Gogel v. KIA Motors Mfg. of Ga., Inc., No. 16-16850

• Citation: 967 F.3d 1121
• Decision Date: 29 July 2020
• Docket Number: No. 16-16850
• Parties: Andrea GOGEL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. KIA MOTORS MANUFACTURING OF GEORGIA, INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

967 F.3d 1121

Andrea GOGEL, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.KIA MOTORS MANUFACTURING OF GEORGIA, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 16-16850

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

July 29, 2020

Meredith J. Carter, M. Carter Law LLC, SMYRNA, GA, Lisa Catherine Lambert, Law Office of Lisa C. Lambert, John Lawrence Mays, Parks Chesin & Walbert, PC, ATLANTA, GA, for Plaintiff - Appellant.

W. Jonathan Martin, II, William Milton Clifton, III, Constangy Brooks Smith & Prophete, LLP, MACON, GA, Richard J. Valladares, Greenberg Traurig, LLP, ATLANTA, GA, for Defendant - Appellee.

Christine Back, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Office of General Counsel-Appellate Services, Anne Warren King, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Office of General Counsel, Appellate Division, WASHINGTON, DC, for Amicus Curiae U.S. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION.

Carson Hobbs Sullivan, Paul Hastings, LLP, WASHINGTON, DC, for Amicus Curiae CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Robert Lawrence Ashe, Jr., Justin P. Gunter, Parker Hudson Rainer & Dobbs, LLP, ATLANTA, GA, for Amicus Curiae THE ASSOCIATION OF GLOBAL AUTOMAKERS, INC.

Richard Errol Johnson, Law Office of Richard E. Johnson, TALLAHASSEE, FL, Kathryn S. Piscitelli, Law Office of Kathryn Piscitelli, ORLANDO, FL, for Amici Curiae NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS ASSOCIATION, FLORIDA CHAPTER, NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS ASSOCIATION, GEORGIA CHAPTER.

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, WILSON, MARTIN, JORDAN, ROSENBAUM, JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, GRANT, TJOFLAT,^* ED CARNES,^** MARCUS,^*** and JULIE CARNES,^**** Circuit Judges.^*****

BRANCH, Circuit Judge, delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, GRANT, TJOFLAT, ED CARNES, MARCUS, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges, joined.

WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, filed a concurring opinion.

JORDAN, Circuit Judge, filed an opinion concurring in the judgment.

WILSON, Circuit Judge, filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

MARTIN, Circuit Judge, filed a dissenting opinion, in which ROSENBAUM and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges, joined.

ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge, filed a dissenting opinion, in which MARTIN and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges, joined.

BRANCH, Circuit Judge:

After being fired by Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Inc. ("Kia"), Andrea Gogel sued her former employer, asserting claims for gender and national-origin discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2(a) and 2000e-3(a), and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Kia on all claims, and Gogel appealed to our court. A panel of this Court affirmed as to Gogel's discrimination claims,¹ but the majority opinion reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment as to Gogel's claim that Kia fired her in retaliation for her exercise of protected conduct. Gogel v. Kia Motors Mfg. of Ga., Inc. , 904 F.3d 1226 (11th Cir. 2018), vacated , 926 F.3d 1290 (11th Cir. 2019) (granting rehearing en banc ). One member of the panel dissented as to the reversal of summary judgment in favor of Kia on Gogel's retaliation claim. See Gogel , 904 F.3d at 1239–48.

We granted rehearing en banc to consider whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment on Gogel's claim that she was fired in retaliation for engaging in protected conduct. After careful review of the record and having the benefit of oral argument, we affirm the grant of summary judgment as to Gogel's retaliation claim under Title VII and § 1981.

I. BACKGROUND²

Formed in 2006 and located in the rural community of West Point, Georgia,³ Kia is a subsidiary of the Korean Kia Motors Corporation, whose president and CEO at the time was Byung Mo Ahn. Each department within the company had a Korean coordinator who worked in tandem with the American managers at Kia. The Korean coordinators were hired by the parent Kia company in South Korea and served three- to four-year assignments at the local Kia before being rotated out. These Korean coordinators were heavily involved in decision-making at Kia.⁴

As for the American management, Randy Jackson, a white American male, was initially hired as the director of Human Resources and thereafter promoted to Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Administration. In effect, Jackson was the chief administrative officer for Kia. Human Resources was divided into two units: a unit that handled the administrative end of employee relations, such as hiring, background checks, and payroll (hereinafter "HR"), and the Team Relations unit, which handled virtually every other aspect of employee relations once an employee was on board, including the receipt of allegations by employees of harassment and discrimination, as well as the investigation of those allegations. Robert Tyler, a white American male, was selected as the manager of the HR department. Gogel, a white American female, was hired in 2008 as Kia's Team Relations Department Manager, with three assistant managers who reported directly to her. As the manager of Team Relations, she oversaw all of these investigations and reported back to Jackson with the results and her recommendations.

