Holmes v. Utah, Dept. of Workforce Services
| Decision Date | 18 April 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-4199.,No. 05-4180.,No. 05-4179.,05-4179.,05-4180.,05-4199. |
| Citation | 483 F.3d 1057 |
| Parties | Sharon Elaine Allen HOLMES, Delores M. Giacoletto, Jodie Jackson, and Rhonda E. Stephens, Plaintiffs-Appellants/Cross-Appellees, v. State of UTAH, DEPARTMENT OF WORKFORCE SERVICES, Defendant-Appellee/Cross-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit |
Before TYMKOVICH, and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges, and FIGA, District Judge.*
These consolidated appeals arise from an order entered June 13, 2005 granting summary judgment in favor of the defendant employer, Utah Department of Workforce Services ("DWS"), on plaintiffs' Title VII claims of sexual harassment and sexually hostile work environment (See the "Order" found in App., Vol. 1 at 52-62).1 Plaintiffs appeal the entry of judgment for the employer. The employer cross-appeals from a discovery order denying it access to one plaintiff's medical records. (See Appellees' Br. at 39-49). A Final Judgment was entered on June 14, 2005. Jurisdiction for the appeal lies under 28 U.S.C. § 1291.
As set forth in the opinion of the district judge, the plaintiffs' claims arise primarily from the conduct of one Curtis Johnson, who was their supervisor at the Cedar City office of DWS. Initial allegations of sexual harassment were made against Johnson in 2001, resulting in an investigation and a three-day suspension of Johnson without pay on August 7, 2001. Johnson retired from DWS on June 28, 2002, but continued to visit the Cedar City office thereafter because his wife still worked there.
In March 2003, new allegations of harassment by Johnson were made by Plaintiff Stephens relating to his following her from the DWS office to the post office. In response to those allegations, the state agency sent an investigator, John Levanger, to investigate the charges in March 2003, and the investigation resulted in Mr. Johnson being barred from the Cedar City office and being prohibited from calling its main telephone line (Order at 2).
Thereafter, each of the four plaintiffs filed charges of discrimination with the EEOC on four different dates in March and April of 2003 as further discussed below, alleging sexual harassment or hostile work environment. After receiving notices of right to sue, Plaintiffs Holmes, Giacoletto and Jackson filed their Title VII case ("Holmes, et al.") against DWS on October 14, 2003.2 Plaintiff Stephens filed a separate action on October 16, 2003 ("Stephens Complaint").3 The two actions were consolidated by the trial court on January 29, 2004 (Order at 1).
As the district court found, the plaintiffs in the Holmes, et al. case alleged violations of Title VII essentially arising from a continuing sexually hostile work environment relating primarily to the actions of Johnson (Order at 1), but also referring to harassment and intimidation allegedly expressed by Levanger in his March 2003 investigation. See Order at 2, n. 1; Holmes, et al. Complaint at ¶¶ 45-48, App. Vol. 1 at 20. The Stephens Complaint contained four causes of action, the first alleging a violation of Title VII resulting from quid pro quo sexual harassment (denial of promotion), the second alleging a violation of Title VII resulting from a continuing sexually hostile work environment, and the third and fourth alleging state common law causes of action for negligent hiring and intentional infliction of emotional distress. See Order at 2, n. 1; Stephens Complaint at ¶¶ 28-50, App. Vol. 1 at 41-44. The Stephens Complaint makes no express reference to the Levanger investigation.
Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment on August 30, 2004 pertaining to both cases, but setting forth some joint and some separate grounds for dismissal as to each case. See Def's Mo. for Summ. J., App. Vol. 2 at 1-3. As to Plaintiffs Holmes and Jackson in the Holmes, et al. case, and as to the First Cause of Action alleged by Plaintiff Stephens, the motion asserted that the claims of all three plaintiffs were subject to dismissal because they did not file their charges of discrimination within 300 days of the last alleged act of sexual harassment (id. at 1-2). As to the First Cause of Action in the Stephens case, the motion also argued that the plaintiff was not promoted for a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason, thereby entitling the defendant to judgment as a matter of law (id. at 2). The motion also asserted that Plaintiff Stephens' Third and Fourth Causes of Action were barred by sovereign immunity (id.). The motion did not explicitly seek summary judgment on Plaintiff Stephens' Second Cause of Action for hostile work environment. Finally, the motion contended that all claims of all plaintiffs should be dismissed because their allegations did not constitute claims for hostile work environment as a matter of law, and because defendant exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any harassing behavior and plaintiffs failed to take advantage of the preventive or corrective opportunities provided to them by the employer to avoid harm (id. at 2).
