Goodwin v. Board of Trustees of University of Ill., 05-2961.

• Decision Date: 31 March 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-2961.,05-2961.
• Citation: 442 F.3d 611
• Parties: Audrey GOODWIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS; and Randy Kornegay and Kip Mecum, in their individual capacities, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

442 F.3d 611

Audrey GOODWIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS; and Randy Kornegay and Kip Mecum, in their individual capacities, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-2961.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued February 22, 2006.

Decided March 31, 2006.

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John H. Otto (argued), Zimmerly, Gadau, Selin & Otto, Champaign, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

James C. Kearns (argued), Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, Urbana, IL, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before FLAUM, Chief Judge, and WILLIAMS and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

FLAUM, Chief Judge.

Audrey Goodwin, a building service worker foreman for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, claims that she was demoted as a result of unlawful race- and sex-based discrimination. She has sued the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois under Title VII and the supervisors who she claims demoted her under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on all counts. Goodwin now appeals. Because we conclude that Goodwin has successfully established a prima facie case under McDonnell Douglas indirect method of proof and has created a genuine issue of fact as to whether the University's proffered reasons for her demotion were pretextual, we reverse the district court's summary judgment ruling and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Background

Audrey Goodwin is a black female. She has worked for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 1978, first as a building service worker ("BSW") and then as a BSW foreman. During the time period relevant to this lawsuit, Goodwin's supervisors included Randy Kornegay, the superintendent of building services, and Kip Mecum, the director of operations and transportation services. Kornegay is a black male, and Mecum is a white male. Goodwin's immediate supervisor was Charles Hassell, the assistant superintendent of the day shift.

From the time she was hired until 1998, Goodwin worked "deep nights," first as a BSW and then as a BSW foreman. Her supervisors, including Kornegay and Mecum, eventually promoted her to the day shift as foreman of the moving crew. Goodwin claims that throughout her tenure at the University, her work record was well-regarded before January 2002—a claim that the defendants do not dispute on appeal.

The events leading to this lawsuit began on January 17, 2002, in Goodwin's office. Goodwin's office was located in the corner of a large space dedicated to the moving crew. It contained the time clock for the BSWs, and, every day at the beginning and end of each shift, the BSWs and the truck drivers who reported to Goodwin would clock in and out there. Near the end of her shift, Goodwin was checking her e-mail while employees were waiting to clock out. The employees in the vicinity of Goodwin's desk were James Gillin, Elijah Green, Jack Hall, Jim McConkey, Donna Rokos, and Donald Wisehart. Goodwin opened an e-mail that had been sent to her university e-mail account. The e-mail contained an image of at least three scantily-clad women, each weighing over 1,000 pounds, eating. Their naked breasts were resting on a table.

Goodwin claims that when she saw this e-mail, she made an involuntary exclamation in the nature of "That's so terrible!" She claims that she was then distracted by a work-related phone call and left the image on the screen as she spoke on the telephone. As she was attending to business, she claims that the employees around her office, whose curiosity had been aroused by her exclamation, walked around her desk and looked at the image on her computer screen.

The defendants claim that Goodwin's "involuntary exclamation" was actually a comment intended to draw the employees' attention to the image, and that she turned the computer screen around so that the employees could better view the picture. The defendants also claim that three of the employees, Hall, Rokos, and Wisehart, heard Goodwin comment that if her breasts were that big, she would cut them off. Only one employee, Rokos, claims to have been offended by the picture.

Rokos reported the incident to Ron Burwell, a transportation foreman. Both Burwell and Rokos had previously complained about Goodwin in her capacity as a manager. Burwell advised Rokos to file a complaint against Goodwin. The next day, Rokos contacted Goodwin's immediate supervisor, Charles Hassell, and set up a meeting for the next day.

Goodwin claims that Hassell called her the day after the incident, January 18, and asked if she knew why Rokos wanted to see him. Goodwin claims that after thinking about what might have prompted Rokos's request, she told Hassell about the e-mail incident. According to Goodwin, she was honest about the contents of the e-mail, and after she finished telling Hassell about the incident, he replied, "That's not so bad." Hassell has testified that he does not recall this conversation.

