Gómez-González v. Rural Opportunities, Inc.

• Decision Date: 02 December 2010
• Docket Number: No. 09-2557,09-2557
• Parties: Myriam GÓMEZ-GONZÁLEZ, Gerardo Arribas, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. RURAL OPPORTUNITIES, INC., Defendant, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

626 F.3d 654

Myriam GÓMEZ-GONZÁLEZ, Gerardo Arribas, Plaintiffs, Appellants,

v.RURAL OPPORTUNITIES, INC., Defendant, Appellee.

No. 09-2557.

United States Court of Appeals,First Circuit.

Heard Sept. 15, 2010.

Decided Dec. 2, 2010.

Erick Morales-Pérez for appellants.

Jessica A. Figueroa-Arce with whom Radamés A. Torruella and McConnell Valdés LLC, were on brief for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, RIPPLE,^* and SELYA, Circuit Judges.

RIPPLE, Circuit Judge.

Myriam Gómez-González, along with her husband, Gerardo Arribas, instituted this action in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico against Ms. Gómez's former employer, Rural Opportunities, Inc. ("ROI"), alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 623(a), the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12112, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act ("ERISA"), 29 U.S.C. § 1132(a)(1)(B); they also sought damages for wrongful discharge and mental distress under Puerto Rico law. ROI moved for summary judgment on all of the plaintiffs' claims. The district court granted ROI's motion for summary judgment on all of the federal claims and dismissed the pendent state claims without prejudice. Ms. Gómez and Mr. Arribas timely appealed. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

IBACKGROUND

A. Facts

ROI is a private, not-for-profit regional community development and human services organization. Its mission is to provide services to farm workers, low-income families and depressed communities. ROI's principal office is located in Rochester, New York, and it has an office in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.

In 1999, ROI was looking for a director of its Puerto Rico operations, and Ms. Gómez was assisting ROI in finding a candidate. During the process, Lee Beaulac, Senior Vice-President of Housing and Economic Development for ROI, approached Ms. Gómez and asked her to take the position; Ms. Gómez was then forty-nine years old.

At the time Ms. Gómez was hired as director of ROI's Puerto Rico operations, she had a preexisting back problem. To accommodate her condition, ROI allowed Ms. Gómez, at her discretion, to work from home a few days per week and to work out of the Adjuntas office a few days per week. When working in Adjuntas, she stayed at a hotel at company expense.

In 2004, Ms. Gómez knew that the housing development program was demanding a great deal of her time and detracting from her ability to focus on other programs. She requested an additional person to staff the Puerto Rico division and to work as a housing developer. Ms. Gómez had the task of reviewing applicants and interviewing candidates for the housing development position. This interview process began in December 2004. In January 2005, Roger Hernandez applied for the position. Ms. Gómez interviewed Hernandez and believed that he was qualified for the position. Ms. Gómez identified four finalists for the position; of those, she ranked Hernandez highest and recommended that he be offered the position at a higher salary level than that which was initially posted.

Around the time that Hernandez applied for the position at ROI, ROI's executive committee traveled to Puerto Rico to inspect the development sites under Ms. Gómez's authority. Later in January, Stuart Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of ROI, issued a memo to Ms. Gómez and others that gave notice of a meeting scheduled for early February in Rochester; the purpose of the meeting was to conduct an internal audit of the Puerto Rico projects and programs. In preparation for this meeting, Mitchell asked Ms. Gómez, as well as each member of the staff responsible for administering, supervising and providing technical assistance to Ms. Gómez or to the Puerto Rico programs, to compile a comprehensive list of all the issues that they had encountered with respect to the Puerto Rico operations.

The day before the meeting in Rochester, Mitchell provided Ms. Gómez with a memorandum of issues raised by the Rochester-based staff concerning Ms. Gómez's performance. At the meeting, budget and project issues were discussed, as were issues related to Ms. Gómez's performance. The following areas of concern were articulated: Ms. Gómez and her staff did not communicate adequately with the Rochester office; ¹ Ms. Gómez was making decisions without consulting Rochester program managers; there had been complaintsabout verbal abuse by Ms. Gómez; Ms. Gómez instilled fear and anxiety in her staff; ROI Puerto Rico operations were not attaining program goals; there were serious difficulties with three real estate development projects in Puerto Rico; and there had been an overall failure of management. Ms. Gómez disagreed with this assessment; however, because she was embarrassed and did not wish to cause a scene, she decided not to contest the items during the meeting.

