Hendricks v. Baptist Health Services
| Decision Date | 21 August 2003 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 02-F-700-N. |
| Parties | Tracy HENDRICKS, Plaintiff, v. BAPTIST HEALTH SERVICES, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Alabama |
Jon C. Goldfarb, Maury Steven Weiner, Kell A. Simon, Gordon, Silberman, Wiggins & Childs, Birmingham, AL, for plaintiff.
Frederick L. Warren, Leanne C. Mehrman, Ford & Harrison, Atlanta, GA, C. Mark Bain, Melton Espy Williams & Hayes, PC, Montgomery, AL, for defendant.
Plaintiff, Tracy Hendricks, filed a Complaint (Doc. #1) on June 18, 2002, alleging claims pursuant to 42 U.S.C.1981 (hereinafter "Section 1981") against her former employer, Baptist Health Services (hereinafter "Baptist"). On July 25, 2002, Defendant Baptist filed its Answer (Doc. #4).
This action is presently before the court on the motion for summary judgment filed by the defendant on April 21, 2003 (Doc. # 16). After careful consideration of the arguments of counsel, the relevant law, and the record as a whole, the court concludes that the motion for summary judgment is due to be GRANTED.
The court has carefully considered all deposition excerpts and documents submitted in support of and in opposition to Baptist's motion for summary judgment. The submissions of the parties, viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, establish the following facts:
A. Plaintiff's Employment History with Baptist
Plaintiff, an African-American female, had a short-lived employment relationship with Baptist. She was hired in March of 2000 and two years later, in May of 2002, she was terminated. Nonetheless, what occurred during this short stint of employment is the basis of Plaintiff's complaints.
Plaintiff was hired as a customer service representative (hereinafter "CSR") in the Central Business Office (hereinafter "CBO"). Her initial job responsibilities included answering the telephones as part of a phone answering queue. Specifically, Plaintiff, as a CSR, fielded telephone calls from patients concerning their bills, bill payments, or any other complaints of the patients; responded to internal and external e-mails; and assisted walk-in patients.
At the time she was hired, Plaintiff was supervised by Teri Meintel (hereinafter "Meintel"), CSR Manager. Meintel supervised customer service, postings and refunds. Moreover, at that time, the management staff of the CBO consisted of Meintel, Stefanie Prestage (hereinafter "Prestage"), Billing Manager; Reena Rodgers (hereinafter "Rodgers"), Billing Director; Kim Stephens (hereinafter "Stephens"), CSR/Collections Director; and Rick Roney (hereinafter "Roney"), Vice President of Business Operations.
Baptist has promulgated written policies, which includes a progressive discipline system. This discipline system is set forth in Baptist's Corrective Action policy which provides, in relevant part:
Employment with [Baptist] is terminable at will, meaning that employment is for an indefinite period, and either [Baptist] or the employee may terminate the relationship at any time, for any reason. However, we believe in treating employees fairly and we try to be consistent in dealing with disciplinary and performance issues. We also believe in using progressive discipline in most circumstances.
By "progressive discipline," we mean imposing disciplinary action in steps, such as verbal warning, written warning, suspension, and termination ... Department managers are responsible for and have the authority to determine the severity of a particular problem and act appropriately under all circumstances. However, these guidelines are used to determine when progressive discipline is appropriate and the level of discipline that will usually be warranted for various policy infractions or performance deficiencies.
(Hendricks Dep., Ex. 8, p. 39). An infraction of Baptist's policies ordinarily is met first with a verbal warning. Subsequent infractions generally result in a written warning. However, no set number of verbal warnings mandates a written warning. At the supervisor's discretion, successive written warnings can result in "suspension" or "termination."2
In August of 2000, Plaintiff received a verbal warning from Meintel for being tardy twelve times in less than three months. The Employee Counseling Form3 (hereinafter "ECF") dated for August 21, 2000 indicates that since June 1, 2000, Plaintiff had been tardy twelve times and that Plaintiff was tardy four times during the week of August 14-18, 2000. Plaintiff indicated on the ECF that she "understand[s] the importance of being on time—[and] will improve this area of [her] performance"4 (Hendricks Dep., Ex. 19).
