Greer v. Cummins Inc.
| Docket Number | 2:19-cv-02525-MSN-tmp |
| Decision Date | 01 July 2022 |
| Parties | JUSTIN GREER, Plaintiff, v. CUMMINS, INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Tennessee |
ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Before the Court is Defendant Cummins, Inc.'s (“Cummins”) Motion for Summary Judgment, filed May 21, 2021. (ECF No. 47) (“Motion.”) Defendant accompanied its Motion with a Statement of Undisputed Material Facts, (ECF No. 48); Declaration of Laquesha Thompson, Defendant's Human Resources Director, (ECF No 48-1); Declaration of Jeffrey Beck, Defense Counsel, with Plaintiff's deposition transcript, (ECF No. 48-2), and a Memorandum of Law, (ECF No. 49). After the Court granted two extensions of time, (See ECF Nos. 51, 53), Plaintiff Justin Greer, through counsel, (see ECF Nos. 24 25), filed his Responses to the Motion and Statement of Undisputed Material Facts on July 9, 2021. (ECF Nos. 56, 57.) Defendant filed its Reply on August 6, 2021. (ECF No. 125 at PageID 767.) For reasons below, the Motion is GRANTED.
Plaintiff an African American male, sued Defendant, his employer at the time, for race discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000 (“Title VII”) and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 28 U.S.C. § 1981 (“Section 1981”).[1] (ECF No. 31 at PageID 198.) Defendant employed Plaintiff as a Customer Quality Assurance Specialist at its Memphis Diesel Recon Manufacturing Plant (“RMP”) in 2013. (Id. at PageID 199.) “Plaintiff's education, background, and experience with Cummins were all in assembly, customer relations, and operations management,” (ECF No. 57 at PageID 705), and Plaintiff reported directly to the supervisor of the Quality Control Department. (Id. at PageID 706.) The Quality Control Department employs a team of technical engineers and non-technical staff, such as Quality Assurance Specialists. (Id.)
As a Customer Quality Assurance Specialist, Plaintiff does not dispute that his “primary responsibility was to interface with all of the customers . . . and ensure that [Cummins] received a high satisfaction customer service score based off any complaints....” (Id. at PageID 707.) Nonetheless, some Cummins personnel “referred to him as a Customer Quality Engineer in emails, local and corporate presentations, and conversations.”[2] (ECF No. 31 at PageID 199) (emphasis added). “During his employment, Mr. Greer made several complaints to management and human resources alleging” race discrimination cost him promotional and professional opportunities as well as his deserved title and salary classifications at Cummins. (Id. at PageID 200; ECF No. 56 at PageID 695; ECF No. 57 at PageID 707.)
To address Plaintiff's concerns, Defendant's Human Resources Division, applying company policy, directed Plaintiff's supervisor, Sidney Joseph, also African American, to “work[] with Plaintiff to complete” a Job Content Questionnaire (“JCQ”) that sketched Plaintiff's “roles and responsibilities, including a breakdown of how much time he spent on each duty.”
(ECF No. 57 at PageID 708.) After Defendant's Human Resources Leader, Brian Small (“Small”), reviewed the JCQ in accordance with an Internal Position Evaluator (“IPE”), Defendant made four offers to address Plaintiff's concerns.[3] First, Defendant offered Plaintiff a position as a Quality Functional Excellence Specialist that Plaintiff voluntarily rejected in February 2017. (Id. at Page ID 709.) Unrelated to this offer and rejection, Defendant “determined that Plaintiff's role had evolved over time and could be reclassified ....” (Id.) Second, in May 2017, and because of a job reclassification, Defendant “offered Plaintiff a seven percent pay increase” that Plaintiff rejected because he believed he would actually earn less “due to the loss of overtime pay he collected as an hourly employee ....” (Id. at PageID 710.) Third, and “to find a way” to address this concern, Small offered to “keep Plaintiff hourly . . . which would address Plaintiff's concerns about his eligibility for overtime,” but “explained that Cummins would need to reduce his responsibilities” if he accepted it. (Id. at 711.) Plaintiff once again rejected Small's solution. (Id.) Fourth, “at Plaintiff's request, Small recalculated Plaintiff's new salary considering his actual earnings, including overtime” and presented another offer, which Plaintiff accepted, and Defendant reclassified Plaintiff under a Customer Quality Assurance Specialist local title and Customer Quality Engineer GPP. (Id.) Plaintiff then trained the new Interim Quality Leader, the very position to which he was allegedly denied promotion. (Id. at PageID 713.)