The following day, Ms. Gómez was given a Notice of Disciplinary Probation, which provided that she was being placed on probation in part because of "[n]ot meeting expectations of the Director for Real Estate Development and other technical supervisors in regard to timely communication, effective problem-solving and establishing meaningful levels of trust and confidence needed to insure that our programs and projects are managed properly." App.261. The Notice also advised that management expected improvement in several areas, including:

Immediate communication with Jay Golden (telephone preferred, e-mail second choice) or Keith when any issue arises that could pose a problem for the project—this is the essence of accountability and trust building. Jay is the Developer of Record for all of the Puerto Rico Projects and must be consulted whenever problems arise—even if you think you can resolve it you must communicate it to him immediately. If he is unavailable you call Keith or Stuart. If the issue is related to homeownership you would call Jean Lipani.

Id. The Notice also informed Ms. Gómez that her job description would be changed "to more accurately reflect [her] key areas of responsibility," and her job title would "be changed to Director of Community Development, Puerto Rico." Id. Ms. Gómez's salary was not affected by either change.

On March 14, 2005, ROI hired Hernandez as Director of Housing Development for Puerto Rico. In this position, Hernandez assumed much of the responsibility for real estate projects that previously had been handled by Ms. Gómez; Hernandez also reported directly to Jay Golden, ROI's Senior Director for Real Estate Development. Ms. Gómez was upset that Hernandez was not going to report to her.

Shortly after Hernandez was hired, Ms. Gómez visited a psychiatrist, Dr. Jose A. Nunez, because she felt desperate and harassed by ROI. She attributed her anxiety to the Rochester meeting, but did not know if her condition also might be related to a family history of mental illness. The following day, Ms. Gómez requested a leave of absence for two weeks due to severe depression. Mitchell told Ms. Gómez to do whatever she needed to do in order to maintain her health. Elizabeth Scott, ROI's Benefits Administrator, sent Ms. Gómez paperwork to begin a disability claim related to her depression.

Later in March, Ms. Gómez traveled to New Jersey to take care of an emergency situation with her daughter. Her daughter's condition delayed Ms. Gómez's own recovery. As a result, Ms. Gómez's physician increased her dosage of medication and initially extended her rest period until April 18, 2005, and later to May 12, 2005.

Dr. Nunez completed the physician's section of Ms. Gómez's disability form on April 4, 2005. He indicated that Ms. Gómez's depression was work-related. On the basis of this assessment, Guardian Life Insurance Company ("Guardian"), ROI's disability insurance provider, denied Ms. Gómez's disability claim. When Scott received the denial from Guardian, she informed Ms. Gómez that, because her disability was work-related, her claim had tobe processed through Puerto Rico's State Insurance Fund ("SIF") for worker's compensation.

After being notified of the denial of her claim, Ms. Gómez sent a letter to Mary Hanson, the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources for ROI. In this letter, Ms. Gómez articulated, for the first time, that she believed that she has been subjected to sex and age discrimination. Specifically, she stated:

I had initiated the recruitment process for a developer a couple of months before and I had a pool of candidates and an agreed Job Description. I had interviewed the person hired before my visit to Rochester, and though he honestly admitted not having substantial development experience in New York and no knowledge of the processes in Puerto Rico, I recommended him because he had enough background to accomplish what the original intention of that position was under my supervision and responsibility.

As it turns out, the developer was hired by Rochester staff in substitution of myself and not as an assistant but as a "peer" Director. His recruitment letter states clearly that I was to "transition out" of development and assist in administrative matters while he retains all responsibilities and duties related to development, including searching for new opportunities.

Relieving me of the most important of the responsibilities that I had, and not allowing me to supervise this staff person is humiliating. Due to the fact that this person accepts not having the development expertise or the knowledge of the Puerto Rico market and its housing development industry, the only conclusion that I can reach for being substituted is that I am being discriminated due to gender and age.

App.312-13.

In addition to filing her internal complaint of discrimination, Ms. Gómez pursued the disability claim, related to her depression, with the SIF. In her claim, she identified the Rochester meeting as the source of her...