Hannoon v. Fawn Engineering Corp., 02-2078.

• Decision Date: 14 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-2078.,02-2078.
• Citation: 324 F.3d 1041
• Parties: Said HANNOON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FAWN ENGINEERING CORP. and Tony John Wayne, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

324 F.3d 1041

Said HANNOON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. FAWN ENGINEERING CORP. and Tony John Wayne, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 02-2078.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: December 9, 2002.

Filed: April 14, 2003.

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Tammy Westhoff, argued, Des Moines, IA (Alfredo Parrish, on the brief), for appellant.

Frank Harty, argued, Des Moines, IA (Mary E. Fund, Des Moines, IA, on the brief), for appellee.

Before WOLLMAN, HEANEY, and MELLOY, Circuit Judges.

MELLOY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff-Appellant Said Hannoon appeals the district court's¹ adverse grant of summary judgment on his claims of harassment and discrimination based on race and national origin. He also appeals the district court's adverse grant of summary judgment on his state claim of fraudulent representation. We affirm.

I.

Defendant-Appellee Fawn Engineering Corp. (Fawn) hired Hannoon in September, 1999, to serve as the Information Systems (IS) Manager for Fawn's ailing IS Department. Before Hannoon was hired, Fawn had fired its prior IS Manager and the situation in the IS Department was described as "out of control" regarding both expenditures and a lack of communication with management. Hannoon was hired as an at-will employee. The letter containing his offer of employment stated, "Upon your employment, you will be subject to the terms and conditions as outlined in our employee handbook. This handbook is available for your review. Employees of the company are not hired for any set period of time and can be terminated with or without cause at any time or without notice."

In January 2000, Fawn hired Defendant-Appellee Tony John Wayne to serve as its Vice-President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer. Wayne held supervisory power over the IS Department and, ultimately, over Hannoon. Before meeting Hannoon, Wayne compiled notes based on a review of Hannoon's personnel file. In his notes, Wayne identified various concerns as well as questions to ask Hannoon. These notes included the comments: "hygiene," "first week on job requested Fri. off," "See no formal IT education on his resume," and "3 jobs in 2 years."² Other comments in Wayne's notes related to questions such as "How does he communicate expectations, overall, to his people," and "IT staff meetings? Who? When?"

On February 10, 2000, Wayne met with Hannoon for the first time. Wayne gave Hannoon a series of specific assignments with specific deadlines. Most of these assignments related to the creation of a documented plan of action for the IS department including the creation of job descriptions for IS employees and the development of a policy to restrict the department's reliance and expenditures on outside programmers and IS consultants. During this meeting, Wayne told Hannoon "the rock is bigger than you." Hannoon understood this comment to mean that Wayne thought Hannoon was not fit for the job of IS Manager and that the job of solving problems at the IS department was too big for Hannoon. Wayne memorialized the assignments in a memo dated February 11.

Wayne again met with Hannoon on February 23. During the February 23 meeting, Wayne confronted Hannoon regarding the issue of Hannoon's body odor. Wayne stated that he had noticed the problem, that other employees had complained, and that good interpersonal communication was important to the position of IS Manager. Hannoon responded that a prior employer had reproached him about odor. Hannoon now claims that the prior reproachment related to breath odor rather than body odor. At the time, Hannoon did not voice objection to Wayne's comments. After the meeting, however, Hannoon did object to the comments. He communicated his objections and embarrassment via email to Wayne and other employees.

Later in February, Wayne again met with Hannoon. Wayne memorialized the discussion from this meeting in a memo dated February 28. Under the heading "Written Communication Skills" he noted, "your written communications are difficult to follow and include grammatical errors, tense errors, and are often incomplete. This is an essential element of your job as you have the need to communicate in writing via email, memos and project reports, policy and procedure documents, performance evaluations, etc." Under the heading "Policy and Procedure Documents" he noted that Hannoon may lack necessary experience because the draft documents submitted by Hannoon "read like a detailed standard operating procedure (S.O.P.) as opposed to a clear, specific documentation of authority, accountability, and approved spending guidelines for these decisions." Under the heading "Listening Skills" Wayne noted that Hannoon failed to submit various draft documents that were requested in the February 10 meeting and that Hannoon failed to account for specifically identified information in documents that were submitted. Wayne noted that he was concerned with the breadth and depth of Hannoon's skills, questioned Hannoon's ability to lead a conversion effort, and stated, "[s]pecifically, we are looking to you to help facilitate overall planning and direction, not our outside consultants." (emphasis in original). Finally, under the heading "Leadership Skills" Wayne criticized Hannoon for being too passive in meetings and advised Hannoon that he needed to work to "build relationships with IT staff members and... managers."

