Harris v. D.C. Water & Sewer Auth.

• Citation: 922 F.Supp.2d 30
• Decision Date: 13 February 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 12–1453 (JEB).
• Parties: Anthony HARRIS, Plaintiff, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WATER AND SEWER AUTHORITY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Columbia

922 F.Supp.2d 30

Anthony HARRIS, Plaintiff,

v.DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA WATER AND SEWER AUTHORITY, Defendant.

Civil Action No. 12–1453 (JEB).

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

Feb. 13, 2013.

John W. Davis, John W. Davis & Associates, Washington, DC, for Plaintiff.

Grace E. Speights, Jocelyn R. Cuttino, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

JAMES E. BOASBERG, District Judge.

Plaintiff Anthony Harris was employed as a Systems Operations Manager by Defendant District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. His lawsuit alleges that WASA unlawfully terminated him in violation of the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Act, federal Civil Rights Acts, and the D.C. Family and Medical Leave Act. The sole federal count is based on WASA's alleged retaliation against him for complaining to the Mayor about its purported racially discriminatory employment practices. In now moving to dismiss, Defendant correctly argues that Plaintiff has not sufficiently pled causation under Title VII or Section 1981. The Court will thus grant Defendant's Motion as to this claim and permit Plaintiff to pursue his state claims in the appropriate local court.

I. Background

According to Plaintiff's Complaint, which the Court must presume true for purposes of the Motion, Harris worked as a Systems Operations Manager in the Department of Maintenance Services at WASA from September 1995 until his termination on October 13, 2011. See Compl., ¶¶ 6, 26. While employed at WASA, Plaintiff, who is black, believed that Defendant had terminated a significant number of black employees and hired white employees to replace them. Id., ¶¶ 3, 11. Plaintiff says several WASA managers also expressed concerns to him about questionable employment practices by the company. Id., ¶ 16. In January 2011, Plaintiff wrote a letter to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray complaining about fraud, waste, abuse, and racial discrimination at WASA. Id., ¶ 17. In February 2011, Plaintiff sent a similar letter to the D.C. City Council committee with oversight of WASA. Id., ¶ 18. Although in May 2011 WASA officials told Plaintiff they wanted to meet with him regarding the letter he had sent to Mayor Gray, they subsequently canceled the meeting. Id., ¶ 19.

Additionally, in 2010, Plaintiff was diagnosed with chronic kidney failure and had to go on dialysis. Id., ¶ 20. On or about October 6, 2011, Plaintiff took leave from WASA to have surgery. Id., ¶ 23. On October 11, Plaintiff called WASA management to inform them that his physician had told him he could not return to work until at least October 26. Id., ¶¶ 24–25. Two days later, on October 13, WASA notified him that his position had been abolished. Id., ¶ 26. Plaintiff alleges that the functions of his position are still being performed, even though WASA indicated that it no longer exists. Id., ¶ 28.

In his Complaint, Plaintiff asserts three counts. First, he alleges that WASA unlawfully terminated his employment in retaliation for his letters, in violation of the D.C. Whistleblower Protection Act, D.C.Code § 1–615.51 et seq., and the common law of wrongful discharge. Id., ¶¶ 33–35. Second, Plaintiff alleges that he was terminated in retaliation for his statements that WASA had engaged in racial discrimination in its employment practices, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–3(a), and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Id., ¶¶ 37–38. Finally, Plaintiff claims that WASA violated the D.C. Family and Medical Leave Act, D.C.Code § 32–501, et seq., by firing him when he had to be out of work for a medical procedure. Id., ¶¶ 40–41.

Plaintiff also alleges that he received a right-to-sue letter from the EEOC and satisfied all administrative prerequisites to filing his suit. Id., ¶ 29. He brought this action against WASA on September 3, 2012, and Defendant has now filed the instant Motion to Dismiss.

II. Legal Standard

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) provides for the dismissal of an action where a complaint fails “to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” In evaluating Defendant's Motion to Dismiss, the Court must “treat the complaint's factual allegations as true ... and must grant plaintiff ‘the benefit of all inferences that can be derived from the facts alleged.’ ” Sparrow v. United Air Lines, Inc., 216 F.3d 1111, 1113 (D.C.Cir.2000) (quoting Schuler v. United States, 617 F.2d 605, 608 (D.C.Cir.1979)) (internal citation omitted); see also Jerome Stevens Pharms., Inc. v. FDA, 402 F.3d 1249, 1253 (D.C.Cir.2005). The notice-pleading rules are “not meant to impose a great burden upon a plaintiff,” Dura Pharm., Inc. v. Broudo, 544 U.S. 336, 347, 125 S.Ct. 1627, 161 L.Ed.2d 577 (2005), and he must thus be given every favorable inference that may be drawn from the allegations of fact. Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 584, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).

