Hussain v. Nicholson

• Decision Date: 31 January 2006
• Docket Number: No. 04-5417.,04-5417.
• Citation: 435 F.3d 359
• Parties: Mohammed HUSSAIN, Appellant v. R. James NICHOLSON, Secretary, Department of Veteran Affairs, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

435 F.3d 359

Mohammed HUSSAIN, Appellant v. R. James NICHOLSON, Secretary, Department of Veteran Affairs, Appellee.

No. 04-5417.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued December 5, 2005.

Decided January 31, 2006.

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Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 03cv00367).

Dawn V. Martin argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant.

Charlotte A. Abel, Assistant U.S. Attorney, argued the cause for appellee. With her on the brief were Kenneth L. Wainstein, U.S. Attorney, Michael J. Ryan, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and Karen A. Nappo, Counsel, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.

Before: HENDERSON, ROGERS, and TATEL, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.

Concurring opinion filed by Circuit Judge ROGERS.

TATEL, Circuit Judge.

After eighteen years as a doctor at a public hospital, appellant, an Indian Muslim, applied to replace his retiring supervisor. When the hospital denied appellant the position, he filed an administrative complaint alleging discrimination based on race, religion, and national origin. As he pursued his claim, his relationship with the hospital deteriorated—among other things, officials reported concerns about his performance and then promoted his assistant to supervise him. Appellant eventually took early retirement and filed suit in federal court, charging the hospital with discrimination and retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Appellant's then-attorney, however, neglected to conduct any discovery. Finding that appellant failed to provide sufficient evidence to support his claims, the district court granted summary judgment to the hospital. We affirm.

I.

Appellant Mohammed Hussain joined the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in 1978 as Assistant Chief of Radiation Therapy. When his supervisor retired in 1997, Hussain became Acting Chief of Radiation Therapy, a position which, though requiring increased administrative responsibilities, came with no additional pay. Although Hussain expressed interest in becoming permanent Chief of the division, he remained Acting Chief for the next several years.

In September 2000, hospital officials merged Hussain's division with another division, the Imaging Service, creating one unified Radiology Service. Dr. Klemens Barth, Chief of Imaging, was then appointed to the new position of Chief of Radiology Service. Hussain's title, duties, and compensation remained unchanged, but he now reported to Barth rather than directly to the hospital's Chief of Staff. Two months later, Hussain filed an Equal Employment Opportunity complaint alleging that the hospital failed to promote him to a permanent Chief position because of his race, religion, and national origin. Reiterating the same claims, he also filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

The following July, Barth hired an African-American woman, Dr. JoAnn Manning, as an additional staff physician in the Radiation Therapy division. Hussain asserts that although the hospital purported to hire Manning to assist Hussain, Barth excluded him from the hiring process and prevented him from supervising Manning.

Three months later, Hussain received a performance evaluation from the Chief of Staff, Ross Fletcher. Although Hussain's former supervisor had consistently given him excellent performance reviews, Fletcher rated Hussain as just "satisfactory," noting that "many issues have arisen regarding Dr. Hussain." In a later evaluation rating Hussain as "low satisfactory," Barth observed that Hussain failed to "provide ... effective leadership for the division." Hussain v. Principi, 344 F.Supp.2d 86, 92 (D.D.C.2004). In December 2002, Barth appointed Manning as permanent Chief of Radiation Therapy and demoted Hussain to Assistant Chief, with Manning as his supervisor.

Shortly thereafter, Hussain filed suit in federal court, charging the hospital with various torts and Title VII violations. In their affidavits, Manning and Barth allege that around this time they began encountering problems with Hussain's performance, particularly his failure to conduct adequate follow-up patient care. In June 2003, they renewed Hussain's clinical privileges for only three months, rather than the normal two-year period. They also informed Hussain that he would now have to document patient examinations and submit records for monthly review. At the end of July, Hussain informed the hospital that he would be taking "extended sick leave ... until further notice." Id. at 93. When Hussain failed to provide medical documentation to support his absence, the hospital placed him on "Absence Without Leave" status. In September, Hussain took voluntary early retirement.

