Hottenroth v. Village of Slinger

• Decision Date: 28 October 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-2211.,03-2211.
• Citation: 388 F.3d 1015
• Parties: Carol HOTTENROTH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF SLINGER, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

388 F.3d 1015

Carol HOTTENROTH, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. VILLAGE OF SLINGER, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 03-2211.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued December 12, 2003.

Decided October 28, 2004.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Rudolph T. Randa, Chief Judge.

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Cynthia L. Manlove (argued), Hall, Charne, Burce & Olson, Milwaukee, WI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Michele M. Ford (argued), Crivello, Carlson, Mentkowski & Steeves, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before COFFEY, RIPPLE, and KANNE, Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

Carol Hottenroth sued her employer, the Village of Slinger, Wisconsin ("Slinger"), asserting various claims of discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The district court, Judge Rudolph T. Randa presiding, consolidated two separate actions filed in federal court by Hottenroth alleging discrimination in her employment and retaliation, in violation of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., as well as state law breach of contract. Slinger moved for summary judgment for failure to state a claim and Hottenroth filed a cross-motion for partial summary judgment on her retaliation and breach of contract claims. The district court, in a written opinion, granted Slinger's motion for summary judgment, denied Hottenroth's cross-motion for summary judgment on her retaliation claim and dismissed Hottenroth's Title VII claims in both actions, while declining to exercise pendent jurisdiction over her state law claims. Affirmed.

I. BACKGROUND

In November of 1995, Hottenroth applied for a position as an apprentice journeyman-lineman¹ for the Village of Slinger, was hired and entered into an apprentice indenture agreement² which required that she complete a total of 7,720 hours of work experience under the supervision of a certified journeyman-linemen and 640 hours of related off-the-job training³ by November 13, 2000. In return, Hottenroth was compensated and her tuition expenses were paid by Slinger. In addition, Slinger also agreed to provide Hottenroth with "such instruction and experience that will enable the apprentice to qualify as a line repairer at the completion of [the] apprenticeship." Hottenroth failed to complete her training and, thus, never received her journeyman-lineman certification. She was discharged by Slinger on May 29, 2001 for the reasons set forth herein.

Between 1995 and 1997, Hottenroth worked as an apprentice for Slinger as an employee of the Village assigned to the electric utility department. During that time period, the staff of the utility consisted of the Utility Manager, Orloff Styve, a certified journey-man-lineman, Marvin Amsler, and Hottenroth. Styve kept track of Hottenroth's hours and made sure she was given the opportunity to receive the proper training to qualify her for a journeyman's card under the indenture agreement between Slinger and herself. Styve would also meet with Hottenroth every few months to discuss her progress under the indenture agreement. The record reflects that Hottenroth's performance was formally evaluated on three separate occasions, in January of 1995, May of 1996 and January of 1997 and that she received marks that reflected a rating of "Acceptable" to "Above Average" on all three.⁴

In September of 1999, Mary Jo Lange was hired by Slinger as the new Director of Public Works, Utility Director and Village Engineer replacing Orloff Styve. At that time, Lange assumed Styve's duties as supervisor of the utility crew, which now included Amsler, who was promoted to foreman in 1997, Denis Fitzgerald, a certified journeyman-lineman hired in 1997, and Hottenroth.

Lange, along with Hottenroth's supervisor Amsler, also shared responsibility for her progression through the apprenticeship program. In accordance with that responsibility, Lange drafted a letter on November 5, 1999 to the Wisconsin Bureau of Apprentice Standards stating Hottenroth had completed the 7,720 hours of work experience required under the apprentice indenture agreement. However, the letter went on to state that because other areas of the contract had yet to be fulfilled, and her proficiency had yet to be demonstrated on all the required tasks, Hottenroth was not eligible to receive her journeyman's card at that time.⁵

In late 1999, Hottenroth began voicing concerns about the work environment of the Village utility crew to Lange. On December 2, 1999 and December 9, 1999 Hottenroth approached Lange to complain about her foreman, Marv Amsler. According to Lange's handwritten notes of the meetings, Hottenroth alleged that Amsler did not explain job assignments as clearly as she would like, that she had trouble understanding him and that when she failed to perform up to Amsler's standards he would get upset. Lange's notes also suggest Hottenroth was uncomfortable with some of Amsler's language, i.e., she did not like it when he told her to get her "ass" back here.

