E.E.O.C. v. Navy Federal Credit Union

• Decision Date: 13 September 2005
• Docket Number: No. 04-2058.,04-2058.
• Parties: EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

424 F.3d 397

EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 04-2058.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued March 17, 2005.

Decided September 13, 2005.

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ARGUED: Susan Lisabeth Starr, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Appellate Services, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Francis Joseph Nealon, Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, Washington, D.C., for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Eric S. Dreiband, General Counsel, Lorraine C. Davis, Acting Associate General Counsel, Vincent J. Blackwood, Assistant General Counsel, United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Jeffrey W. Larroca, Kirsten E. Keating, Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll, Washington, D.C., for Appellee.

Before KING and GREGORY, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge KING wrote the opinion, in which Judge GREGORY and Senior Judge HAMILTON joined.

KING, Circuit Judge.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the "EEOC") appeals from the district court's judgment in favor of Navy Federal Credit Union ("Navy Federal") on the EEOC's Title VII retaliation claim concerning Donna Santos, a former Navy Federal supervisor. In its complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia (the "Complaint"), the EEOC alleged that Navy Federal had illegally discharged Santos for opposing what she reasonably believed to be the unlawful treatment of one of her subordinates, Tammy Simms. Following extensive discovery proceedings, the district court awarded summary judgment to Navy Federal, concluding that the EEOC's evidence of retaliation was insufficient and that its claim was also barred by laches. See EEOC v. Navy Fed. Credit Union, No. CA-03-543-1 (E.D. Va. June 18, 2004) (the "Opinion"). As explained below, we vacate and remand.

I.

A.

Navy Federal, a credit union serving employees of the Department of the Navy and their families, is headquartered in Vienna Virginia.¹ In April 1995, Donna Santos began working as a supervisor in Navy Federal's Staffing Section, a position entailing her oversight of four subordinates.² During her three-month probationary period, Santos received positive performance appraisals, and, in January 1996, she was recognized in an internally circulated e-mail message for "a wonderful idea to help us enhance software support." J.A. 40.³

In March 1996, however, representatives of Navy Federal's Employee Relations Section received complaints from three of Santos's subordinates about her performance, including that she was incompetent and error-prone, and that there was a lack of communication, training, and leadership in the Staffing Section. These three employees (including Tammy Simms) also complained that Santos had failed to intervene in issues involving Dianne Snably (the fourth Santos subordinate), and that Santos and Snably seemed to have "teamed" against them. J.A. 77-81. They reported their complaints to the Employee Relations Section on March 7, 14, and 15, 1996.

Notwithstanding these complaints, Santos, on March 24, 1996, received a merit salary increase, and, on April 9, 1996, she received an annual performance appraisal rating her as "highly successful" or "successful" in all scored categories.⁴ In this appraisal, Santos was complimented for, inter alia, "learning to address and resolve conflicts among the staff immediately instead of allowing them to fester"; being "intricately involved in motivating the staff"; "delegat[ing] effectively and assign[ing] the workflow so that deadlines and objectives are met"; "deal[ing] equitably with the group"; and "continu[ing] to improve her organizational and planning skills." J.A. 57. It was also recognized that "[t]he Staffing Section continues to improve their team work under [Santos's] direction." Id.

After April 1996, assessments of Santos's performance became less laudatory. On July 29, 1996, Santos's immediate supervisor, Jan Herman, met with Santos to discuss three specific issues — failure to post a job vacancy announcement, telephone usage, and coverage of the Staffing Section during lunch. J.A. 86. Then, on August 23, 1996, Herman documented Santos's performance for the month, observing that she needed improvement in the areas of leadership and controlling operations. In support of this assessment, Herman noted the following: Santos was absent from work on the day her Section distributed an important booklet, leaving no one to address problems relating thereto; she attended a computer software class when her Section was already short-staffed; on two occasions, significant mistakes were found in paperwork that had been approved by a subordinate to whom Santos had delegated that responsibility; on three occasions, Staffing Section employees were observed being idle; and some of Santos's subordinates were regularly five to ten minutes late to work in the morning, took overly long breaks and lunches, closed their work stations early, and made excessive personal phone calls. Herman concluded that Santos "needs to pay attention to her staff, what is getting done, and ensuring that the [Staffing] Section is running smoothly and according to policy at all times." J.A. 87. Herman also remarked that Santos "is more interested in her own training and development in PC applications than in her job as [a Navy Federal] supervisor." Id. At the time of these observations, Herman considered conducting a "special review" of Santos (which presumably would have involved a more formal performance appraisal and constituted a more grievous mark on Santos's employment record). By early September 1996, however, Herman had decided against such a review, because Santos had improved her job performance. J.A. 96.