In early 2001, Baptist closed its in-house collection agency. As a result of this closing, the CBO began performing certain tasks which had previously been performed by the in-house collection agency. These tasks included handling bankruptcy notices and coordinating with outside collection agencies.5
In the spring of 2001, Plaintiff, along with another CSR, began to assume some responsibilities for processing bankruptcy notices and interacting with collection agencies. Over time, Plaintiff became the primary CSR to handle bankruptcy notices, collection agencies and walk-in patients.
In April of 2001, Meintel contacted Plaintiff by e-mail regarding her failure to remain current on her e-mails. Meintel's e-mail, dated April 23, 2001, stated,
In May of 2001, Meintel resigned from her position as CSR Manager.6 According to Plaintiff, after she learned of Meintel's resignation, she spoke to Roney and expressed her interest in the CSR Manager position. Roney informed Plaintiff that the position would not be filled because existing employees would simply perform additional job duties. Shortly thereafter, Debbie Young (hereinafter "Young"), a Caucasian female, was hired as the CSR Manager and became Plaintiff's direct supervisor.
On June 21, 2001, approximately two months after receiving the April 2001 chastising e-mail from Meintel, Plaintiff received an ECF from Meintel for failing to respond to an e-mail request from a collection agency. According to Meintel, Plaintiff failed to respond to the e-mail for three weeks. The ECF indicates that Plaintiff's action was a "Type B" offense as it constituted "unacceptable work standards" (Hendricks Dep., Ex. 20). On the ECF, Plaintiff conceded that she had not responded to this e-mail request, but indicated that she had responded to all other requests.7
Subsequently, on July 26, 2001, Plaintiff filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (hereinafter "EEOC") alleging that she was wrongfully denied the promotion to the CSR Manager position because of her race. On September 17, 2001, Baptist sent its position statement to the EEOC. On September 20, 2001, the EEOC issued Plaintiff a right-to-sue notice.
(Hendricks Dep., at 89-90, Ex. 22).
According to Plaintiff, during the first week of February 2002, Roney called her into his office and asked her if she could assist him in determining which African-American employees were not team players because he understood from reports he had received that several of the African-American employees in the office were disgruntled and unhappy with the decisions of the Caucasian managers.8 Plaintiff refused to name any such employees and informed Roney that she would not participate in the "scheme." Plaintiff also told Roney that she believed that African-American employees were treated differently than the Caucasian employees, and pointed to herself as an example. Roney informed Plaintiff that if she identified the African-American troublemakers, she would not have to worry about losing her job. At the conclusion of the meeting, Roney instructed Plaintiff to speak to Rodgers because she also had concerns about the racial issues in the office. Roney informed Plaintiff that the opportunity to speak with him about identifying the "trouble makers" would remain open.
A few days later, Plaintiff followed Roney's instructions and met with Rodgers. According to Plaintiff, Rodgers also asked Plaintiff to identify the African-American employees who were "trouble-makers."9 Rodgers told Plaintiff that she believed that the moral problem in the office was caused by the African-American employees and that the Caucasian employees should not continue to be subjected to complaints or be made to feel guilty about the acts of their forefathers. Rodgers also told Plaintiff that it was "proactive people such as [Plaintiff] that they would depend on to give them information" (Hendricks Dep., at p. 149). Plaintiff informed Rodgers that she was a team player, but she again refused to identify the "troublemakers."
On March 7, 2002, Plaintiff was issued a verbal warning by Young for excessive personal calls and wasting work time (Hendricks Dep., Ex. 23). The ECF dated for March 7, 2002, indicates that on said date Plaintiff made excessive use of the telephone for personal calls from 8:30 a.m. until 9:55 a.m.10 On the ECF, Plaintiff apologized for her behavior and indicated that she was "going through some very...
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