Harris v. Ecp Healthcare, P.C.
| Decision Date | 07 February 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. IP 95-1606 C B/S.,IP 95-1606 C B/S. |
| Citation | 954 F.Supp. 1295 |
| Parties | Mary HARRIS, Plaintiff, v. ECP HEALTHCARE, P.C., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Indiana |
Joseph E. Allman, Macey Macey & Swanson, Indianapolis, Indiana, for Plaintiff.
Kim F. Ebert, Locke Reynolds Boyd & Weisell, Indianapolis, Indiana, for Defendant.
ENTRY
This case, alleging race discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and 42 U.S.C. § 1981, is before the court on defendant's motion for summary judgment. For the reasons discussed below, ECP's motion for summary judgment is granted.
At all relevant times, defendant ECP Healthcare, P.C. ("ECP") operated a medical-claim processing office in Bloomington, Indiana.1 Plaintiff Mary Harris ("Harris") is a white woman who has three biracial children from her marriage to an African-American man. Harris began her employment with ECP on November 25, 1992, through a temporary employment agency and commenced full-time employment as a data entry clerk on or about January 4, 1993. Harris was promoted to the position of patient representative in late-summer 1993, and remained in that position until her employment was terminated on July 28, 1994. From the beginning of Harris' employment until October 1993, the office manager in charge of supervising employees and handling employee relations matters was Alison Burns. In October 1993, ECP hired Vicki McPike to fill the role of office manager, giving her the title "Manager of Operations." McPike's supervisor was Roxanne Gann, Vice President of Billing.
Harris was regarded by her co-workers at ECP as a good employee. In June 1994, she was recognized as "Employee of the Month," an honor based upon co-worker recommendations. ECP does not dispute that Harris performed her work well. Performance evaluations conducted by Harris' supervisors in July 1993, and January and July, 1994, were positive with regard to the quality of Harris' work. However, these same evaluations, along with Harris' disciplinary record, reflect that ECP was not as happy with Harris' behavior and attitude as they were with her work.
In Harris' January 1993 evaluation, Alison Burns commented that Harris needed "to not talk so much," that she "sometimes tends to get upset over things before knowing all the facts," and that she "needs to avoid gossip [and] have a better attitude towards team work." (McPike Aff., Exh. 3). Harris' January 1994 evaluation noted that Harris was "sometimes easily irritated" and needed to "have more patience, work on being more positive." (Id.) Her July 1994 evaluation noted that Harris needed to "keep on working on being more positive and just watch the negative comments about your job." (Id.)
Harris received formal discipline on two occasions prior to the July 27, 1994 incident which led to her termination. In January 1994, Harris received a verbal warning (documented in writing) from her immediate supervisor Terry Byers for making and receiving excessive personal phone calls during work hours. (McPike Aff., Exh. 4). On February 11, 1994, Harris was given a written warning for unprofessional and insubordinate behavior. The February 11 incident occurred when Vicki McPike was delivering paychecks to ECP employees. Harris had been notified that she would receive a raise, and was upset when she saw that her raise was not reflected on the February 11 paycheck. In the presence of other employees, Harris said to McPike "don't make me have to call my attorney." (McPike Aff., Exh. 5). Harris contends that this was said in a "joking manner," while McPike claims that Harris was loud and rude, and that Harris also loudly stated, in front of other employees "You guys are ripping me off!" (McPike Aff. at ¶ 19). McPike also claims that she told Harris that she would discuss the matter with her after she was finished delivering paychecks, but that Harris refused to wait, saying "you will do it now," and that Harris later confronted her and "pointed her finger in McPike's face and shouted at McPike regarding the paycheck." (McPike Aff. at ¶ 19). McPike reported this incident to her supervisor Roxanne Gann. Gann and McPike considered terminating Harris for this behavior, but instead issued a written reprimand and warned Harris that another instance of disruptive or insubordinate behavior would result in her termination. (McPike Aff., Exh. 5; Gann Aff. at ¶ 11).