The events giving rise to the specific issue before us began during the tenure of an employee named Diana Ledbetter, a white American female hired in 2008 as a staff member of Kia's General Affairs department. The General Affairs department was responsible for a variety of miscellaneous operational duties, including overseeing the cafeteria, office furniture, office supplies and machinery, and janitorial services. The General Affairs department was also responsible for special events, including "celebration functions," "dinners or any kind of conferences or any kind of meetings," catering, flowers, and the like. Ledbetter had been hired as a General Affairs specialist and told that she would be responsible for "Protocol and Events." These events often involved visits by the Korean president of the company, Mr. Ahn, and other Korean officials. As to protocol, the events were designed to be consistent with the protocol followed for such dignitaries in Korea. And it was this protocol to which Ledbetter objected. Specifically, she was asked to pour wine for the Korean executives at these events and, upon their arrival at the plant, to hold flowers and say, "Welcome, Chairman." As a result, some unidentified co-workers teased her as being a "geisha."

Ledbetter disliked having to perform these duties. In addition, Ledbetter told Gogel that she believed that Ledbetter's supervisor, K.M.,⁵ a black American female, was involved in a romantic relationship with President Ahn. This alleged relationship was of concern to Ledbetter because she believed this relationship enabled K.M. "to improperly use her position of manager to control subordinate employees" like Ledbetter. Ledbetter spoke to Gogel and others about this issue and requested that she be transferred away from K.M.'s supervision. Jackson agreed to transfer Ledbetter to Team Relations but told her that she had a better chance of a promotion if she stayed in General Affairs. Her dislike of working under K.M. notwithstanding, Ledbetter decided she would rather stay in General Affairs with the prospect of a promotion. In September 2010 she was designated the "acting" assistant manager of General Affairs. Nonetheless, Ledbetter continued to ask Gogel to investigate what she believed to be an inappropriate relationship between K.M. and Ahn.

In fact, Gogel sought permission from Jackson in late 2008 to investigate the relationship between President Ahn and K.M. because of the possibility that K.M. might be "utilizing th[e] relationship to the detriment of others" and that K.M. might not have fully consented to the relationship. Gogel was concerned about "the risk that [the relationship] could create for the company" and she wanted to investigate the issue to make sure that the company was not "at risk" from "people being treated in a way differently than they should be treated, from a legal and an ethical perspective." Accordingly, she asked Jackson if she could conduct an investigation as to whether President Ahn and K.M. were having an affair. Jackson declined to authorize such an investigation.

Shortly thereafter, Kevin Kim, the Korean Coordinator for HR and Jackson's counterpart, asked Gogel to investigate K.M. secretly regarding her treatment of other team members and whether there was any "falsification of time" on her part, but he did not direct an investigation regarding President Ahn. Kim directed Gogel not to reveal this investigation to Jackson. Within a few weeks, however, Kim asked Gogel to stop the investigation and to destroy any information she had gathered related to the investigation.

In March 2009, Jackson designated Tyler as the Head of Department ("HOD") over both Team Relations and HR and indicated that this new title was based on Tyler's years of experience and longevity with Kia. Given the significant responsibilities of her position, Gogel objected that she was not likewise designated as an HOD over Team Relations.⁶

After Gogel was not given a head of department designation in 2009, she met with Jackson and Tyler and informed them that she believed she did not receive the HOD title because of her gender and that there was a gender issue within the company.

Indeed, as her complaint recounts, Gogel believed that the Korean management held antiquated views about the role of women in the workplace, generally, and that as to Gogel, specifically, she was not sufficiently listened to or respected by the Korean managers.

In August 2010, Jackson sent Gogel an email asking for her thoughts on how the Team Relations department could be improved. Gogel sent two lengthy emails in response that Jackson summarized as stating that "her department was being hampered by micro-management from people who did not understand the work being performed, did not respect her successes or...