Doyle v. Department of Human Services

• Decision Date: 28 April 2003
• Citation: 2003 ME 61,824 A.2d 48
• Parties: Cathy DOYLE v. DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

824 A.2d 48

2003 ME 61

Cathy DOYLE v. DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Argued: December 11, 2002.

Decided: April 28, 2003.

Tracie L. Adamson, (orally), Sumner H. Lipman, Lipman, Katz & McKee, P.A., Augusta, for plaintiff.

G. Steven Rowe, Attorney General, Susan P. Herman, Asst. Attorney General (orally), Augusta, for defendant.

Panel: SAUFLEY, C.J., and CLIFFORD, RUDMAN, DANA, ALEXANDER, CALKINS, and LEVY, JJ.

LEVY, J.

[¶ 1] Cathy Doyle appeals from the grant of a summary judgment entered in the Superior Court (Kennebec County, Marden, J.) in favor of the Department of Human Services (DHS). Doyle contends that the court erred when it concluded that Doyle failed to establish her claims for discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment under the Maine Human Rights Act (MHRA), 5 M.R.S.A. §§ 4551-4634 (2002). We find no error and affirm the judgment.

I. CASE HISTORY

[¶ 2] The following undisputed, properly supported and cited material and background facts are stated in the light most favorable to Doyle.

[¶ 3] In 1995, Doyle had her large intestine and rectum permanently removed, and an internal reservoir for waste (a J-pouch) was constructed out of her small intestine. Because of her condition, she typically needs to use the bathroom ten to twenty-five times per day plus an additional one-hour session before work and immediately after work each day. In addition, she experiences daily pain; develops infections with complications every couple of months; and needs to be hospitalized for immobilizing pain, uncontrollable vomiting, and dehydration several times a year. Doyle is able to walk, sit, stand, think, and concentrate. She feels she needs the following accommodations to perform clerical work: an altered work schedule, permission to go to the restroom whenever necessary, permission to freely pace instead of sitting whenever she becomes uncomfortable, and permission to leave work for her numerous medical treatments.

[¶ 4] Doyle has worked on and off for the State of Maine since 1977. In November 1998, Doyle was promoted from Clerk Typist II to Clerk Typist III in the Bureau of Medical Services Inquiry Unit of DHS. A Clerk Typist III is responsible for answering a high volume of calls using a telephone-answering headset and for researching inquiries by computer on the status of Medicaid claims. After Beth Ketch, the supervisor of the inquiry unit, approved Doyle's request to work an altered work schedule from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Doyle began her new job in a probationary status.

[¶ 5] On December 7, India Kiesow succeeded Ketch as Doyle's supervisor. Between mid-December 1998 and early January 1999, Kiesow noted the following deficiencies in Doyle's work performance: failure to follow guidelines by improperly using the unavailable mode of the answering machine and personally speaking to a provider relations specialist regarding an inquiry; exhibiting a poor attitude during a training session; exhibiting a hostile attitude toward Kiesow and rolling her eyes in response to Kiesow's questions; giving out incorrect information to a provider using information from a Rolodex that she had been instructed not to use; providing information contained in internal-use-only staff notes regarding a dental provider to a Medicaid recipient seeking a referral; making personal calls when she was not on break or lunch and when there was a backlog of incoming calls; and asking the training coordinator of the Inquiry Unit to respond to a phone inquiry after having been told to not refer any calls to that individual.

[¶ 6] On December 23, Doyle met with Ketch and Kiesow to discuss a request that Doyle had submitted to the human resources office seeking, as a work accommodation, permission to regularly get up from her desk and move around. When Doyle stated that she needed to use the restroom whenever she wanted, Kiesow told Doyle that she should go to the restroom when needed because Kiesow did not want to "clean it up." On January 11, 1999, Kiesow, Ketch, and the Assistant Director for the Bureau of Medical Services met with Doyle and informed her of the termination of her probationary period and reassignment to her prior position.