Although “detailed factual allegations” are not necessary to withstand a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, id. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, “a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’ ” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (quoting Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955). Plaintiff must put forth “factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged.” Id. The Court need not accept as true “a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation,” nor an inference unsupported by the facts set forth in the Complaint. Trudeau v. Fed. Trade Comm'n, 456 F.3d 178, 193 (D.C.Cir.2006) (quoting Papasan v. Allain, 478 U.S. 265, 286, 106 S.Ct. 2932, 92 L.Ed.2d 209 (1986) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Though a plaintiff may survive a 12(b)(6) motion even if “recovery is very remote and unlikely,” Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (citing Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974)), the facts alleged in the complaint “must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level.” Id. at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955.

III. Analysis

Although Plaintiff asserts three causes of action here, the Court need only deal with the federal retaliation claims in Count II. Having dismissed those, it will decline to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over the D.C. claims.

A. Retaliation

Count II of the Complaint alleges that Defendant violated Title VII and Section 1981 when it terminated him in retaliation for a letter he sent to Mayor Gray about WASA's engaging in racially discriminatory employment practices. In moving to dismiss, WASA principally argues both that Plaintiff's belief that he was opposing an unlawful employment practice when he sent the letter to the Mayor was not objectively reasonable and that Plaintiff fails to establish a causal relationship between the alleged protected activity and his termination. Mot. at 9–10; Reply at 8–12. Agreeing with WASA on the latter point, the Court will focus its analysis there.

Title VII makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate against an employee because the employee “opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this subchapter, or because he has made a charge ... or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this subchapter.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–3(a). Under Section 1981, an employer may not discriminate on the basis of race in “the making, performance, modification, and termination of contracts, and the enjoyment of all benefits, privileges, terms, and conditions of the contractual relationship.” 42 U.S.C. § 1981(b). In CBOCS West, Inc. v. Humphries, 553 U.S. 442, 128 S.Ct. 1951, 170 L.Ed.2d 864 (2008), the Supreme Court held that Section 1981 also covers “retaliation against a person who has complained about a violation of another person's contract-related ‘right.’ ” Id. at 445, 128 S.Ct. 1951;see also Welzel v. Bernstein, 436 F.Supp.2d 110, 118 (D.D.C.2006) (“[C]ourts agree that an act of retaliation for engaging in activity protected by Title VII ‘does not give rise to a claim for retaliation that is cognizable under § 1981 unless that activity was also protected by § 1981.’ ”) (quoting Hawkins v. 1115 Legal Serv. Care, 163 F.3d 684, 693 (2d Cir.1998)).

To bring a claim for retaliation under Title VII or Section 1981, Plaintiff must allege that he engaged in a statutorily protected activity, that his employer took an adverse personnel action against him, and that a causal connection exists between the two. Carney v. Am. Univ., 151 F.3d 1090, 1095 (D.C.Cir.1998). At the motion-to-dismiss stage, a court cannot dismiss a complaint simply for failing to plead the elements of a prima facie case. Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N.A., 534 U.S. 506, 510–11, 122 S.Ct. 992, 152 L.Ed.2d 1 (2002); see also Twombly, 550 U.S. at 586, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (“[I]t should go without saying in the wake of Swierkiewicz that a heightened production burden at the summary judgment stage does not translate into a heightened pleading burden at the complaint stage.”). In this case, however, Plaintiff has pled all the elements and has also alleged facts to support his claim. The Court, therefore, is entitled to consider those facts in determining whether Plaintiff could plausibly prevail here. See Twombly, 550 U.S. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (plaintiff required to plead “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face”).

There is little doubt that Plaintiff has sufficiently alleged that he both engaged in statutorily protected activity and that he suffered an adverse personnel action. Statutorily protected activities include “opposing alleged discriminatory treatment by the employer or participating in legal efforts against the alleged treatment.” Coleman v. Potomac Elec. Power Co., 422 F.Supp.2d 209, 212 (D.D.C.2006) (citation omitted). “[T]he plaintiff must be...