Graziano v. Village of Oak Park

• Decision Date: 28 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03 C 4562.,03 C 4562.
• Citation: 401 F.Supp.2d 918
• Parties: Anthony J. GRAZIANO, et al., Plaintiffs, v. VILLAGE OF OAK PARK, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

401 F.Supp.2d 918

Anthony J. GRAZIANO, et al., Plaintiffs, v. VILLAGE OF OAK PARK, Defendant.

No. 03 C 4562.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

November 28, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Lawrence E. Just, Lawrence E. Just & Associates, Des Plaines, IL, for Plaintiff.

Michael A. Warner, Jr., Corinne S. O'Melia, Nora E. Fitzgerald, Franczek Sullivan P.C., Chicago, IL, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

SHADUR, Senior District Judge.

Each of Anthony Graziano ("Graziano"), Sam Calascibetta ("Calascibetta"), Frank Ruscitti ("Ruscitti") and Henry Rybacki ("Rybacki") has charged the Village of Oak Park ("Oak Park") with one or more of an array of violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ("Title VII," 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e to 2000e-17), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA," 29 U.S.C. §§ 621 to 634) and the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA," 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 to 12117). Oak Park has moved for summary judgment on a subset of those claims under Fed.R.Civ.P. ("Rule") 56. In particular, Oak Park seeks summary judgment (1) on all four plaintiffs' claims that they were unlawfully terminated in retaliation for conduct protected under Title VII, (2) on Ruscitti's and Rybacki's Title VII claims that they were unlawfully terminated due to their national origin, (3) on Calascibetta's, Ruscitti's and Rybacki's ADEA claims that they were unlawfully terminated due to age and (4) on Rybacki's claim (though not formally set out in his Complaint) that he was subjected to a hostile working environment.¹

Both sides have nominally complied with this District Court's LR 56.1.² For the reasons stated in this memorandum opinion and order, Oak Park's motion (1) is denied as to Graziano's retaliation claim and (2) for the reason stated in the Appendix 1, is recommended to this Court's colleagues to be granted as to all other claims under consideration.

Summary Judgment Standards

Familiar Rule 56 principles impose on movant Oak Park the burden of establishing the lack of a genuine issue of material fact (Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)). For that purpose this Court must "consider the evidentiary record in the light most favorable to the non-moving party ... and draw all reasonable inferences in his favor" (Lesch v. Crown Cork & Seal Co., 282 F.3d 467, 471 (7th Cir.2002)). This general standard is also applied with rigor in employment discrimination cases, where intent is inevitably the central issue (McCoy v. WGN Cont'l Broad. Co., 957 F.2d 368, 370-71 (7th Cir.1992)). That said, to avoid summary judgment a nonmovant still "must produce more than a scintilla of evidence to support his position" that a genuine issue of material fact exists (Pugh v. City of Attica, 259 F.3d 619, 625 (7th Cir.2001)). In the end, though, summary judgment is warranted only if a reasonable jury could not return a verdict for the nonmovant (Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986)). What follows is a summary of the facts viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, but only so long as those facts are supported by record evidence.

In that respect, as reflected in n. 2 and Appendix 2 (pages 2 and 3 of Oak Park's Response to Plaintiff's LR 56.1(b)(3)(B) Statement of Additional Facts), Oak Park has identified a number of substantial defects in plaintiffs' LR 56.1(b)(3)(A) response to Oak Park's LR 56.1(a)(3) statement of material facts. Those comprise plaintiffs' admission of many of the material facts in Oak Park's statement (either directly or by incomplete denial), their "argumentative denials and extraneous information" in their own responsive statement, their reliance on unsupported and immaterial assertions and hearsay and their submission of affidavits directly contradicting their own deposition testimony. And as n. 2 indicates, the factual recitation in this opinion gives plaintiffs substantially more than their due — and despite that, all but one of their claims succumb under the Rule 56 standards.

Background

Oak Park is an incorporated municipal entity just west of Chicago, Illinois (OP St. ¶ 5).³ It is governed ultimately by an elected Village President and Board of Trustees (id. ¶ 12), but the daily operation of government services and programs is overseen by the Village Manager (id.). All four plaintiffs were employed by the Streets Division of Oak Park's Public Works Department ("Streets Division"): Graziano, Ruscitti and Rybacki as "equipment operators" and Calascibetta as Maintenance Crew Chief ("Crew Chief") (id. ¶ 24; Graziano Ans. ¶ 12; Ruscitti Ans. ¶ 13; Rybacki Ans. ¶ 16; App. III, Graziano, Ruscitti and Rybacki Aff. ¶ 1).

