Gibson v. Henderson

• Decision Date: 12 January 2001
• Docket Number: No. 1:99CV01052.,1:99CV01052.
• Citation: 129 F.Supp.2d 890
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of North Carolina
• Parties: Bonnie L. GIBSON, Plaintiff, v. William J. HENDERSON, Postmaster General, and United States Postal Service, Defendants.

129 F.Supp.2d 890

Bonnie L. GIBSON, Plaintiff, v. William J. HENDERSON, Postmaster General, and United States Postal Service, Defendants.

No. 1:99CV01052.

United States District Court, M.D. North Carolina.

January 12, 2001.

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Nancy Pulliam Quinn, The Quinn Law Firm, Greensboro, NC, for Plaintiff.

Gill P. Beck, Office of U.S. Attorney, Greensboro, NC, Jeannette L. Bisson, United States Postal Servive, Washington, DC, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BEATY, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court pursuant to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment [Document # 16]. Plaintiff Bonnie L. Gibson ("Plaintiff' or "Gibson") filed suit in this case against Defendants William J. Henderson ("Henderson") and the United States Postal Service ("USPS"), alleging disability discrimination in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 700, age discrimination in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. § 621, and negligent or intentional infliction of emotional distress.

For the reasons that follow, Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's claims is GRANTED.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Plaintiff Bonnie Gibson began working for the USPS on June 1, 1970 as a Distribution Clerk at the Los Angeles, California Mail Processing Facility. After Plaintiff had worked with the Los Angeles facility for over twenty years, the facility closed permanently due to an agency reorganization. After the shut-down, Plaintiff was eventually transferred to the Greensboro Purchasing and Materials Service Center ("PMSC") of the USPS to serve as the principal secretarial, clerical, and administrative support to Raymond Thompson ("Thompson"), the PMSC Manager who hired Plaintiff. Because Thompson had previously served as the Director of PMSC, Western Region, he had known of Plaintiff when she worked at the Los Angeles facility, and was aware that during Plaintiff's employment there, Plaintiff had suffered from medically-related problems, had undergone extensive surgery,¹ and had exhausted all of her sick leave. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B ¶ A2b-A2c]. Given Thompson's knowledge of Plaintiff's medical history and her past attendance record at the Los Angeles facility, Thompson asked Plaintiff prior to hiring her at the Greensboro facility whether her attendance would pose future problems. After assuring Thompson that attendance would not be a problem, Plaintiff began work at the Greensboro PMSC as a non-exempt secretary. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B ¶ A2b, A4C]. Plaintiff's primary responsibilities included preparing correspondence in support of the Office Manager, making travel arrangements, providing telephone coverage, and preparing travel vouchers. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B ¶ A5A].

As a non-exempt employee, Plaintiff was paid on an hourly basis and was not permitted to take personal leave or to work past her normal hours without supervision. [Gov.Ex. C, Tr. of Admin. Hr'g, pp. 124, 175-76]. Moreover, because Plaintiff was the only secretary on duty, her start time was fixed and she was required to work primarily during core hours, which were from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.² [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B ¶ A5b]. Despite the inflexibility in Plaintiff's work schedule, in certain unplanned, emergency situations, Eleanor Robinson, Plaintiff's Group Leader, allowed her non-exempt employees, such as Plaintiff, to revise their work schedules, meaning they could come in earlier and leave earlier or come in later and leave later, to accommodate unexpected needs. In fact, Plaintiff was given some revised schedules in 1993, and there were five instances in 1994 where Plaintiff was permitted to revise her schedule to avoid taking leave. [Gov.Ex. C, Tr. of Admin. Hr'g, pp. 69, 208]. However, despite Robinson's perspective on flexible schedules, Thompson, who was Robinson's immediate supervisor, preferred that non-exempt employees, such as Plaintiff, take annual or sick leave or leave without pay, as opposed to a revised schedule, to deal with emergency-related absences. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. ¶ A4C]. Thompson had initially given Plaintiff's unit more flexibility with respect to revised schedules;³ however, because Thompson believed that Plaintiff abused the privilege, revised schedules were essentially abandoned.⁴ In fact, before restricting the privilege, Thompson had approved revised schedules for Plaintiff on certain occasions. [Gov.Ex. C, Tr. of Admin. Hr'g, p. 69]. According to Thompson, not only did Robinson and Thompson have problems with Plaintiff's use of the revised schedule, they also had problems with Plaintiff's attendance, despite her assurances on being able to comply with attendance requirements prior to being hired. In fact, on July 19, 1993, within ten days of reporting for duty, Plaintiff had already taken her first medical leave of absence.