Responding to these concerns, Lange held a meeting shortly thereafter with Amsler and advised him that a number of customers, as well as fellow employees, were complaining about his "way of expression." According to Lange's testimony, Amsler, in response, made Lange aware that Hottenroth could be very obstinate at times. Amsler claimed Hottenroth made a unilateral decision not to attend the job planning sessions, despite his directions to do so. Nevertheless, Lange instructed him to make sure his employees understand their respective job assignments and directed that he hold regular meetings to discuss the assignments, making sure everyone, including Hottenroth, was present. Lange also advised Amsler that he needed to be "kinder and gentler" to his co-workers.

Despite Lange's attempts to remedy the problems between Hottenroth and Amsler, the complaints continued. On March 2, 2000, Hottenroth once again complained to Lange about Amsler's management style claiming Amsler had become angry when Hottenroth could not understand his hand signals at a job site.⁶

Lange followed up with Amsler, and was advised that Hottenroth was incapable of operating a loader (which was being used to load wood chips on a truck) in an efficient manner on a job that needed to be done quickly and that her demonstrated lack of proficiency was the reason he became angry with her.

In the Spring of 2000, Lange had reason to begin doubting Hottenroth's capabilities and readiness under the indenture contract to become a certified journeyman, despite the fact that she had completed her hour requirements in both on-the-job and related classroom training.⁷ Two incidents in particular caused Lange concern about Hottenroth's inability to trouble-shoot and her lack of confidence and aptitude when working with live electricity. Lange testified that, on one occasion, Hottenroth was unable to complete an overhead electric assignment which involved working with live electricity at the top of a pole located in the rear of the Slinger Village Hall building. Lange stated that during that incident Hottenroth was approximately thirty feet in the air when she began shaking and stated that she could not complete the assignment; and requested that she be rescued. Lange testified that the details of the second incident were very similar to the first, with Hottenroth being unable to complete an overhead electrical task because she appeared to be not only hesitant but also frightened.

Pursuant to her opinion that Hottenroth needed more training and experience to develop the necessary degree of confidence when dealing with overhead electrical work, and to help Hottenroth with her troubleshooting and her overhead skills (especially when working with live electrical lines), Lange arranged for Hottenroth to work for the City of Cedarburg, Wisconsin on the electric utility crew. Hottenroth subsequently worked with the Cedarburg electric crew for approximately two weeks in the spring of 2000. When asked to evaluate Hottenroth's performance during that time, Steven Bell, her supervisor in Cedarburg, stated that she had trouble completing fairly simple tasks. Bell also stated that he was present on a Cedarburg job site where Hottenroth had to be rescued after she had climbed a pole and, after becoming unable to move, a bucket truck with an attached lift had to be brought on site to retrieve her. Overall, Bell compared her abilities to that of a second-year apprentice, when in fact she was in her fourth year of the program. Bell also testified that if Hottenroth was his employee he would not have felt comfortable recommending that she be certified as a journeyman. However, his observations concerning Hottenroth's lack of ability were not immediately relayed to Lange, who got the impression from Hottenroth alone that the two-week assignment with Bell was a "positive" one, when in fact it was not.

Nonetheless, on June 23, 2000, Lange spoke with Barbara Robakowski,⁸ from the Wisonsin Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards regarding Hottenroth's problems sufficiently completing the requirements under the indenture agreement. Lange stated candidly that she had "reservations" as to Hottenroth's competency in trouble-shooting and working overhead with live electricity.

Approximately two weeks later, on July 5, 2000, Lange and Robatowski held a meeting with Hottenroth to discuss her status under the apprenticeship agreement. Robatowski and Lange both testified that, during the meeting, Hottenroth admitted that she was indeed uncomfortable working with live electricity at heights. At that point, because her indenture period had lapsed and she was not going to receive her journeyman's card, Slinger had the option of firing Hottenroth. However, after considering the matter further, Lange decided to grant Hottenroth an extension of the indenture agreement for a period of one year⁹ and also stated that she would do her best to secure more...