In memos to Hannoon dated March 24 and 27, Wayne noted that he had not yet received updated documents from Hannoon and reproached Hannoon for not meeting the deadlines set during their first meeting. Hannoon admits that he did not complete the specifically assigned tasks on time. However, in his own defense he states that the assignments were very large and Wayne provided only a very short time for their completion. Further, Hannoon argues that Wayne was partially responsible for the tardiness of Hannoon's work because Wayne received certain revised draft documents but failed to respond between February 24 and March 13.

Hannoon was terminated on April 4, 2000. He brought suit in state court claiming that the defendants discriminated against him, subjected him to harassment in a hostile work environment, and made fraudulent misrepresentations that induced him to accept the job of IS manager. In support of the harassment and discrimination claims, Hannoon points generally to the manner in which he was treated by Wayne and specifically to the comments about body odor as well as the fact that Wayne developed adverse opinions about him before their first meeting. Hannoon argues that Wayne's confrontation regarding body odor and failure to refer Hannoon to Fawn's employee medical assistance program regarding the issue of body odor represent deviations from standard company policy and support an inference of discrimination. Finally, Hannoon alleges that two other facts are relevant to his claims. First, he notes that Wayne forwarded an email from Hannoon to one of Hannoon's subordinates with a request that the subordinate "translate" the email. The email contained various technical terms of art. Second, Hannoon complains that Wayne undermined Hannoon's authority by sending one of Hannoon's subordinates to Canada for training without first consulting Hannoon.

Regarding the issue of fraudulent misrepresentation, Hannoon alleges that he had other employment opportunities available when he accepted the position with Fawn and that he would not have accepted the position with Fawn had he known that it would not be a secure position. Hannoon identifies certain language from a memo between managers at Fawn as evidence that Fawn misrepresented its intentions regarding the IS Manager position. The memo between managers contained a discussion of the severance package to be offered Hannoon. One manager noted, "I know [Hannoon] has not been the best fit, but you and I knew going into it that we were putting a band-aid on the problem." Hannoon alleges fraudulent representation because he was not informed at the time of hiring that his position in the IS Department was viewed as a band-aid or temporary fix.

Hannoon brought suit in state court alleging claims of harassment as well as national origin and race discrimination under Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Iowa Civil Rights Act (ICRA). In addition, he alleged a claim of fraudulent misrepresentation under Iowa law. Defendants removed to the district court which granted summary judgment on all claims.

II.

We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, reading the record in a light most favorable to the non-moving party and granting all reasonable inferences in his favor. Yarborough v. DeVilbiss Air Power, Inc., 321 F.3d 728, 730 (8th Cir.2003). Because Hannoon presented no separate arguments under the ICRA, we address his state civil rights claims together with his Title VII claims. See Iowa State Fairgrounds Sec. v. Iowa Civil Rights Comm'n, 322 N.W.2d 293, 296 (Iowa 1982) ("The parties assume we will find federal cases persuasive in selecting the analytical framework for deciding discrimination cases under the Iowa civil rights statute. This assumption is warranted by our prior decisions.") (citations omitted); Vivian v. Madison, 601 N.W.2d 872, 873 (Iowa 1999) ("The ICRA was modeled after Title VII of the United States Civil Rights Act. Iowa courts therefore turn to federal law for guidance in evaluating the ICRA.") (citation omitted).

Because Hannoon presented no direct evidence of discrimination, we analyze his discrimination claims under the burden shifting analysis of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). Under the first step of this analysis, a plaintiff must establish a prima facie case by demonstrating (1) that he is a member of a racial minority, (2) that he was qualified for the relevant position, (3) that there was an adverse employment action, and (4) that some evidence of...