Duffy v. Department of State

• Decision Date: 25 February 2009
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 06-460-SLR.
• Citation: 598 F.Supp.2d 621
• Parties: Lorraine DUFFY, Plaintiff, v. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, an agency of the State of Delaware, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Delaware

598 F.Supp.2d 621

Lorraine DUFFY, Plaintiff, v. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, an agency of the State of Delaware, Defendant.

Civ. No. 06-460-SLR.

United States District Court, D. Delaware.

February 25, 2009.

Roy S. Shiels, Esquire of Brown, Shiels & O'Brien, LLC, Dover, DE, for Plaintiff.

Marc P. Niedzielski, Esquire, Deputy Attorney General, State of Delaware Department of Justice, Wilmington, DE, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

SUE L. ROBINSON, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff Lorraine Duffy ("plaintiff") filed a complaint against defendant Department of State, an agency of the State of Delaware ("defendant" or "DOS") on July 28, 2006, alleging a hostile work environment based upon gender and unlawful retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq.) (hereinafter, "Title VII"). (D.I. 1) The discovery period in this case is closed. (D.I. 8, 26) Presently before the court is defendant's motion for summary judgment. (D.I. 30) The court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343, and 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3). For the reasons that follow, the court grants in part and denies in part defendant's motion.

II. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff began employment as a computer programmer with defendant on February 25, 2002. She had previously done similar work for the Office of Information Services ("OIS"), another State agency which has since reorganized into the Division of Technology and Information ("DTI"). While with defendant, plaintiff worked with three other employees—one female (Particia Rogers ("Rogers")) and two males (Phil Fred ("Fred") and Edward Griffin ("Griffin"))—who reported to the same first-level supervisor, Dan Carroll ("Carroll"). Plaintiffs second-level supervisor was James Ravis ("Ravis"). Plaintiffs original assignment was to be the back-up for (and be trained by) Fred on defendant's UNIX operating system. Plaintiff previously worked with Fred and the two worked well together. (D.I. 32 at A37-38, A40)

Starting in July 2002, plaintiff was ill and out of work for a period of several months. Upon her return, Fred was rude to her.¹ In plaintiffs words, Fred "was very short with, and critical of, any and all of [her] work," "frequently used profanity (the `f' word) and obscene gestures (masturbation)" and was "uncooperative and evasive about work issues." (Id. at A3) Plaintiff asserts that Fred also brought other (unnamed) female (non-programmer) employees to tears, and recalls one technical support employee, April Wright ("Wright"), in tears leaving Fred's office on an undated occasion. (Id. at A3-A4) Plaintiff states that Fred was "particularly nasty" to her, kicked the back of her chair, walked away during conversations, and loudly interrupted her interaction with other co-workers. (Id. at A4)

In 2003, plaintiffs relationship with Carroll was strained. Plaintiff had a meeting with Fred in Ravis's office in January 2003 during which she told Fred his treatment of her was due to her gender, wrong, and had to stop, but it did not. (Id. at A4) Plaintiff memorialized the meeting in an email dated January 27, 2003 but did not send it. (Id.) About this time Rogers was hired to work on the mainframe. (Id.) Plaintiff states that Carroll, in conversation with a male co-worker, referred to Rogers and plaintiff as "DTI rejects." (Id. at A5)

Plaintiff had other meetings to discuss her work environment, including one with Carroll in which he yelled at plaintiff and raised his fists in front of Ravis. (Id. at A5) Fred stopped talking to plaintiff and Carroll's attitude towards plaintiff became "increasingly negative." (Id.) According to plaintiff, Griffin and Rogers commented to her that they believed the behavior exhibited towards her was gender-related, and that Fred and Carroll did not act similarly with male co-workers. (Id.) In late 2003 or early 2004 plaintiff received her only performance evaluation from DOS, which indicated that she "meets expectations." (Id.) Plaintiff claims the stress of her workplace made her physically ill, and she sought assistance from the State's Employee Assistance Program ("EAP") in late 2004. (Id. at A6)

In July 2004, Carroll announced that plaintiff and Griffin would be switching duties. Plaintiff states that she sent an email to Gail Lanouette ("Lanouette"), the DOS personnel director, indicating her objection to the change and that she felt she was being punished for her complaints about the workplace hostility exhibited by Fred and Carroll. (Id.) Carroll's decision was reversed. (Id.) Plaintiff states that Lanouette indicated that she would facilitate bringing about changes in Fred's behavior over time, and that plaintiff should interface with Carroll instead of Fred. (Id.)

