Garcia v. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

• Decision Date: 23 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-2723.,07-2723.
• Parties: Norys I. GARCÍA; José E. Castellar-Velázquez; Conjugal Partnership Castellar-García, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY; Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company; Bristol-Myers Squibb Caribbean Company; Rafael Vélez; Jane Doe; Conjugal Partnership Vélez-Doe; Américo Abadía; Chelsea Roe; Conjugal Partnership Abadía-Roe; Glenn Gerecke; Julia Doe; Conjugal Partnership Gerecke-Doe, Defendants, Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

535 F.3d 23

Norys I. GARCÍA; José E. Castellar-Velázquez; Conjugal Partnership Castellar-García, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY; Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company; Bristol-Myers Squibb Caribbean Company; Rafael Vélez; Jane Doe; Conjugal Partnership Vélez-Doe; Américo Abadía; Chelsea Roe; Conjugal Partnership Abadía-Roe; Glenn Gerecke; Julia Doe; Conjugal Partnership Gerecke-Doe, Defendants, Appellees.

No. 07-2723.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard June 5, 2008.

Decided July 23, 2008.

Artemio Rivera Rivera, for appellants.

Carl Schuster with whom Lourdes C. Hernández-Venegas and Schuster Aguiló LLP, were on brief, for appellees.

Before LYNCH, Chief Judge, TORRUELLA and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.

LYNCH, Chief Judge.

Norys I. García, a chemical engineer employed for eighteen years by Bristol Myers Squibb Company in Mayagez, Puerto Rico, brought a Title VII suit alleging the termination of her employment was motivated by gender discrimination and not, as the employer said, by poor performance. The district court entered summary judgment for the employer, finding no reasonable jury could conclude, in the face of the articulated reason, in plaintiff's favor. In this highly fact-based case, we affirm the judgment.

I.

On September 15, 2005, García, along with her husband and their conjugal partnership, brought suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and Puerto Rico law, against her former employer, Bristol Myers Squibb and two of its subsidiaries (collectively "BMS"), as well as three individuals: Rafael Vélez, Américo Abadía, and Glenn Gerecke, and their respective wives and conjugal partnerships. Vélez and Abadía were García's direct supervisors; Gerecke was their supervisor.

García alleged that the three men had built a case, based on negative performance evaluations, to justify firing García and that their real motivation was that she is a woman. García alleged that she was subjected to "different treatment, evaluations, disciplinary process and mechanisms" compared to the other male project engineers. García alleged that Gerecke discriminated against her because he "condon[ed]" the discriminatory conduct of the other two. García sought compensatory and punitive damages of over $10 million as well as reinstatement to her job.

Defendants moved for summary judgment. The case was referred to a magistrate judge, who recommended denying summary judgment with respect to García's claim of sex discrimination. The district court did not accept this recommendation and held that summary judgment should be granted. García appealed. Because our review of the grant of summary judgment is de novo, Thompson v. Coca-Cola Co., 522 F.3d 168, 175 (1st Cir.2008), we do not detail the reasoning used by either court.

A. Factual Background

We review the record evidence, making all reasonable inferences in plaintiff's favor. Mellen v. Trs. of Boston Univ., 504 F.3d 21, 24 (1st Cir.2007).

García's employment was terminated on January 24, 2005. García then held the position of Senior Project Engineer within the Facilities and Engineering Department. She was the only Senior Project Engineer in the department and was responsible for the administration of capital projects. This meant that she would work as the leader of teams comprised of representatives from several BMS departments and was ultimately responsible for the entirety of each project assigned to her. Her peers in the department were Eduardo Sánchez and Pedro Toro, who were both Project Managers, and Manuel Orsini, an Engineering Technician. During the time period in question she had two different direct supervisors, Rafael Vélez from February 2004 until her termination in January 2005 and Américo Abadía from August 2003 to February 2004. Both had difficulty with her work.

B. 2003 Evaluations and Vélez's Arrival

In February 2004, a year before the employment termination, Abadía completed 2003 year-end evaluations for all of the employees under his supervision. We consider these evaluations by Abadía insofar as they provide relevant background.

