Joyce v. Cleveland Clinic Found.
| Decision Date | 29 September 2014 |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 1:13CV01224 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio |
| Parties | MARIANNE JOYCE, Plaintiff, v. CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION, et al., Defendants. |
MEMORANDUM OF OPINION & ORDER [Resolving ECF Nos. 25, 33, 36, and 37]
Defendants Cleveland Clinic Foundation ("CCF"), Albert Kious,1 Joanne Zeroske, and Gloria Donnelly seeks summary judgment in their favor on Plaintiff Marianne Joyce's complaint alleging gender and disability discrimination in violation of R.C. 4112.02(A), retaliation in violation of R.C. 4112.02(I), and violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act, ("FMLA"), 29 U.S.C. § 2601, et seq. To this end, Defendants filed the pending Motion for Summary Judgment. ECF No. 25. Plaintiff filed an opposition brief. ECF No. 33. Defendants filed a reply. ECF No. 36. Plaintiff has also filed a motion for leave to respond to Defendant's reply and included a proposed response which the Court has reviewed. ECF No. 37. Defendants' motion is ripe for the Court's adjudication. For the reasons provided in this Memorandum of Opinion and Order, the Court hereby denies Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff's retaliationclaim under R.C. 4112.02(I) and FMLA interference claim, and grants as to Plaintiff's remaining claims.
Plaintiff Marianne Joyce was hired by CCF in April 2006 as the Physician Business Development Coordinator at CCF's Euclid Hospital. ECF No. 25-2 at 4, page 11. In her capacity as Physician Business Development Coordinator, Plaintiff was responsible for developing relationships with unaffiliated medical providers so as to encourage their references to CCF hospitals. Id. Plaintiff's office was in the Euclid Hospital, but her job responsibilities primarily required her to work outside of the hospital, at the private practice offices of area physicians. Id.; ECF No. 44. While Plaintiff was initially hired on a part-time basis, in December 2007, she approached Euclid Hospital's then-President Robert Stall about converting her position to full-time. ECF No. 25-3 at 10, pages 102-03. In response to her request, Plaintiff became employed full-time as a Physician Business Development Coordinator.
Prior to her employment with CCF, Plaintiff dated non-party Terrell Ford. In 2000, Plaintiff ended her relationship with Ford. Following their breakup, Ford engaged in a number of threatening actions against Plaintiff, her family, and friends. Ford stalked Plaintiff and her daughter, broke a restraining order that Plaintiff had against Ford, and threatened to kill Plaintiff's friend. ECF No. 25-3 at 26, pages 143-44. As a result, Ford was indicted with attempted abduction and menacing by stalking on July 13, 2000. ECF No. 33-3 ¶ 5. Ford ultimately pleaded guilty to these charges, and consequently was terminated from the Cleveland Heights Police Department. ECF No. 25-2 at 4-5, pages 12-13. Since the 2000 incident, Fordhas not had any other criminal charges brought against him for interactions with Plaintiff or for any other reason. ECF No. 25-1 at 9.
Ford applied a position with CCF in 2001 as a Patient Access Representative at CCF's Huron Hospital. Ford indicated on his application to CCF that he was a convicted felon, but failed to provide any details about his conviction. ECF No 25-10 at 5, pages 15-16. CCF hired Ford for the position on April 30, 2001. It is unclear whether CCF ran a criminal background check on Ford at the time he was hired.2 Id., page 17. CCF later promoted Ford in November 2008 to Coordinator of Medical Staff Services, a position which required Ford to serve as an intermediary between Huron Hospital's management and medical staff. ECF No. 25-7 at 5, page 16. Defendant Kious, then-President of Huron Hospital, was aware of Ford's stalking conviction at the time of promotion, but not the attempted abduction conviction. Id. at 8, page 26. Kious nonetheless supported Ford's promotion because Ford received positive reviews from co-workers during the seven years he worked at CCF. Id. at 14, pages 49-51. At all times during Ford's employment, CCF did not never received a complaint about Ford engaging in violent actions towards women, including Plaintiff. ECF Nos. 25-3 at 31, page 164; 25-17 ¶ 8.
From April 2006 until January 2009, Plaintiff and Ford never came into contact with each other at work.3 ECF No 25-2 at 6, page 17. In January 2009, Plaintiff learned of Ford'sNovember 2008 promotion and became afraid of coming into contact with Ford at work. Id., page 19. On January 28, 2009, Plaintiff spoke to Rosemary Scholti—a non-supervisory coworker—about her prior relationship with Ford. Plaintiff emailed Scholti a copy of the court docket from the 2000 criminal case against Ford. Id. at 5, page 16. Scholti forwarded this email to CCF's Legal Department. ECF No. 25-3 at 38, page 193.