ECP Policy regarding visitors in work areas
ECP claims that during the time Harris was employed at ECP, there was an informal unwritten policy against having visitors in the employee work area, and that this policy was formalized in writing and distributed to ECP employees in February or March 1994. The evidence is conflicting with regard to the existence, interpretations, and enforcement of any such policy. Harris claims, and we must accept her version of the facts for the purposes of summary judgment, that there was no policy at ECP, written or unwritten, providing that employees could not have visitors visit them in the employee work area. It is undisputed, however, that ECP promulgated a written policy in February 1994, titled "Policy for Visitors And/Or Off The Clock Staff', which provided that employee visitors could not "go past the front door unattended [by an employee]", and that any visits must be limited to five minutes. The policy provided further that employees who came to the office on their day off to pick up a paycheck were required to go through the main entrance, directly to McPike's office, and then directly out. (McPike Aff., Exh. 2).
Harris brings two separate claims against ECP: a disparate treatment race discrimination claim and a retaliatory discharge claim. The disparate treatment claim is based upon allegations that on two occasions ECP prohibited Harris' children from coming into the employee work area to visit her, whereas other employees' children and other relatives, all of whom are white, were frequently allowed to come into the employee work area. The first instance of alleged disparate treatment occurred in August 1993, when Harris' daughter Lessika came to the office to wait approximately fifteen minutes until Harris got off work. Harris escorted her daughter to the employee break room to wait. Alison Burns, who was the office manager at the time, saw Lessika in the break room and asked Harris to take her up to the front reception area to wait. Harris compiled, and was not disciplined for bringing her daughter into the employee work area and break room. (Burns Aff. at ¶ 4).
The second instance of alleged disparate treatment took place on July 27, 1994, when Harris' son Billy came into the office reception area and asked for his mother. Harris was on the telephone with an immediate care center at the time, and asked co-worker Middy Manship to escort her son to Harris' work area. McPike saw Manship escorting Billy into the work area and told her to take him back to the reception area. Harris received no discipline for attempting to have her son brought back to the work area. Harris was, however, suspended and then terminated for her behavior immediately following her son's visit.
Harris claims that she was suspended and then terminated in retaliation for complaining about the race discrimination she perceived when her son was not allowed in the work area. ECP claims that Harris' son had nothing to do with her termination, and that she was terminated for rude, insubordinate behavior. The undisputed facts regarding the events culminating in Harris' termination are as follows. Upon learning from Manship that her son was not allowed to come into the work area, Harris complained to McPike (loudly, according to McPike) that ECP allowed other employees' children to come into the work area, but did not let her children do the same. McPike told Harris that the policy was that no children were allowed in the work area, and Harris began to tell McPike of other employees who had their children come into the work area, but their conversation was cut short when the immediate care center came back on the line and Harris had to resume the telephone conversation.
Shortly thereafter, Harris put the immediate care center with whom she was having a telephone conversation, on hold and went to the data entry department to get a chart. Her son was still waiting for her in the reception area and Harris was admittedly very upset as she went to the data entry work area. The data entry work area was, like Harris' work area, a large open area in which employees worked at desks or in cubicles. (Harris Dep. at 53). Lori Evoy, the data entry supervisor, claims that as Harris was walking through the work area, Harris loudly referred to McPike as a "bitch". Harris denies calling McPike this name, but admits that she was very upset, and that she told another employee, Cathy Garofola, that she was "going to go round and round with Vickie McPike because she won't let my fucking son come in here." (Harris Dep. at 54; Harris Aff. at ¶ 13). Evoy, who was standing in another employee's cubicle, right next to where Harris was standing when she made this comment to Garofola, told Harris to be quiet and that if she had a problem with McPike, she needed to discuss it with McPike rather than in the open work area where others were working. Harris then proceeded to discuss a chart with Evoy, went back to her cubicle to finish her business with the immediate care center, and then went out to the reception area to talk to her son.
After this incident, Evoy reported to Roxanne Gann that Harris had come into the data entry area "cursing and talking very loudly and being very disruptive," and that she had called ...
To continue reading
Request your trial