Hassell and Rokos met as planned on January 18, and after the meeting, Hassell discussed the incident with his supervisor, Kornegay. Kornegay and Hassell decided that it would be necessary to conduct an investigation.

On January 24, Goodwin met with Hassell and Tracy Osby, the department's public functions supervisor. During this meeting, Goodwin admitted that she had received the vulgar e-mail, denied that she had invited others to look at it, and was given a paper with the heading "E-Mail Etiquette." Goodwin testified that Hassell told her that he believed that she likely drew attention to the e-mail through an involuntary exclamation or gesture, and asked her to try to control her emotions better. Goodwin also testified that at the end of that meeting, she asked, "Is that it?" and Hassell replied, "Yes." Goodwin claims that at the close of the meeting, she was under the impression that the matter had been resolved.

The defendants claim that on January 25, Goodwin approached James Gillin, one of the employees under her supervision who was present during the e-mail incident. They allege that Goodwin asked Gillin if he had seen the e-mail picture. When he responded that he had, Goodwin allegedly told him that if he told supervisors that he had seen it, "it would hurt [him] in the long run in trying to become a supervisor or foreman or anything." According to the defendants, Gillin told Rokos and another BSW, Donald Wisehart, about Goodwin's comment on the same day.

As part of their investigation into the incident, Hassell, Kornegay, and Osby interviewed Rokos, Hall, Gillin, Green, and McConkey regarding the incident on January 17. During her interview, Rokos informed Kornegay that she believed that Goodwin had threatened Gillin. Kornegay asked Gillin about these alleged threats during his interview. Gillin agreed that Goodwin had told him to deny that the e-mail incident occurred if he was interested in advancing within the department.

Throughout the proceedings in this case, Goodwin has denied mentioning the e-mail incident to Gillin or threatening him in any way. She claims that Gillin did not discuss any desire to be promoted with her until after January 25, and that even if he had, she would not have been in a position to make recommendations or decisions about promotions. She points out that by the time the alleged intimidation occurred, she had already voluntarily discussed what happened on January 17 during the meeting on January 24 with Hassell and Osby and, she claims, when Hassell called her to discuss the reason that Rokos had requested a meeting. In addition, she has testified that by the date that Gillin alleges that she intimidated him, she believed that the entire matter had been resolved. She notes that Gillin had already been disciplined for lying to supervisors at the time he made these accusations, and that Gillin could not name the date of the alleged intimidation until he consulted with Rokos and another personnel service employee.

Goodwin claims that as part of Hassell and Kornegay's investigation, Hassell came to her office in early February to see if he could locate the vulgar e-mail in her computer's deleted e-mail folder. Goodwin alleges that Hassell told her that it was rumored that she was "trying to be more than what [she was.]" She testified that she then asked Hassell what she was doing wrong. She claims that Hassell replied, "People don't like you because, historically, this is a white male position. You are a strong black female, and people don't like that. You dress profession[ally], you are strict and you enforce the rules, and people don't like that." Hassell testified that he does not remember making that statement and, in response to a leading question, testified that he "would not make that kind of statement."

Kornegay testified that he believed Gillin's intimidation accusation was credible. He initiated a pre-disciplinary meeting with Goodwin. Two pre-disciplinary meetings were held during the month of February. On March 8, 2002, Kornegay signed and delivered to Goodwin an intent to file notice of demotion. The same day, he placed Goodwin on administrative leave with pay. On March 13, a civil service reconciliation meeting was held, but nevertheless, Goodwin was demoted effective March 15, 2002. The reasons given for the demotion were abuse of authority, intimidation of an employee to withhold or misrepresent information, which creates a hostile work environment, and poor judgment/conduct unbecoming a supervisor.

The parties dispute who was responsible for the decision to demote Goodwin. All parties agree that Kornegay was involved, but Goodwin claims that Kip Mecum could have overridden Kornegay's decision. The defendants claim that Kornegay was solely responsible for the demotion and that, although Kornegay did consult Mecum when deciding whether to demote Goodwin, Kornegay had the final authority in the matter. Although neither party claims that Hassell had the...