Abadía's evaluation of García, which they both signed on February 18, 2004, was markedly less positive than his evaluations of others he supervised. In García's evaluation, which reflected comments from others about García, including from female employees, he wrote:

Norys is a hard worker but needs to learn how to influence the organization in a positive way to get the job done with a level of comfort. She is good at planning but when she encounters a pushback in the way she is approaching the task she gets upset and is able to accept alternate solutions with a level of difficulty. "Her way is the best way"...

Norys needs to understand that be[ing] a team player within our environment is an important factor.... Professionals that have worked with her feel uncomfortable in the way she approaches conflicting differences. She needs to be more proactive in modeling BMS Core Behaviors....

Another area that Norys has to address is in the presentation skills. While she has the required information her presentation lacks the required structure to make sure that attendees can grasp the understanding of the subject at hand....

In a sworn statement, Abadía stated that his review of García was based on his observations that "when she encountered resistance to differing opinions or suggestions, she would have difficulty receiving that feedback and would respond by getting upset and reacting as such." He also noted that García had been inadequately prepared for a presentation to the plant's Vice President and General Manager in late 2003, which Abadía had to cancel because it was "lacking the appropriate structure or completeness." As discussed below, García wrote a letter on August 4, 2004, complaining about several aspects of this evaluation, including Abadía's reliance on the opinions of people with whom García claimed she had not actually worked during the time period in question.

By contrast, Abadía had far fewer concerns about other employees in the department. His evaluations of Toro and Orsini, García's male co-workers, were overwhelmingly positive, and his evaluation of Sánchez expressed a few concerns but was still very strong:

Within the 7 months that I have worked with Eduardo he needs to be more reactive to resolving situations that come to his hand but also increase the level of pro-activeness to resolve situations before they become a problem. Eduardo has the technical talent and also the administrative expertise to climb to his next performance step.

Eduardo with his knowledge and expertise ... can do more to increase the level of effectiveness of this department and for the overall organization. [He i]s considered within our operational community to be an[ ] excellent person to document [c]apital preparation documents the correct way.

García considers Sánchez to be her male comparator.

In February 2004, Abadía was promoted to Director of Manufacturing and was replaced as Director of Facilities and Engineering by Rafael Vélez. Vélez had previously served as Materials Manager and worked with García in that capacity; García characterized that working relationship as "normal" and did not indicate that there had been any problems between the two. Vélez testified that he had known García since he started working at BMS in approximately 1993.

In a sworn statement, Vélez stated that after his appointment as Director of Facilities and Engineering, he was informed that an internal audit had revealed deficiencies in the carrying out and documentation of equipment qualifications. These had been García's responsibility both as Senior Project Engineer and before that when she was Senior Qualification Engineer. As a result, BMS had transferred responsibility for the qualification process away from García.

On April 23, 2004, Vélez placed a warning letter in García's file critical of her job performance due to "inappropriate administrative controls." The letter stated that García had violated several BMS internal procedures. On April 1, she had brought to Vélez's attention the need to extend a purchase order for an additional $30,000 to cover both a performance qualification for four lyophilizers and the process qualification for an external vial washer. On April 16, Vélez had learned that the qualification of the external washer had in fact been awarded as part of a previous change order, and also that three prior changes, all of which had included the lyophilizers, had also been made against the purchase order. As a result of all these changes, the original contract had increased from $20,000 to $88,950. Vélez's letter constituted an official warning, and cautioned García "to take immediate corrective action to prevent this situation from recurring and to exercise sound judgment when administering contract, terms and conditions set forth in Company internal controls." From Vélez's point of view, García's performance did not improve. García claims that she was not aware of the April 2004 warning letter until her deposition in this case, but she does not dispute the existence of the underlying cost overrun.

C. García's Placement on a Performance Improvement Plan

On June 15, 2004, Vélez decided to place García on a ninety-day Performance Improvement Plan ("PIP"). Vélez stated that he decided to place García on the PIP because he "felt that García had not improved in the areas indicated by Abadía in his evaluation, as well as in several additional areas that I had noticed from my own experience and observations of her performance during the months in which she had been under my supervision." For instance, he noted that he had "received negative comments from several persons involved in projects handled by García," including Humberto Cardona, Manufacturing Manager, Victor Mojica, Manufacturing Supervisor, and Frances Montes, Technical...