While at PMSC, Plaintiff suffered from migraine headaches, degenerative disc disease abdominal pain, and Barrett's esophagus, which, in addition to other factors unrelated to these conditions, resulted in Plaintiff frequently being absent from work. In fact, Plaintiff incurred eleven additional absences between her first absence on July 19, 1993 and October 19, 1993. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Att. 10]. More specifically, Plaintiff used 107.5 hours of leave during this three-month time period. On October 19, 1993, because of her low attendance rate, Plaintiff was placed on restricted sick leave. Despite this restriction, Plaintiff's attendance rate did not improve, and she was required to present medical documentation for all health-related absences. In addition, on December 19, 1994, Plaintiff was asked to submit a Plan for Improvement to address her excessive absenteeism and other areas of deficiency. Despite the steps taken to improve Plaintiff's attendance, Plaintiff's absences continued to escalate and she continued to incur a high percentage of unscheduled absences. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B ¶ A3a].⁵

On May 26, 1995, Plaintiff was issued a warning letter for failure to maintain regular attendance. Plaintiff was also reprimanded for her reliability, promptness, and ability to cooperate with others. [Gov. Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Letter of Warning, Att. 4]. Moreover, between the time Plaintiff submitted her Plan for Improvement and the time the letter of warning was issued, Plaintiff used 181.5 hours of leave. See id. In the warning letter, Plaintiff was informed that because her department operated on strict time standards, her absences negatively impacted on the department's efficiency. See id. Plaintiff was also warned that failure to correct her attendance problems would result in "more severe disciplinary action being taken against" her, including the possibility of removal from the Postal Service. See id.

Discussions about Plaintiff's attendance problems began as early as October 1993, when Plaintiff's supervisor put Plaintiff on notice of the problems that her frequent absences were causing. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Notice of Proposed Adverse Action-Removal, Att. 7]. On July 19, 1994, Plaintiff was again made aware of the problems that her unscheduled absences were causing for the department. See id. In addition, Plaintiff had an informal conference with Thompson in November of 1994 about her absenteeism problem. [Gov.Ex. C, Tr. of Admin. Hr'g, p. 75]. According to Robinson, the frequency of Plaintiff's absences generated concern about whether Plaintiff was capable of performing her job. Therefore, on June 22, 1995, Robinson asked Plaintiff to undergo a fitness-for-duty exam. [Gov.Ex. C, Tr. of Admin. Hr'g, p. 207]. In the exam report, Dr. Guarino, the examining physician, noted that although Plaintiff had a history of a number of serious medical problems for which she had received treatment, most of Plaintiff's problems were "quiescent", meaning they were inactive. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Letter to Robinson, Att. 5]. Dr. Guarino then noted that except for the problems that Plaintiff had been experiencing with her migraine headaches, none of Plaintiff's past medical problems should recur in the future. After first explaining that Plaintiff would experience some sickness-related absences in the future, Dr. Guarino concluded that Plaintiff was fit for duty. Despite Guarino's fitness determination, Plaintiff's absenteeism continued to increase. Accordingly, Plaintiff was issued a final warning letter on August 14, 1995. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Final Letter of Warning, Att. 6]. This warning letter itemized 85.5 hours of annual leave, sick leave, and leave without pay that Plaintiff had taken since the issuance of the first warning letter. Plaintiff was warned that "this high rate of absenteeism [was] unacceptable to the Postal Service," and that "further deficiencies [would] result in more severe disciplinary action being taken against [her]."⁶ Id. Notwithstanding this second warning letter, Plaintiff's rate of absenteeism again did not improve. For the remainder of the 1995 calendar year, Plaintiff had an additional 18 separate absences and used an additional 178.55 hours of leave. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Leave Analysis, Att. 10].

According to Thompson, given Plaintiff's failure to improve her absences after the issuance of both warning letters, Thompson felt that Plaintiff was not taking her warnings seriously. On January 19, 1996, based on Plaintiff's failure to maintain regular attendance, the PMSC issued to Plaintiff a Notice of Proposed Adverse Action-Removal. [Gov.Ex. A, Thompson Aff. B, Notice of Proposed Action-Removal, Att. 7]. In this Notice, Plaintiff was informed that since the issuance of the August 14, 1995 warning letter, Plaintiff had been absent an additional 161.63 hours, that she had been "repeatedly cautioned regarding [her] obligation to be regular in attendance," and that her failure to maintain regular attendance violated the...