Forrest v. Jewish Guild

• Decision Date: 26 October 2004
• Parties: PAULA FORREST, Appellant, v. JEWISH GUILD FOR THE BLIND et al., Respondents.
• Court: New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals

3 N.Y.3d 295

819 N.E.2d 998

786 N.Y.S.2d 382

PAULA FORREST, Appellant, v. JEWISH GUILD FOR THE BLIND et al., Respondents.

Court of Appeals of the State of New York.

Argued September 14, 2004.

Decided October 26, 2004.

Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, New York City (William J. Sipser and Jack Tuckner of counsel), for appellant.

Torys LLP, New York City (Lauren Reiter Brody and Frances Kulka Browne of counsel), for respondents.

Judges CIPARICK, ROSENVLATT, GRAFFO, READ and R.S. SMITH concur with Chief Judge KAYE; Judge G.B. SMITH concurs in result in a separate opinion.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Chief Judge KAYE.

Racial discrimination has no place in society. Antidiscrimination laws must therefore be strictly enforced to root out this scourge whenever it occurs. But it is simply not the law that every dispute that arises between people of different races constitutes employment discrimination, or that every wrongful act perpetrated in the course of such a dispute is committed because of race. Simply put, animosity on the job is not actionable; unequal treatment based on racial animus is. Because plaintiff has failed to raise a triable issue of fact that she was unlawfully discriminated against on the basis of her race, we affirm the Appellate Division's award of summary judgment to defendants dismissing the complaint.

I. Facts and Procedural History¹

Founded in 1914, defendant Jewish Guild for the Blind is a not-for-profit, nonsectarian agency that provides educational, health care and social services to blind, visually impaired and multidisabled persons. Its stated mission is to help those with visual disabilities lead productive, independent, satisfying lives.

Plaintiff is an African-American woman who was hired by the Guild in 1985 as a music therapist in its Continuing Treatment Program CTP). In 1990, plaintiff began an educational leave of absence from the Guild, which lasted for more than a year. By the time she returned, in August 1991, the Guild and the CTP had undergone a substantial reorganization as mandated by the State of New York. In order to continue to receive state funding, the Guild was thus required to implement certain procedures and policies of the State Office of Mental Health. As a result, the CTP was moved from the Guild's Educational Services Department to its Mental Health Services Department (directed by defendant Goldie Dersh), and was renamed the Continuing Day Treatment Program (CDTP).

Upon her return to the Guild, plaintiff was assigned to the CDTP, which was coordinated by defendant Eugenia Adlivankina. In order to reflect the terminology used by the State Office of Mental Health, the job titles of all art therapists, dance therapists and music therapists — including plaintiff — were changed to creative arts therapists.

As an employee of the CTP, plaintiff's responsibilities had been limited to providing music therapy — that is, using music to facilitate the development of goals, such as memory, sequencing or motor coordination. With programmatic restructuring, however, came changes in approach. In the CDTP, all professionals — both creative arts therapists and social workers — were viewed as members of an interdisciplinary team, charged with providing holistic services to program clients. As a result, all professional employees — no longer just social workers — were assigned cases and required to participate in developing treatment plans and maintaining accurate therapy records and documentation so as to comply with Office of Mental Health mandates. With the management of a caseload came such tasks as communicating with clients' family members, scheduling appointments, arranging transportation and attending meetings with other team members. Ultimately, in January 1992, to reflect the shared mission of both creative arts therapists and social workers — all of whom also continued to provide therapeutic services consistent with their own specialized training and qualifications — the job titles for all such professional employees were changed to case manager. Plaintiff's salary and benefits, however, did not change. At around the same time, the desks of all CDTP professionals were relocated into one large office so as to facilitate the shared exchange of client information.