While the bulk of the saga portrayed in these cases played out during and after the summer of 2002, two preliminary events should be noted to set the stage properly. First, in 1992 Calascibetta filed an employment discrimination claim against Oak Park with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") and the Illinois Department of Human Rights (OP St. ¶ 180). That claim, which alleged that Calascibetta was denied a promotion because of his age, was settled in 1998 (id. ¶¶ 180-81). Second, in early 2002 newly-hired Oak Park Human Resources Director Frank Spataro ("Spataro") began to investigate the amount of overtime being performed by Streets Division employees (id. ¶¶ 37-38). Based on his findings, Spataro eventually concluded (among other things) that Calascibetta had manipulated overtime assignments for the benefit of himself and a few select employees (id. ¶ 174).

It was in the midst of that overtime investigation that the Streets Division entered into what would soon become a divisive morass of accusations and counter-accusations, investigation and counter-investigation and feuding blocs of employees. That was catalyzed by Oak Park's May 2002⁴ receipt of an anonymous letter (the "Speciale Letter") that charged Calascibetta and one of his superiors, Public Works Operations Superintendent Anthony Speciale ("Speciale"), with abusing their positions and failing to fulfill their duties (OP St. ¶¶ 19, 59-60). Rumors soon began circulating among Streets Division employees as to the authorship of the Speciale Letter (id. ¶ 61). In June two Streets Division employees, Mike Otters ("Otters") and Charles Vetro ("Vetro"), complained to Spataro that Calascibetta and Streets Division Supervisor Jim Hirakawa ("Hirakawa") had accused them of writing the letter and that Calascibetta and Hirakawa had retaliated against them for their alleged authorship (id. ¶¶ 67-71). Along with a third co-worker, Mike Pepe ("Pepe"), Otters and Vetro further reported that Calascibetta had changed their overtime assignments and job responsibilities (id. ¶¶ 70, 71,73), had favored certain employees (id. ¶¶ 74-76) and had failed to do his own assigned work (id. ¶ 77).

In August Spataro began an investigation of those complaints (OP St. ¶¶ 83-84). In the course of that investigation, Spataro received numerous reports of asserted misconduct by Ruscitti, Calascibetta and Graziano.

For example, there was a whole battery of complaints about Ruscitti. Employees told Spataro that Ruscitti (1) had referred to a fellow employee as "Lassie," whistled to call him "like a dog" (OP St. ¶ 109) and referred to him as a "fucking retard" (id. ¶ 115), (2) had made another employee "stick his face out of the truck and act like a dog" (id. ¶ 112), (3) had denied fellow employees a water break (id. ¶ 113), (4) had attempted to discourage another employee from reporting Ruscitti's misconduct and had referred to that employee as a "fucking pussy" for doing so (id. ¶ 116), (5) unlike other employees, would not stop teasing co-workers when asked (id. ¶ 117), (6) when confronted about his disappearances from the worksite by a summer co-worker, had stated "I'm the boss and you are just the temp — that's what happens when seasonals come — its time for the full-timers to get the summer off. I'm the boss" (id. ¶ 119), (7) had urged co-workers to work slowly to create more overtime opportunities (id. ¶ 121) and (8) had avoided assigned work (id. ¶ 120).

As to Calascibetta, in addition to the reported behavior that had prompted the investigation to begin with, Spataro was also told (1) that Calascibetta was advising Streets Division employees not to talk to Spataro without a union representative present and (2) that one of Spataro's goals in the investigation was to get the employees to forfeit future union representation (OP St. ¶ 134). Spataro saw that as a further example of an ongoing attempt by Calascibetta to keep his co-workers from voicing their concerns about him (id. ¶ 135).

Finally, as to Graziano, the complaints about his conduct centered around a single incident that occurred in the midst of Spataro's investigation. On the morning of August 22 Graziano left a Dunkin' Donuts box in the break room of the Public Works department (OP St. ¶ 137). When Pepe Otters and Vetro opened the box, they found three pieces of individually wrapped cheese (id. ¶ 138). Viewing that as a symbolic act of retaliation — that the cheese had been intended for them as "rats" — Pepe, Otters and Vetro again complained to Spataro (id. ¶ 139). On August 27 a hearing was held, during which Graziano argued that instead of the cheese having been intended to send any message, he had simply been saving it to take home for his son after his shift was over (id. ¶ 191). Disbelieving that explanation, on September 5 Spataro prepared a memorandum recommending that Graziano be suspended for a week as punishment for his "use of abusive language or manner toward one's fellow employees" and for retaliating against fellow employees for reporting misconduct (P. R.St. ¶ 195; P.Ex. 19).

Graziano, Rybacki and Ruscitti were not the only Streets Division employees complained of, however. In fact, each of them reported to Spataro...