Hussain then amended his complaint (the second amended complaint) dropping several claims and retaining only those based on Title VII: failure to promote based on race, religion, and national origin; retaliation; hostile work environment; and constructive discharge. Although Hussain's then-attorney, Tony Shaw, took several depositions in connection with proceedings before the EEOC, he took no discovery at all during the six-month period allotted by the district court. After discovery closed, the hospital moved for summary judgment, at which point Hussain, represented by new counsel, Dawn Martin, moved to reopen discovery. The district court denied Hussain's motion and granted summary judgment to the hospital on all claims. See id. at 93-94, 107.

Hussain now appeals, arguing that the district court erred in (1) denying his motion to reopen discovery, (2) finding no genuine issue of material fact with regard to his employment discrimination and retaliation claims, and (3) finding that he failed to state hostile work environment or constructive discharge claims.

II.

We begin with the discovery issue. In July 2004, after discovery closed, Hussain notified the district court that Martin had replaced Shaw as his attorney. Upon learning that Shaw had failed to conduct any discovery during the allotted time frame, Martin moved to reopen discovery under Rule 16(b). See Fed.R.Civ.P. 16(b) (permitting courts to modify their schedules if the requesting party shows "good cause"). Critical to the issue before us, this request came over three months after discovery closed and several weeks after the hospital filed its motion for summary judgment. Martin argued that because the hospital had only just filed its answer to Hussain's second amended complaint, the district court had good cause to grant a 90-day extension for discovery: "A defendant should not be permitted to obtain repeated extensions from the Court to respond to a Complaint, such that it delays the plaintiff [an] Answer to his/her Complaint throughout the entire discovery period, and then denies the Plaintiff the right to discovery." Pl.'s Mot. to Reopen Disc. 2. Martin also argued that without an opportunity for additional discovery, Hussain would be unable to establish that hospital officials had acted with discriminatory intent.

At a hearing on the motion to reopen discovery—a hearing attended by both Shaw and Martin—Shaw acknowledged "some lack of diligence" on his part, Mot. Hr'g Tr. 4, July 22, 2004, but pointed out that the hospital also operated with "unclean hands" by repeatedly requesting extensions for its filings, id. at 6. The district court, observing that Hussain had a "great malpractice action" against Shaw, id., stated: "You can't cite me a case . . . that says that I'm supposed to extend [discovery] because of your incompetence, can you? That is not good cause," id. at 8. The court also explained that although the hospital had asked for several extensions, it had always filed its motions in a timely manner. In its written ruling denying Hussain's motion, the court noted that since Hussain had taken several depositions during the administrative proceedings, he had not been "completely deprived of discovery." Hussain, 344 F.Supp.2d at 93.

We review discovery rulings for abuse of discretion. See Military Audit Project v. Casey, 656 F.2d 724, 750 (D.C.Cir.1981). We are especially reluctant to interfere with district court decisions regarding their own day-to-day operations. See, e.g., United States v. Microsoft Corp., 253 F.3d 34, 100 (D.C.Cir.2001) ("[A]n appellate court will not interfere with the trial court's exercise of its discretion to control its docket and dispatch its business . . . except upon the clearest showing that the procedures have resulted in actual and substantial prejudice to the complaining litigant.") (quoting Eli Lilly & Co., Inc. v. Generix Drug Sales, Inc., 460 F.2d 1096, 1105 (5th Cir.1972)). In particular, district courts have "broad discretion in structuring discovery." Edmond v. U.S. Postal Serv. Gen. Counsel, 949 F.2d 415, 425 (D.C.Cir.1991); see also In re Multi-Piece Rim Prods. Liab. Litig., 653 F.2d 671, 679 (D.C.Cir.1981) ("A district court has broad discretion in its resolution of discovery problems that arise in cases pending before it."). Given this highly deferential standard, we see no basis for questioning the district court's denial of an enlargement of time for additional discovery.

Although Hussain now points to Rule 56(f) in support of his request to reopen discovery, see Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(f) (allowing courts to order additional discovery prior to ruling on a summary judgment motion), his district court motion relied solely on Rule 16(b). We will therefore consider only his arguments relating to Rule 16(b). See District of Columbia v. Air Fla., Inc., 750 F.2d 1077, 1084 (D.C.Cir.1984) ("It is well settled that issues and legal theories not asserted at the District Court level ordinarily will not be heard on appeal."). In that regard, Hussain argues that the district court's "no good cause" finding rests on three...