done an excellent job as a hair assistant. (Affidavit of Amy Strober dated March 6, 2001, attached as Exhibit "Strober Aff to Ostrove Dec.)

By contrast, Bumble portrays Dawson's performance, both as an assistant and on the Salon's floor, as too erratic and inadequate to warrant promotion to stylist. Bumble contends, for example, that on Mondays Dawson frequently failed to recruit sufficient or appropriate models to perform the required haircuts. (Deposition of Elizabeth Santiago ("Santiago Dep."), attached as Exhibit G to Amended Declaration of Ellen M. Martin ("Martin Dec") dated August 22, 2002, at 25, 27.) Voines testified that Dawson's overall performance was "below average", that she was frequently late and in a bad mood, resentful of the work assigned to her and easily frustrated, that she demonstrated poor attitude when asked to perform her work tasks, and that she received a very bad evaluation from Ralph Formisano ("Formisano"), one of the last stylists Dawson worked for before being fired. (Deposition of Connie Voines, attached as Exhibit F to Martin Dec, at 42-43, 46-48, 127.) Santiago stated that Dawson's class work was not up to standard, that she did not listen to the teachers' directions, that often she seemed like she did not want to be at work and said so, and that other teachers similarly expressed unhappiness with Dawson's work. (Santiago Dep., attached as Exhibit M to Reply Declaration of Ellen M. Martin ("Martin Reply Dec") dated November 14, 2002, at 36, 37, 43, 52.) According to Voines and Santiago, after more than one year in the Salon's training program, Dawson had not yet demonstrated sufficient technical mastery of three of the four basic hair cuts the Salon required to graduate assistants to the next level of training. (Voines Dep. at 125; Santiago Dep. at 28.)

Voines and Santiago also testified that Dawson was considered by other Salon stylists as rude, abrupt, hostile, unfriendly and disrespectful, and that several stylists and clients had registered complaints to that effect. Some stylists refused to work with Dawson, and asked Voines not to assign Dawson to work with them. (Voines Dep. at 119, 122, 123; Santiago Dep., Ex. M at 52, 54; Dawson Dep. at 276-80.) For example, Sharon Morrissey, one of the Salon stylists with whom Dawson was working at the time she was terminated, testified that two or three clients complained that Dawson was unfriendly, and that one of them asked that Dawson not be assigned to touch her hair again. Morrissey further stated that Dawson was "not so great" about cleaning up hair around the station, that as to blow-drying hair she was "average" but "definitely did have a long way to go", and that while Dawson's performance working with Morrissey was satisfactory, "that's not the way she was overall in the salon." (Deposition of Sharon Morrissey, attached as Exhibit N to Martin Reply Dec, at 11-13, 20-22.) Morrissey also remarked that Dawson was sometimes moody and when she was in a bad mood she could be short, causing Morrissey to be "a little bit fearful of what would happen if I left her alone with the client for a little bit too long." (Id. at 22.) According to Morrissey, "at Bumble & Bumble [sic] it is very, very, very important to have a great attitude. That comes first. Great attitude, positive energy towards anyone no matter who you are or what type of mood you may be in." (Id.)

From these vastly contradictory assessments of Dawson's skills and work at the Salon, emerge two diametric versions of why she did not advance to stylist and why she ultimately was dismissed on July 15, 2000. As the reasons why Dawson was not promoted and was later dismissed, Voines enumerates Dawson's inadequate performance and poor attitude and the various difficulties recounted above that Dawson experienced with the Salon's stylists, teachers and clients. Dawson, on the other hand, attributes the Salon's failure to promote her from the education program, its denying her participation in advanced styling classes, and its decision to terminate her employment, to unlawful discrimination. Specifically, Dawson contends that she was the victim of a hostile work environment and adverse employment actions at the Salon on account of sex, gender, sexual stereotyping, and sexual orientation, in particular because she is "a lesbian who does not conform to gender norms." (Dawson Dep. at 185-86,...