[¶ 7] On November 13, 2000, Doyle filed a complaint¹ pursuant to the Maine Human Rights Act and the American with Disabilities Act (ADA)² alleging, among other matters, that DHS discriminated against her with respect to hostile and unreasonable conditions of employment and then by terminating her probationary period, and that DHS retaliated by subjecting Doyle to a hostile environment and demoting her after she complained about the lack of reasonable accommodations. DHS filed a motion for summary judgment pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 56. After a hearing, the Superior Court granted DHS's motion for a summary judgment in a detailed and comprehensive opinion. The court's decision noted numerous instances in which Doyle's opposing statement of material facts failed to effectively controvert the facts set forth in DHS's statement of material facts. Doyle filed this appeal.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

[¶ 8] We review a summary judgment de novo, "viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the party against whom judgment has been granted to decide whether the parties' statements of material facts and the referenced record material reveal a genuine issue of material fact," Rogers v. Jackson, 2002 ME 140, ¶ 5, 804 A.2d 379, 380 (internal citation omitted), and whether "the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Stanton v. Univ. of Me. Sys., 2001 ME 96, ¶ 6, 773 A.2d 1045, 1048.

[¶ 9] To survive a defendant's motion for a summary judgment, the plaintiff must establish a prima facie case for each element of her cause of action. MC Assocs. v. Town of Cape Elizabeth, 2001 ME 89, ¶ 7, 773 A.2d 439, 442, cert. denied, 534 U.S. 1081, 122 S.Ct. 813, 151 L.Ed.2d 697 (2002). If the plaintiff presents insufficient evidence on an essential element in her cause of action, such that "the defendant would ... be entitled to judgment as a matter of law on that state of the evidence at a trial, the defendant is entitled to a summary judgment." Johnson v. Carleton, 2001 ME 12, ¶ 11, 765 A.2d 571, 575.

B. Doyle's Opposing Statement of Material Facts

[¶ 10] Doyle challenges the Superior Court's determination that she failed to properly dispute numerous facts set forth in DHS's statement of material facts. Contrary to her contention, however, Doyle did fail to comply with the requirements of Rule 56(h)(2) in several important respects. First, and most crucial, Doyle did not properly support many of her denials and qualifications with record citations relevant to the proposition for which they were cited.³ A party's statement of material facts opposing the other party's statement "must explicitly admit, deny, or qualify facts by reference to each numbered paragraph, and a denial or qualification must be supported by a record citation." Levine v. R.B.K. Caly Corp., 2001 ME 77, ¶ 6 n. 5, 770 A.2d 653, 655; M.R. Civ. P. 56(h)(2). Because Doyle failed to properly controvert many of the facts set forth by DHS, we treat those facts as admitted. M.R. Civ. P. 56(h)(4).

[¶ 11] Second, in her statement of disputed material facts, Doyle improperly commingled additional facts in paragraphs that should have been limited to controverting DHS's asserted facts, and failed to include her additional facts in a separate section with numbered paragraphs supported by record citations.⁴ A nonmoving party may choose to include in her opposing statement of material facts a separate section of additional facts; these facts are to be organized in separate numbered paragraphs and supported by record citations. M.R. Civ. P. 56(h)(2). In response, the moving party can prepare a reply statement of material facts in which the moving party admits, denies, or qualifies the additional facts, providing record citation support for each denial or qualification. M.R. Civ. P. 56(h)(3). A court need not consider additional facts when, as here, they are improperly commingled in the nonmoving party's paragraphs responding to the moving party's material facts, see Burbank v. Davis, 227 F.Supp.2d 176, 179 (D.Me.2002), and are not set forth in a separate section of additional facts organized in separate numbered paragraphs added pursuant to Rule 56(h)(2).

[¶ 12] Third, Doyle relied upon citations to affidavits containing inadmissible hearsay and statements for which the affiants had no personal knowledge.⁵ Each party's statement of material facts must contain specific record references which "refer to evidence of a quality that could be admissible at trial." Levine, 2001 ME 77, ¶ 6, 770 A.2d at 656.

[¶ 13] Because Doyle failed to follow the protocol set forth in Rule 56, many of DHS's material facts are not controverted and thus are properly deemed admitted. In addition, because Doyle failed to include a separate section of additional facts, the trial court, and now we, need not consider the additional facts that were interwoven in Doyle's response to DHS's statement of material facts. The Superior Court did not err in its application of the requirements of Rule 56.

C. Discrimination Claim

[¶ 14] The MHRA renders it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of a physical or mental disability. 5 M.R.S.A. § 4572 (2002). When a plaintiff lacks direct evidence that an employer's actions were motivated by discriminatory animus and relies instead on circumstantial evidence of discrimination, the burden-shifting framework of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802-05, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), applies.⁶Me. Human Rights Comm'n v. City of Auburn, 408 A.2d 1253, 1261-62 (Me.1979). To establish a prima facie case of disability discrimination pursuant to the MHRA,⁷ the plaintiff has the burden of establishing the...