Ford v. General Motors Corp.
| Decision Date | 27 September 2002 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-5060.,01-5060. |
| Citation | 305 F.3d 545 |
| Parties | George FORD; Mary A. Ford, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Evan E. Taylor (briefed), Law Office of Evan Taylor, Owensboro, KY, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Jane Ann Himsel (briefed), Wooden & McLaughlin, Indianapolis, IN, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before: KEITH and DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judges; MARBLEY, District Judge.*
MARBLEY, D.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which KEITH, J., joined. DAUGHTREY, J. (pp. 556-58), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Plaintiffs-Appellants ("Plaintiffs") appeal the district court's order granting Defendant-Appellee's ("Defendant") motion for summary judgment on all of Plaintiffs' claims arising from the termination of George Ford's employment with the General Motors Corporation. Plaintiffs assign error to the district court's failure to draw reasonable inferences to support their claims of (1) retaliation in violation of Title VII and the Kentucky Civil Rights Act, (2) intentional infliction of emotional distress, and (3) loss of consortium. Jurisdiction is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. For the following reasons, this Court REVERSES in part, AFFIRMS in part, and REMANDS the district court's grant of summary judgment.
Plaintiff George Ford ("Ford"), an African-American, had worked for Defendant, the General Motors Corporation ("GM"), for over thirty years. The remaining Plaintiff, Mary Ford, is George Ford's wife. The last seventeen years of Ford's employment were spent at GM's Corvette Assembly Plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. From Spring 1997 until April 3, 1998, Ford worked in Department 71, known as Inspection, with Larry King ("King") and Don Million ("Million"), among others. Besides Ford, all of the other inspectors in Department 71 were Caucasian.
Inspectors were responsible for performing diagnostic and alignment tests on finished vehicles before they were shipped. One such test involved headlight alignments that could be done at either the "automatic pit," where inspectors only had to enter a code into a computer, or at the "manual pit," which required inspectors to attach instruments to the headlights and then manually set the alignment with a screwdriver. Ford claims that King and Million "were racists" who were "trying to move [him] off of his job" by making his work more difficult. Specifically, Ford contends that King and Million forced him into doing additional work by claiming the automatic pit for themselves, often leaving him to use the more difficult manual pit. Department 71 inspectors also worked with "rerun cars" that previously had problems discovered and repaired, and been returned once corrected. As these cars did not necessitate the full range of normal tests, rerun cars were preferred by the inspectors to those first coming off of the assembly line for full inspection. King and Million, Ford asserts, conspired to take more than their share of rerun cars, leaving him to do more work on vehicles originally coming off the assembly line.
Ford confronted King and Million about this treatment, but they denied conspiring to make him do more work. Ford claims that he once asked King and Million why they were making him work harder than they did, and testified in his deposition that "they said, in a joking way, `you're black and we're white and we aren't supposed to work hard....'" Plaintiff perceived that King and Million were upset that he, as an African-American, had more seniority than they did, and stated that "they told me that a black man shouldn't have that position." Ford contends that both King and Million called him "a nigger" more than once over the years. Plaintiff also claims that King once called another African-American employee "a monkey."
Ford complained on numerous occasions to his supervisor, Butch Reiser ("Reiser"), and his union representative, Joe Thien ("Thien"), about general mistreatment from King and Million, although he cannot recall when such conversations occurred. Ford claims that he made Reiser aware, during some of these discussions, that he believed the problems were race-related. When Reiser asked Ford why they were acting as they were, Ford told him that "I had more seniority and they resented that because I was black and they — both of them were white." Plaintiff contends that Reiser told him on at least one occasion that Reiser did not believe the problems involved race. Reiser and Thien promised to talk with King and Million. Ford does not know whether they talked with them privately, but Reiser came to the work area and told King, Million, and Ford that they all needed to work together.