Once this litigation began, Plaintiff avers that he “had no personal knowledge or evidence to suggest any of his supervisors had any racial animus towards him.”[4] (Id. at PageID 714.) At the end of 2019, Defendant decided to undertake a reduction in force at the RMP facility where Plaintiff worked. (Id. at PageID 714.) Consequently, RMP Manager Alvin Richardson (“Richardson”), an African American employee, “evaluated . . . each employee's performance rating, criticality of skill set or experience to business, skill or technical knowledge level, teamwork, right environment scores and the needs of the employee's department” to determine whether the circumstances warranted a termination in accordance with the reduction in force. (Id. at PageID 715.) Richardson, applying these criteria, decided to terminate Plaintiff, along with five others in his chain of command, on January 8, 2020, based on Plaintiff's “communication issues, attendance issues, and performance issues,” but such issues were not documented in Plaintiff's personnel file. (Id. at PagelD 716, 718-19.) The racial demographics for terminated employees include two Caucasians, three African Americans, and one Hispanic indivdiual. (Id. at PageID 715-16.) In April 2020, Plaintiff obtained new employment with General Electric in a “comparable” role to the one he previously occupied at Cummins' RMP facility. (Id.) On August 8, 2020, Plaintiff filed his pro se Complaint, later amended, wherein he seeks compensatory and punitive damages. (ECF No. 31 at PageID 203.)
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56 permits a party to move for summary judgment - and the Court to grant summary judgment - “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.”
Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). A party asserting the presence or absence of a genuine dispute of material fact must support its position either by “citing to particular parts of materials in the record,” including depositions documents, affidavits or declarations, stipulations, or other materials, or by “showing that the materials cited do not establish the absence or presence of a genuine dispute, or that an adverse party cannot produce admissible evidence to support the fact.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(1). To decide a motion for summary judgment, courts must view the facts contained in the record and all inferences that can be drawn from those facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co., 475 U.S. at 587; Nat'l Satellite Sports, Inc. v. Eliadis, Inc., 253 F.3d 900, 907 (6th Cir. 2001). However, to survive summary judgment, a plaintiff “must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.” Id. at 586. Courts may not weigh the evidence, judge the credibility of witnesses, or determine the truth of any matter in dispute. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249 (1986).
The moving party bears the initial burden to show that no genuine dispute of material fact exists. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986). The moving party may discharge this burden either by producing evidence that demonstrates the absence of a genuine issue of material fact or simply “by ‘showing'-that is, pointing out to the district court - that there is an absence of evidence to support the nonmoving party's case.” Id. at 325. Where the movant has satisfied this burden, the nonmoving party cannot “rest upon its . . . pleadings, but rather must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.” Moldowan v. City of Warren, 578 F.3d 351, 374 (6th Cir. 2009) (citing Matsushita, 475 U.S. at 586); Fed.R.Civ.P. 56. The nonmoving party must present sufficient probative evidence to support its claim that disputed material facts remain that must be evaluated by a judge or jury at trial. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 24849 (citing First Nat'l Bank of Ariz. v. Cities Serv. Co., 391 U.S. 253 (1968)); see also White v. Wyndham Vacation Ownership, Inc., 617 F.3d 472, 475-76 (6th Cir. 2010). A mere scintilla of evidence does not suffice; there must be evidence from which a jury could reasonably find in favor of the nonmoving party. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 252; Moldowan, 578 F.3d at 374.
A court's limited role is to determine whether there is a genuine dispute about a material fact; that is, if the evidence in the case “is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248. This determination requires that the Court “view the evidence presented through the prism of the substantive evidentiary burden.” Id. at 254. “The court need consider only the cited materials, but it may consider other materials in the record.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c)(3). Thus if the plaintiff must ultimately prove its case at trial by a preponderance of the evidence, on a motion for summary judgment the Court must determine, based on the record, whether a jury could reasonably find the plaintiff...
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