Henry v. Daytop Village, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 December 1994
• Docket Number: No. 393,D,393
• Citation: 42 F.3d 89
• Parties: 66 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 882, 66 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,672, 30 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1502 Celia HENRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DAYTOP VILLAGE, INC., Defendant-Appellee. ocket 94-7188. Second Circuit
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 89

42 F.3d 89

66 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 882,

66 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 43,672, 30 Fed.R.Serv.3d 1502

Celia HENRY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. DAYTOP VILLAGE, INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 393, Docket 94-7188.

United States Court of Appeals,Second Circuit.

Argued Oct. 18, 1994.

Decided Dec. 1, 1994.

Charles Stephen Ralston, Theodore M. Shaw, Elaine R. Jones, NAACP Legal Defense & Educ. Fund, New York City, for plaintiff-appellant.

Parisis G. Filippatos, Douglas Menagh, Menagh, Trainor, Mundo & Falcone, P.C., New York City, for defendant-appellee.

Before: OAKES, ALTIMARI, and CABRANES, Circuit Judges.

JOSE A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge:

We are asked to decide whether a Title VII plaintiff who brings arguably inconsistent claims is thereby precluded from challenging her employer's proffered legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for firing her. Because her claims are not inconsistent, and because the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure explicitly authorize pleading in the alternative, we hold that her second claim may not be construed as an admission against her first claim. Accordingly, we reverse in part and affirm in part.

Plaintiff Celia Henry, a black woman, sued her employer, the defendant Daytop Village, Inc. (a provider of drug treatment services), in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (I. Leo Glasser, Judge ). Henry claimed that Daytop had fired her because she was a black woman, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C Sec. 2000e et seq., and 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1981. Daytop asserted that it fired Henry for allegedly violating the corporation's disciplinary code by misrepresenting her husband's health insurance coverage and filing duplicative insurance claims. Henry responded that these allegations were merely a pretext for firing her and presented evidence that she had never misrepresented her husband's coverage to Daytop. Henry further claimed that Daytop employees who were white or male had received more lenient sanctions in the face of similar accusations.

The district court held that Henry's challenge to the severity of her punishment under Daytop's disciplinary code amounted to a constructive concession of her misconduct--a concession that precluded her from disputing the veracity of Daytop's asserted reason for firing her. The court then ruled that there was no genuine dispute of material fact as to whether Daytop's proffered reason for firing Henry was pretextual, and accordingly granted summary judgment in favor of Daytop.

I. BACKGROUND

On appeal from a grant of summary judgment we must view the facts in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2513, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

Celia Henry was employed by Daytop Village in various accounting positions over a period of seventeen years. At all times her job performance was satisfactory, and in her last performance evaluation she received an overall rating of "excellent."

Daytop provides medical insurance benefits to its employees and their families through a self-insured benefit program ("Daytop Plan") which was instituted in 1984. Daytop employs an Insurance Manager, Shirley Flores, who oversees the day-to-day operation of the Daytop Plan.

The Daytop Plan pays for medical expenses of employees' spouses, to the extent that such expenses are not covered under the spouse's primary health insurance plan. In essence, Daytop acts as a secondary insurance carrier for employees' spouses. In order to coordinate benefits properly, Daytop employees are required to provide Daytop with written proof as to whether their spouses are covered by separate medical insurance, and if they are, an explanation of their coverage. If a spouse is covered by a primary carrier, the spouse must first submit any bill for medical expenses to that primary carrier. If that claim is denied, or is only partially paid, then the employee can submit the spouse's claim to the Daytop Plan. According to Daytop, the procedure for submitting such a claim entails giving the medical bill to the Insurance Manager, in this case Flores, who would then evaluate the claim by comparing the coverage terms of the primary and secondary carriers to ascertain the amount of any reimbursement. Flores would then forward that determination, along with the actual claim, to a plan administrator, who would make the actual payment to the employee.