On April 3, 1998, Ford went to Reiser and again complained that his coworkers were deliberately "screwing [him]" and were "working [him] hard" by forcing him to use the manual rather than automatic pit. Reiser asked Ford what he wanted him to do about it, and Plaintiff responded, "talk to those guys and stop them from creating [a] harsh environment for me to work in." Reiser told Ford that he would talk to his coworkers. Plaintiff then phoned Dorian Lee ("Lee"), an African-American labor relations representative, and asked him to speak with Ford's coworkers about the mistreatment. Lee was in a meeting at the time but agreed to come to the work area as soon as the meeting was finished.
After calling Lee, Ford approached Million and "asked him why were they making [his] job harder," to which Million replied, "fuck you." At that point, a physical altercation broke out between Ford and Million. Plaintiff claims that he struck Million first because he believed that Million was reaching for a knife. Million was left bleeding on the floor as a result of the fight. Ford was then taken to an interview with Thien, Lee, and Brian Collins ("Collins"), who was another supervisor acting in place of Reiser. After answering a series of questions, Ford was told that he was suspended until further notice. Before leaving the plant, Plaintiff filed a formal grievance alleging that his punishment for the fight was unjust and excessive. On April 11, 1998, Defendant terminated Plaintiff's employment because of the fight. On April 28, 1998, Lee sent Ford a letter stating that Ford's grievance had been settled and that he could return to work. Sometime in April 1998, Plaintiff filed a race discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).1 The GM plant received notice that Ford had filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC through a letter to Lee, which was dated May 4, 1998.
On May 6, 1998, Plaintiff returned to work and met with Thien, Lee, Collins, Bill Schanuel, president of the local union, and an unidentified member of Defendant's personnel department. Ford was informed that he must stay away from King and Million, could not go into his former work area, and would be placed at disciplinary level five, one level below termination. The unidentified person allegedly told Ford that "if [he] sneezed [he] would be fired." After the meeting, Ford began a different inspection job in Department 71 and worked there for about one week. Plaintiff then voluntarily transferred into a "porter" position in Department 41, where he was responsible for cleaning several areas of the plant.2 As a porter, Ford was required to mop, dust, vacuum, and clean, among other things, eight bathrooms. Ford soon complained to his Hispanic supervisor, Kelly Bricino ("Bricino"), that the job "was too much work." Ford claims that GM management instructed Bricino to "give [him] a hard time" and bases this contention on Bricino's comment that "they told me about you."
After hearing Ford's complaint, Bricino and another supervisor, Marty Fortier, purported to decrease his work by allowing Ford to clean only six, rather than eight, bathrooms. But Ford was instructed to also wipe down the stainless steel in the six bathrooms if he had time, which he did not have to do previously. Plaintiff felt that there was no net change in his workload and, if anything, his work became even more difficult as a result of these changes. Ford claims that he had more work than any of the other porters as a result of a directive from management as punishment for his EEOC claim.
On October 5, 1998, Ford returned to Department 71 under the supervision of Reiser because there was no need for his continuing temporary porter assistance. Plaintiff was then given a position in "drive-off," which involved inspecting the vehicles for visible imperfections, checking the fluid levels, making further visual inspections under the hood, and performing minor electrical testing. Once that work was completed, information about the vehicle would be entered into a computer, and cars with problems would be taken to the appropriate repair area, while those deemed fit would be taken to the shipping area. Ford had difficulty in this new position from the beginning. As he was being trained by Thelma Williams ("Williams"), he found that "there was a lot of stuff to remember" and he fell behind quickly. Ford felt that there was not enough time for him to perform all of the necessary tasks and enter the information into the computer. When he fell behind, cars would bump into each other as they came off of the line. Williams returned on several occasions to help him, and Reiser instructed Mike Ritter ("Ritter") to assist Ford when he "got into a hole." Ford claims that Ritter helped him for a while, but then stopped.
Plaintiff contends that Reiser told Thien that if the vehicles kept bumping into each other, Ford would be fired. Thien met with Reiser and Ford, and Plaintiff requested a reduction in his workload. Ford claims that Reiser refused this request and...
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