On August 9, 2004, Fred indicated training would be held, and Lanouette scheduled a meeting for September. (Id.) Plaintiff spoke to Carroll about working together with Fred and Carroll, at which time Carroll told plaintiff that Fred indicated that plaintiff had refused training, a fact which plaintiff disputes. (Id. at A7) "Carroll was loud and clearly upset and berated plaintiff for wanting her own way, saying the three would meet that afternoon." (Id.) Ravis heard this commotion and met with Carroll, and the two decided someone from personnel should attend the meeting. (Id.) Plaintiff suggested to Carroll that she, Carroll and Fred attempt to meet first and again was "loudly berated" by Carroll. (Id.)

Plaintiff met with Ravis on August 11, 2004 and indicated to Ravis that she was "uncomfortable and fearful" in dealing with Carroll. (Id.) Plaintiff states that Ravis told her she should deal with Carroll and be deferent to his decisions. (Id.) Plaintiff met with Carroll on September 1, 2004 regarding training, and Carroll indicated that "he and Ravis disagreed about training because Ravis wanted Fred to train plaintiff and Carroll felt Fred would never train plaintiff." (Id.) Carroll announced there would be bi-weekly meetings of the programming staff beginning September 6, 2004 and all programmers would write up assignments and time sheets. (Id.) Fred subsequently went on vacation, during which time Carroll corrected problems arising from Fred's work "without addressing the causation of problems as desired by plaintiff," creating additional strain between plaintiff and Carroll. (Id.)

Carroll and Lanouette met with plaintiff in October 2004, at which time "[t]here had been no recent outbursts from Carroll" and "Carroll indicated plaintiff was doing a good job." (Id.) Plaintiff told Carroll and Lanouette that Fred would not train her and that she would try to learn on the job instead, and Lanouette said this was a good idea. (Id. at A8) Plaintiff claims that male programmers received training not afforded her. (Id.) There had been no programmer meetings to plaintiff's knowledge by December 2004. Her attempts to talk to Fred got "surly or nasty responses" so plaintiff continued to go to Carroll as a go-between, despite that Carroll "was again becoming increasingly short and negative with plaintiff" and "yelled at her again." (Id.) Plaintiff later discovered that programmer meetings were held but she was not notified or invited. (Id.)

In January 2005, plaintiff began seeing a counselor provided by the EAP, who suggested a psychiatrist and scheduled a meeting with one in February. (Id.) Plaintiff attempted to raise a work issue with Carroll who "again yelled at her and berated her." (Id.) She claims she emailed Ravis about a meeting, and Ravis met with plaintiff and Carroll in mid-January. At the meeting, plaintiff stated that she could no longer tolerate the manner in which she was being treated and Ravis indicated that Carroll should not yell at plaintiff. Plaintiff asserts that Ravis shared with her a series of emails between Ravis, Carroll, plaintiff and Fred "about the lack of communication" between those parties. (Id. at A9)

Plaintiff and Carroll met on January 21, 2005, at which point Carroll indicated that DOS would return to a training arrangement involving Fred and plaintiff. (Id.) Carroll "criticized plaintiff's work with a `reject letter' (i.e. system problem)." (Id.) Later that day plaintiff, Carroll and Fred met in Carroll's office regarding training. Carroll criticized plaintiff regarding her lack of knowledge and understanding of UNIX scripts, and stated that plaintiff should be more understanding of Fred's dislike for training. (Id.) Plaintiff asserts that she was never trained on UNIX scripts. (Id.) Plaintiff found the meeting stressful. Plaintiff states that Carroll asked her if she was all right, and said that he related to Fred better than plaintiff. (Id.)

On March 31, 2005, Carroll questioned why plaintiff was running a test on a "merge"² program, saying it should be cancelled. (Id. at A10) Carroll became furious, pounded on the desk, and rose to his feet. (Id.) Plaintiff was frightened; she told Carroll he needed to do something about his anger, and walked away. (Id.)

An incident occurred on April 13, 2005 regarding plaintiff's testing of the "merge" program. Unexpected results were occurring following changes to the program made at the suggestion of Fred and Carroll. (Id.) Carroll instructed plaintiff to run the program again and went to the computer room. Carroll then stormed back and claimed plaintiff had run the testing while administrators were clearing data from earlier tests. (Id.) Plaintiff told him that the last test run was finished and that she had not done anything. Carroll told plaintiff to key a command into her computer. Plaintiff did not key the command, and instead tried to demonstrate to Carroll that the last test run had been completed. (Id.) Carroll "yelled at her and said he was going to slap her." (Id.) Plaintiff keyed the command and Carroll walked away. (Id.) Plaintiff asked Fred to confirm that the last test was concluded, and Fred told plaintiff to check whether it was running. (Id.) Carroll...