Hernandez v. Spacelabs Medical Inc.

• Decision Date: 11 September 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-35615.,02-35615.
• Citation: 343 F.3d 1107
• Parties: Godofredo HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SPACELABS MEDICAL INC., a Delaware Corporation, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

343 F.3d 1107

Godofredo HERNANDEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. SPACELABS MEDICAL INC., a Delaware Corporation, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 02-35615.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted March 5, 2003 — Seattle, Washington.

Filed September 11, 2003.

Ricardo A. Guarnero, Seattle, Washington, Reba Weiss, Blair & Meeker, LLP, Seattle, Washington, for the appellant.

Mark Richard Busto, Sebris Busto, P.S., Bellevue, Washington, Kristen L. McMichael, Kirby Wilcox, and Paul W. Cane, Jr., Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker, San Francisco, California, for the appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington; Barbara J. Rothstein, Chief Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-01-01347-BJR.

Before: Stephen REINHARDT, William A. FLETCHER and Ronald M. GOULD, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

WILLIAM A. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Godofredo "Freddy" Hernandez brings this employment discrimination suit against his employer, Spacelabs Medical, Inc. ("Spacelabs"), under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Washington Law Against Discrimination ("WLAD"), R.C.W. § 49.60.010 et seq. He alleges that he was (1) denied promotions because of his national origin and (2) fired in retaliation for a sexual harassment complaint he made about his supervisor on behalf of another employee. The district court granted Spacelabs's motion for summary judgment. We affirm the grant of summary judgment on the denial of promotions claims because none of the instances of alleged discrimination occurred within the limitations period. However, we reverse on the retaliatory firing claims because there is sufficient evidence in the record to allow a reasonable jury to infer that Hernandez was fired in retaliation for his complaint.

I. Background

The factual narrative that follows is based on evidence in the record, taken in the light most favorable to Hernandez, the nonmoving party. Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Prods., Inc., 530 U.S. 133, 149-50, 120 S.Ct. 2097, 147 L.Ed.2d 105 (2000). Hernandez is a Hispanic man who was trained in El Salvador as an electromechanical engineer. He began working for Spacelabs at its Chatsworth, California, facility in 1978. He worked as an Assembler II until 1980. After 1980, he received promotions to various levels of inspector, technician, and lead positions. According to Hernandez, he was the highest-placed Hispanic worker on the manufacturing side of Spacelabs from 1981 to 1992.

In 1990, Hernandez was promoted to the position of Technician III-Lead. While in this position, he was responsible for training new technicians. He held this position for less than two years, at which time he was replaced by a white man he had trained, Joe DeCarlo. While Hernandez was supervising DeCarlo, DeCarlo grabbed Hernandez's paystub and expressed outrage that Hernandez was making more money than he was. According to Hernandez, he was demoted after DeCarlo complained about this pay differential. Hernandez states that he was told he was demoted (and that his pay was reduced accordingly) because he "couldn't communicate well in English." Spacelabs had an official language policy that required that all business communications, both oral and written, be conducted in English. Sometime in 1994, Hernandez applied for the position of quality assurance supervisor and was turned down. The position was given to a white man. All of those involved in this hiring decision were white men.

Spacelabs closed its Chatsworth facility in 1996, and employees were offered the opportunity to relocate to Spacelabs's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. Hernandez accepted the relocation offer. Spacelabs agrees with Hernandez that the Chatsworth workforce was "predominantly Hispanic." Spacelabs also relocated workers from its Oregon plants, where, according to Hernandez, the employees were "largely white," to work at the Redmond facility. Hernandez states that one of these employees, a white female manager, told him "`you Hispanics' [a]re not to touch the Oregon machines."

Once at Redmond, Hernandez applied for a supervisor position. At the time he applied, Hernandez had over twenty years' experience with Spacelabs. The job was given to Andre Zins, a white man who had two years' experience in the company and whom Hernandez had trained. Hernandez also applied for a promotion to the position of machine operator. He filled out an application and submitted it to a manager named T.J. Jeitler. According to Hernandez, Jeitler read the application, looked up at Hernandez and said, "You don't look Oriental to me." Hernandez took his application back and ripped it up. Jeitler later apologized. The position was given to Joseph Huong Vu, an Asian employee. Hernandez then attempted to apply for the sustaining engineer position vacated by Vu. Hernandez states that he approached the manager in charge of the hiring decision, a white man named Dick Walter, and asked if he was qualified for the position. Walter "just kept looking at me from head to toe arrogantly like why are you even asking this? He didn't answer me. He didn't answer me at all. He just turned around and kept playing with his computer."

