Jimenez v. Madison Area Technical College

• Citation: 321 F.3d 652
• Decision Date: 28 February 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-3423.,01-3423.
• Parties: Elvira M. JIMENEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MADISON AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE, Jackye Thomas, Carol Bassett, and William Strycker, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit)

321 F.3d 652 Elvira M. JIMENEZ, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
MADISON AREA TECHNICAL COLLEGE, Jackye Thomas, Carol Bassett, and William Strycker, Defendants-Appellees. No. 01-3423. United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit. Argued May 31, 2002. Decided February 28, 2003.

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Willie J. Nunnery (argued), Madison, WI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Peter L. Albrecht (argued), Lafollette, Godfrey & Kahn, Madison, WI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before WOOD, JR., COFFEY, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Elvira Jimenez ("Jimenez") filed an action against her former employer Madison Area Technical College (the "College") under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, alleging that the College had discriminated against her on the basis of race, ethnic origin, and sex. After finding that Jimenez had relied on falsified documents to support her civil rights claims, the district court sanctioned Jimenez, under Rule 11(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and dismissed her suit with prejudice.¹ Jimenez claims that imposition of such a harsh sanction amounts to an abuse of discretion. We affirm the district court's dismissal of Jimenez's Complaint.

I. Background

Jimenez was hired by the College on September 26, 1989. While employed by the College, Jimenez worked in various administrative positions within the College's business lab, adult education department, and student services department. Jimenez claims that her troubles started in 1993, when she began to receive derogatory comments from and to be harassed by certain College administrators, all on account of her race (Hispanic).

In 1997, Jimenez took a leave of absence from her job and sometime thereafter filed a worker's compensation claim against the College. She alleged that certain College administrators had harassed her and caused her emotional distress. In support of these allegations, Jimenez produced a number of inflammatory letters and e-mails allegedly written by various colleagues and supervisors during the term of her employment. The communications contained derogatory references to Jimenez's race, see, e.g., Def. Ex. 6, Oct. 31, 1995 E-mail (stating that Jimenez was "a stupid mexican after all...."); and Def. Ex. 16, June 16, 1997 Letter ("I am almost ensured that your little spic ass was out the door at that time ... whether we'd like to admit our preferences or racist conduct it happens and it's natural."), and described alleged instances of sexual harassment involving Jimenez, see Def. Ex. 24, July 2, 1997 Letter (apologizing for taking "violent sexual actions against" Jimenez and for "slapping [her] buttocks, and massaging [her] shoulders ... [and] grabb[ing] [her] breasts").

Having some doubts about the authenticity of the alleged discriminatory communications, the College spoke with the purported

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authors of the various writings. In sworn statements, each of the alleged authors denied having written the alleged communications attributed them. See, e.g., Def. Ex. 3, Bassett Aff. ¶ 4 (stating that the Oct. 31, 1995 e-mail attributed to her by Jimenez was "a complete fabrication and forgery"); Def. Ex. 15, Simone Aff. ¶ 6 (calling the June 26, 1997 Letter she had purportedly written "nothing less than a complete fabrication and forgery"); Def. Ex. 25, Strycker Aff. ¶ (stating that the letter attributed to him was "a complete fabrication" and that Jimenez's allegations of sexual harassment were "untrue, baseless in fact and libelous").

After its investigation of the matter, on November 12, 1997, the College, through counsel, advised Jimenez's counsel, Willie J. Nunnery, that the alleged authors of the derogatory letters and e-mails had denied writing the communications attributed to them. The College requested that Nunnery produce the original documents for its review. Neither the attorney, nor his client, complied with the request. Upon the completion of the worker's compensation investigation, Jimenez's claim was denied. Jimenez never returned to work and her employment was subsequently terminated.

Despite having knowledge of the College's investigation into the fraudulent documents, Nunnery brought the instant lawsuit against the College on behalf of Jimenez, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983.² In the Complaint, Jimenez alleged that the College had infringed upon her equal protection rights by discriminating against her based on her sex, ethnic origin, and race. Jimenez subsequently amended her complaint to add as defendants her former colleagues Jackye Thomas, Carol Bassett and William Strycker (the same colleagues to whom she had previously attributed the alleged discriminatory communications). Defendant Thomas had been one of Jimenez's supervisors at the College, while Defendants Bassett and Strycker had been employed in the College's human resources department during Jimenez's tenure at the College.

Defendants moved to dismiss Jimenez's Amended Complaint, which the district court granted, ruling that Jimenez had failed to state a claim of discrimination. At the same time, the court gave Jimenez leave to file a second amended complaint.

In her Second Amended Complaint, Jimenez broadened her factual allegations to include claims that, on a number of occasions during Jimenez's tenure with the College, Defendants had sent her e-mails and letters containing racial slurs and blatantly discriminatory epithets. See, e.g., Second Amended Complaint ¶ 24 ("Defendant Bassett wrote something to the effect [that] `... you are ... giving yourself the reputation of being ... a little dirty, money hungry spic.'"); id. ¶ 27 ("Bassett sent an e-mail ... indicating `... I guess you are ... a stupid Mexican....'"); id. ¶ ("Defendant Thomas sent an e-mail to the effect, `it was wrong for me to call you a loud-mouth power-monging [sic] spic and compare you to Fideel [sic] Castro's dictatorship style of leadership.'").

Familiar with the false allegations contained in the alleged discriminatory e-mails and letters submitted in connection with Jimenez's failed worker's compensation suit, Defendants' counsel attempted to persuade Nunnery to withdraw the lawsuit on the basis that the documents underlying

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the allegations were less than authentic and fraudulent documents. Going further to achieve a fair disposition of the matter, on December 13, 2000, Defendants' counsel sent Nunnery a letter informing him that each of the Defendants unanimously denied authorship of the various e-mails and letters attributed to them by his client, Jimenez, and requested a dismissal of the suit. See Def. Ex. 1, Dec. 13, 2000 Letter. Jimenez and Nunnery did not agree to dismiss and continued to pursue the false and ridiculous action against Defendants.

The Defendants' attempts to deter the suit having failed, they sent Nunnery a proposed motion for sanctions on March 1, 2001, providing Nunnery and Jimenez with the 21-day notice required under Rule 11. Fed.R.Civ.P. 11(C)(1)(a). Thereafter, Defendants Thomas, Bassett and Strycker, as well as the College, filed their Motion for Rule 11 sanctions with the district court. The district court held an evidentiary hearing in the matter.

At the hearing, Jimenez repeatedly denied that the alleged communications were fraudulent and maintained that the named Defendants had, in fact, made the discriminatory statements contained in the writings. Nunnery also testified, informing the court that his "standing position" on issues of credibility was that "when there is a judgment call, [he] fall[s] on the side of my client." Tr. at 60. On such basis, he justified his refusal to dismiss the case,...