From the start, plaintiff complained about having to share an office and resisted her additional case management responsibilities, preferring to limit her efforts to the conduct of music therapy sessions. Conflict quickly arose. As early as November 1991, plaintiff wrote a memorandum to her union delegate complaining about her case management duties, while stating that she "was not adamantly refusing to cooperate." Moreover, because social workers had always carried caseloads and performed attendant administrative tasks, plaintiff — who neither was trained for nor provided social work services — took the position that she had been forced to undertake the "dual" job of creative arts therapist and social worker, and therefore filed a grievance with her union in which she sought increased pay. In February 1992, plaintiff complained in a memorandum to Adlivankina that her current responsibilities did not allow enough time for her to complete her recordkeeping duties, suggested that she be "free[d] up" to focus on paperwork, and warned, "I see this as being a potential problem we'll have to work out."

In July 1992, after the State promulgated new policies and procedures mandating the use of standardized medical record forms, all staff members, including plaintiff, were provided special training in the completion of the new forms. Plaintiff, however, appears to have had difficulty in complying with her responsibility to maintain these state-mandated patient records. Explaining that the forms were constantly changing, plaintiff fell behind in keeping her patient notes current. Throughout the fall of 1992, plaintiff received oral and written warnings from her supervisors, Dersh and Adlivankina, setting forth instances in which plaintiff had allegedly failed to write progress notes when required, not completed her notes in a timely manner, misdated notes, and written them in an incorrect sequence. Patients who had been absent from therapy sessions were sometimes marked present on medical charts, which plaintiff's supervisors had explained to her were legal documents. The supervisors further advised plaintiff that her notes were frequently unstructured and unrelated to client treatment plans and services provided. In some instances, notes were smudged or illegible.

By November 1992, plaintiff's supervisors were expressing concern that the inaccuracies and omissions in her notes — including with respect to client attendance — threatened to place the Guild out of compliance with state-mandated recordkeeping guidelines for the provision of health services, and with documentation requirements for Medicaid reimbursement. Telling plaintiff they were worried that the Guild's licensing status and funding might be jeopardized at an upcoming audit by the State Office of Mental Health, plaintiff's supervisors relieved her of the bulk of her other responsibilities so that she could devote the majority of her time to her client charts. She was warned in writing about "what appears to be a lack of responsiveness on your part to previous guidance and instruction in these matters and what seems to be either an unwillingness or inability to properly perform charting tasks." Plaintiff filed grievances with her union concerning the warnings about her recordkeeping, alleging that she was being "harass[ed]."

In December 1992, plaintiff received a written warning for leaving her blind patients unattended. As undisputed by plaintiff, a holiday lunch was being offered to CDTP clients during plaintiff's scheduled lunch hour. Plaintiff nevertheless chose to help serve lunch to the patients. After leaving to take her own lunch 20 minutes into the hour, plaintiff did not return for an hour and 15 minutes — 20 minutes after her therapy session was scheduled to begin. Plaintiff then dismissed her group 15 minutes later, in violation of state standards requiring that no group session may be shorter than 45 minutes.

The record reflects other conflicts as well. In June 1992, plaintiff took extended vacation to be with her ailing mother. Because she had failed to provide specific information on when she would return, the Guild eventually reached out to her in Florida in an effort to arrange for patient coverage. Plaintiff thereafter sent a telegram to the Guild, updating her supervisors on her mother's condition. On her return to work, she filed two grievances alleging "harassment" and seeking reimbursement for the cost of the telegram. In October 1992, plaintiff was disciplined for violating the policy that confidential patient records are never to be removed from the CDTP without supervisory permission, and for then refusing to discuss the issue with Adlivankina the morning after the incident on the ground that working hours had not yet begun.

Plaintiff filed complaints with the union and with defendant Carol Handfus, Director of Personnel at the Guild, because she did not like her assigned lunch hour, because a circle had been placed next to her name on a posted time sheet when she was (mistakenly, it turned out) thought to be late, and because Dersh had removed a pad from plaintiff's hand at a meeting. Other complaints were not formally filed because, according to plaintiff, the union "[f]ail[ed] to represent and pursue all of my claims" and stated, "You are so self-centered and self-involved, all you ever think about are your grievances." Plaintiff eventually filed a complaint against her union with the New York State Division of Human Rights. In January 1993, plaintiff requested transfer to the Guild's Day Treatment Program (DTP), which was coordinated by her friend, defendant Patricia Finocchiaro, and which provides ongoing...