In early May 2000, Hernandez believed that a female co-worker, Salita Sam, was being sexually harassed by Ron Pray, who supervised both Sam and Hernandez. At his deposition, Pray admitted to one incident that he thought might have been viewed as harassment, but testified that there were no other incidents. Pray testified that he came across Sam and Reggie Smith, one of Sam's co-workers, joking about how much money Sam would make if she would let Smith "pimp her out." Pray testified that he "made the mistake" of asking whether he would "get a discount as a manager," and that Sam "took that as a wrong way, and assumed I wanted to have sex with her." In a declaration submitted to the district court, Smith denied that he was ever present during such an incident.

Hernandez's version is very different. He states that Pray asked Sam to go out with him, and that he told her "he wanted to fuck her, because he had never fucked a Chinese butt" and that he wanted to "try an Oriental girl." Hernandez states that Sam told him that Pray had approached her during the night shift when she was working alone and asked her to take him home so they could have sex, and that Pray told Sam that he thought she had a "nice ass." According to Hernandez, this harassment upset Sam, and she was seen crying at work on at least two occasions. According to Hernandez, Sam, a single mother, was afraid to report the harassment herself because she thought she would be fired.

After seeing Sam crying, Hernandez approached her to find out what was wrong. According to Hernandez, Pray saw the two talking and "directed [Hernandez] to go elsewhere." Hernandez states that Pray's attitude toward Hernandez "became more hostile after he saw [Hernandez] speaking with Ms. Sam" and that Pray "pulled [Hernandez] aside and in an angry tone stated, `why are you always talking to her' and `you are taking too much time talking to her.'" Hernandez also states that Pray "made it clear [to Sam] that he was unhappy that she was confiding in [Hernandez]," and that Sam warned him to "stay away from [her]" because "Ron[wa]s watching [her]."

Hernandez reported Pray's behavior to Cathy Lasher, the manager of Spacelabs's human resources department, on May 2, 2000. Hernandez states that Lasher approached him on that date and told him that Pray was "unhappy" with him, prompting him to reveal Pray's alleged harassment of Sam and his interaction with Hernandez. After he told this to Lasher, Hernandez told Alan Flores, one of his supervisors, that he had done so. According to Hernandez, Flores's reply was that Hernandez was now in trouble and that "Pray told me to shut up, I'm your boss and this is none of your business." Hernandez also revealed the fact that he reported Pray's alleged harassment to other co-workers. He states that he discussed the issue with Sarkis Babajany, and Babajany confirmed that this conversation took place in a declaration submitted to the district court. Hernandez asserts that this discussion was over-heard by Michael Lee, an employee who "had a very good relationship with Ron Pray [and] would always inform Mr. Pray about what was going on in Factory Repair when Mr. Pray was not there."

After receiving the report from Hernandez on May 3, Lasher began an investigation and confronted Pray with the harassment allegations. On May 26, 2000, Hernandez was terminated. His termination letter gave the following reasons for the termination:

• On March 27, 2000, you completed the repairs on a 90486 customer unit and placed it on the ship shelf to be returned to the customer. The unit was missing hardware (per the bill of material).

• On March 28, 2000, you turned in two Factory repair Travelers for 90518 power supplies that you had repaired.... [B]oth of the power supplies which you confirmed that you had repaired, failed to operate. The assemblies were missing components, which made them non-functional.

• On May 5, 2000, you completed the repairs on two 90486 customer units and placed them on the ship shelf. They were missing hardware.

• On May 11, 2000, you completed the repairs on three 90486 customer units, placed them on the ship shelf, and they were also missing hardware.

The letter stated that these were "extremely serious violations of corporate procedures" and that "[w]e have concluded that a continuation of your employment is not in the best interest of the company and are terminating your employment effective May 26, 2000." The termination letter also noted that Hernandez had previously been suspended without pay for "incorrectly updating software and inappropriately documenting travelers," and that this suspension had included a warning that Hernandez's "employment would be terminated should...