The district court granted summary judgment against all four plaintiffs, finding separately as to each plaintiff that most of the acts of alleged sexual harassment or hostile work environment set forth in the complaint occurred more than 300 days before each plaintiff filed her charge of discrimination with the EEOC, and therefore were barred (Order 6-11). The district court also found that to the extent any of the acts charged occurred during the 300-day period preceding the charge, sometimes referred to as the filing period, they were not sufficient by themselves to constitute hostile work environment claims. The Court further ruled that the alleged acts that occurred within the 300-day period did not have a sufficient "relationship" to the acts alleged which occurred outside the 300-day period so as to be part of the "same hostile work environment" under the Tenth Circuit decision in Duncan v. Manager, Dep't of Safety, City and County of Denver, 397 F.3d 1300, 1308 (10th Cir.2005) (Order at 7, 8 and 11), and that standing alone, the incidents within the filing period were insufficient to state a claim for hostile work environment. The district court also disposed of the claim that the Levanger investigation constituted a hostile work environment in a footnote stating there were no facts to support the "broad assertions of harassment in this respect." (Order at 2, n. 1).
In addition, the district court's order noted that Plaintiff Stephens' acknowledged that her third and fourth causes of action were barred by the Utah Governmental Immunity Act (Order at 9, n. 2). Plaintiff Stephens states in her appellate brief that she is not challenging the grant of summary judgment as to her first, third and fourth causes of action, but only as to the second cause of action (hostile work environment) (Stephens' Appellate Br. at 2-3).
The trial court ruling notes that Johnson retired from the DWS on June 28, 2002 (Order at 2). His contacts with the plaintiffs thereafter were not in the capacity of a supervisor, or even as a fellow employee, but rather as a former supervisor, former co-worker, or spouse of a co-worker. He continued to visit the Cedar City office because his wife continued to work for defendant at that location (id.).
As the district court granted summary judgment, we review the district court's decision de novo, drawing all inferences in favor of the parties opposing summary judgment. Chavez v. New Mexico, 397 F.3d 826, 831 (10th Cir.2005). Here, the parties do not dispute the following dates of each plaintiffs' filing of EEOC charges, or the dates 300 days preceding the date of the filing of each charge (sometimes referred to as the "filing period"), during which period each plaintiff must have asserted an act of discrimination occurred as the trial court found:
Date of EEOC 300
Plaintiff Charge4 days prior
Holmes March 22, 2003 May 27, 2002 (Order at 6)
Giacoletto March 21, 2003 May 26, 2002 (Order at 7)
Jackson April 5, 2003 June 10, 2002 (Order at 8)
Stephens April 1, 2003 June 6, 2002 (Order at 9)
The appellate brief of Plaintiffs Holmes, Giacoletto and Jackson expressly agrees that the 300 day "filing periods" set forth above are correct, conceding that in each case the particular plaintiff "must have alleged incidents of harassment or discrimination that occurred on and after" these dates (see Appellate Br. of Appellants Holmes, Giacoletto and Jackson ("Joint Brief") at 1, 15, 17 and 22). Plaintiffs argue that they did so; the district court found otherwise. Following the approach of the district judge, this opinion deals separately with each plaintiff's particular factual situation.
Plaintiff Jackson's case is perhaps the most straightforward to decide. As the district judge found, Plaintiff Jackson signed a typewritten attachment to her EEOC charge in which she details the alleged acts of harassment committed by Johnson, the last of which occurred in 2001. See App. Vol. 4 at 33-41. Accordingly, she does not appear to allege any specific act of sexual harassment that occurred after June 6, 2002 as the district judge found (Order at 8-9).
In her appellate brief Plaintiff Jackson merely asserts that she described several specific acts of harassment by Johnson that are reported in her EEOC charge (Joint Brief at 17-20). But as the district court found, and as we concur, they all occurred...
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