B.

In 1995, Tammy Simms was promoted by Navy Federal to a position in the Staffing Section, which placed her under Santos's supervision. Over time, Santos criticized Simms's performance in various respects, but complimented it in others. Simms perceived Santos's criticism of her as unfair and complained that Santos overburdened her with an inequitable workload. Other Staffing Section employees, however, believed that Santos sometimes gave special treatment to Simms by, among other things, excusing Simms from physical tasks because of a difficult pregnancy, and adjusting her work schedule to accommodate transportation-related limitations.

Simms was one of the three Santos subordinates who complained in March 1996 about Santos's lack of effective leadership, including her failure to rein in their co-worker Snably. The record reveals that Snably was at times uncivil — and worse — to all of her co-workers, but perhaps especially to those who were African-American women, including Simms and Barbara Stephens.⁵ Simms reported to Santos on March 12, 1996, and then to the Employee Relations Section on March 14, 1996, that she believed Snably was hiding her paperwork "to set her up" and had done the same to Stephens. J.A. 79, 500-01. Although Santos expressed her dissatisfaction with Snably to Simms, Simms concluded that Santos was an ineffective supervisor and was thereafter unwilling to go to Santos about problems with Snably. Simms also came to suspect that Santos and others were prejudiced against Simms.

In late August through early September 1996, a series of meetings were held among, in various configurations, Simms, Santos, Snably, Herman, and representatives of the Employee Relations Section. During these meetings, the participants discussed both positive and negative aspects of Simms's performance, her ongoing complaints about Santos and Snably, and Simms's concerns about possible racial discrimination against her and Stephens. These meetings failed to resolve the tensions in the Staffing Section or convince Simms that she was being treated fairly.

C.

On September 16, 1996, Simms filed an internal "Request for Resolution Form," with the Employment Relations Section. In it she alleged race, color, sex, and age discrimination, and detailed numerous instances of alleged unfair treatment by Santos, Snably, and others. J.A. 499-510. Shortly thereafter, according to Santos and the EEOC, Navy Federal devised a plan to terminate Simms in retaliation for her discrimination complaint, and to cover up its reasons for the discharge in order to protect itself from liability in subsequent litigation. The EEOC maintains that Santos opposed this retaliation scheme—a position that resulted in her suspension and, ultimately, her discharge from Navy Federal.

By the time Simms lodged her internal complaint, Herman had considered conducting a "special review" of Santos, but decided against it in view of Santos's improved performance. Between the time that Simms filed her complaint and the time that Santos learned of Navy Federal's retaliation scheme, aspects of Santos's performance were assessed on two occasions. On September 19, 1996, Herman observed a problem with Santos and Simms taking a lunch break at the same time, prompting her to warn Santos not to make it a continuing practice. On a more positive note, Personnel Director Ellen Yarborough sent a handwritten note to Santos on October 4, 1996, thanking her for her "hard work in developing a new application for the annual financial plan [and] for completing all the personnel budget requirements." J.A. 41. Yarborough remarked: "We appreciate your dedication to getting it done. Great job!" Id. Santos asserts that she received Yarborough's note, along with a cash bonus, as part of the "Directors award" given to one employee annually in the Human Resources Division for outstanding contributions to the Division. J.A. 122.

According to Santos, she shortly thereafter learned of Navy Federal's scheme to retaliate against Simms. The scheme was two-fold: (1) to give Simms favorable performance evaluations, which could be used to defend...