Daytop alleged that from the time Flores became Daytop's Benefits Coordinator in 1987, until the time she became the Insurance Manager in 1989, she asked Henry on many occasions to provide her with a written description of the medical insurance coverage of Henry's husband, Ernesto Henry. According to Daytop, Celia Henry told Flores that her husband had no health insurance coverage except for hospitalization, but never provided documentation to that effect. Flores stated that she processed Henry's claims on the basis of Henry's oral representations, while continuing to press her to provide the requisite documentation.

Henry, on the other hand, denied that Flores ever requested this information from her. Henry claimed that she had never spoken with Flores about her husband's insurance, and thus had no occasion to tell Flores that her husband had only hospitalization coverage. Henry further stated that she had for years submitted proof of her husband's insurance to Daytop and that Daytop was fully aware of the nature and extent of that coverage. She claimed that she had confirmed her husband's insurance coverage with Daytop's plan administrator by written memoranda, which she allegedly saw in her personnel file on the day she was fired, but which were not in the personnel file that was produced during discovery.

Daytop further alleged that in late 1989, Flores became suspicious of Henry's failure to produce any documentation of her husband's medical coverage. Daytop produced evidence showing that Flores had contacted Ernesto Henry's primary insurance carrier, Blue Shield of Western New York, Inc., and learned that his coverage included medical services as well as hospitalization. Further investigation revealed that Daytop had overpaid Henry a total of $760.53 for her husband's medical expenses, as a result of duplicative claims submitted by Henry. On January 16, 1990, Henry's supervisor, Yasser Hijazi, called Henry into his office and confronted her with Flores' findings. An argument ensued, and Hijazi fired Henry.

Invoking Daytop's employment policies, Henry appealed Hijazi's decision and requested an internal review of her discharge. On April 5, 1990, Daytop assembled a panel of senior employees to conduct a hearing where Henry--then represented by counsel--could make a presentation. Henry admitted receiving overpayments, but denied ever misrepresenting her husband's health insurance coverage to Daytop. In a written decision dated May 1, 1990, the review panel found that Henry had indeed misrepresented her husband's insurance coverage to Daytop, and accordingly sustained Henry's discharge.

After she was fired, Henry filed for state unemployment benefits. An evidentiary hearing was held before an administrative law judge of the New York State Department of Labor. Henry, her attorney, and representatives of Daytop appeared. In a written opinion filed March 9, 1990, the ALJ found that Henry had not misrepresented her husband's insurance coverage to Daytop, and that she was fired "under conditions which would not rise to the level of misconduct." (J.A. at 248).

On July 13, 1990, Henry filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In a determination dated August 20, 1991, the EEOC rejected Henry's allegations, found no probable cause, and issued Henry a Notice of Right to Sue. On November 15, 1992, Henry filed her complaint in the district court.

Daytop moved for summary judgment after discovery, contending that Henry had failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact about whether the legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for her discharge proffered by Daytop was merely a pretext for unlawful discrimination. In opposing the motion, Henry relied on her personal affirmations that she had informed Daytop of her husband's coverage, the New York ALJ's finding that she had not committed any misconduct, and other direct evidence of discrimination. Daytop responded that any evidence indicating that Henry had not violated Daytop's disciplinary code was immaterial, since she had conceded her misconduct as a matter of law by claiming that similarly situated employees who were not black women had been punished less severely for similar violations of Daytop's disciplinary code. Furthermore, Daytop argued that the direct evidence of discrimination adduced by Henry was so slight that it failed to create a genuine issue as to Daytop's motive for firing her.

The district court granted Daytop's motion for summary judgment. The court concluded that Henry had indeed conceded her misconduct as a matter of law for purposes of her Title VII claim, and that any evidence tending to show that she had not misrepresented her husband's coverage could not create an issue of material fact sufficient to defeat summary judgment. The court also found that the Daytop employees listed by Henry as having been disciplined less severely were not "similarly situated." Therefore the court concluded that Henry had failed to establish a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Daytop's proffered reason for firing her was a pretext for unlawful discrimination. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

We review a grant of summary judgment de novo. Gallo v. Prudential Residential Svcs., L.P., 22 F.3d 1219, 1224 (2d Cir.1994). Accordingly, we must look at the substantive law governing claims of intentional discrimination under Title VII, as set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802-05, 93...