Upon receipt of the email from Scholti, the Legal Department commenced an investigation into Ford's hiring. ECF No. 33-5 at 7-8. Jackie Puntel, Huron Hospital Director of Human Resources, confirmed that Ford disclosed his convictions during the application process. ECF No. 25-17 ¶ 8. In 2009, Puntel also requested, for the first time, that a criminal background check be run for Ford and shared these results with the Legal Department. ECF No. 25-18 ¶ 5. Even though CCF determined that it did not need to take any adverse action concerning Ford at this time, CCF instructed Ford, in March 2009, that he was to avoid meetings in which Plaintiff was in attendance. ECF No. 25-17 ¶ 10.
In July 2009, Plaintiff had two conversations with members of CCF's management about Plaintiff's 2000 incident with Ford: first, with Euclid Hospital's Director of Human Resources, Defendant Donnelly; and second with her supervisor, then-President of Euclid Hospital Defendant Zeroske. ECF No. 25-3 at 23, pages 132-33. The parties dispute the nature of these conversations. Defendant Donnelly testified that she consulted Jackie Puntel about the results ofthe January 2009 investigation; had a panic button installed in Plaintiff's office; gave a picture of Ford to Rich Lowery, the Director of Euclid Hospital's security; determined that Ford had not accessed Plaintiff's medical records; and then relayed these actions to Plaintiff. ECF No. 25-13 at 13-14, pages 46-50. Donnelly memorialized her actions and the conversation had with Plaintiff in a case file. ECF No. 25-12 at 5. Plaintiff denies that the panic button was installed or that Donnelly told Plaintiff about speaking to Puntel. ECF No. 25-2 at 7-8, pages 23-25.
A few days after speaking with Donnelly, Plaintiff spoke to Zeroske, again, about Ford. During their conversation, Zeroske asked why Plaintiff was discussing Ford with her, and Plaintiff repeated her concerns about running into Ford. The two characterize the tenor of the conversation differently. Plaintiff testified that Zeroske wanted to know why Plaintiff was bringing up a personal matter, and that Zeroske allegedly said "I don't want to talk to you about this." ECF Nos. 25-2 at 8, page 26; 25-3 at 26, page 144. Zeroske testified that she asked because she did not understand why Plaintiff had chosen to bring the issue to Zeroske at this time, and asked Plaintiff several times if Ford was presently doing anything to make Plaintiff feel unsafe. ECF No. 25-10 at 10, page 36. Plaintiff does not deny, but cannot recall, whether Zeroske asked whether Ford had approached Plaintiff at work. ECF No. 25-2 at 8, page 27.
Plaintiff neither came into contact with Ford nor raised objections about CCF's responses to her concerns to any other person in a management position at CCF for the following year. ECF No. 25-3 at 24, page 136. Around February 2010, Plaintiff's doctor first began to treat Plaintiff for post-traumatic stress disorder ("PTSD"). Plaintiff testified that she may have toldher co-worker Rosemary Scholti about being "anxious," but, while being deposed, Plaintiff could not recall having discussed the diagnosis with a supervisor. ECF No. 25-3 at 16, page 106.
Defendants allege that Plaintiff's position as full-time Physician Business Development Coordinator4 was identified as one subject to an upcoming reduction in force ("RIF") in the CCF system in late June or early July of 2010.5
Plaintiff's position was identified for a number of reasons. First, the Euclid Hospital did not have as great a need for a Physician Liaison because the majority of physicians at the Euclid Hospital were CCF employees; thus CCF did not need a liaison to facilitate their work at Euclid. ECF No. 35-1 ¶ 13. Second, Plaintiff was the only employee with her responsibilities budgeted as a full-time employee. Id. ¶ 15. Third, Jeanette Velez, the Liaison employed at HuronHospital, was performing marketing and other administrative responsibilities on top of her work as Physician Liaison. Id. ¶ 17. Huron serviced many of the same doctors as Euclid, so it would have been practical to consolidate the two positions into one. Id. In conjunction with the RIF, CCF selected Velez to assume Plaintiff's responsibilities at Euclid because Velez had more seniority and more advanced education than Plaintiff. Id. ¶ 18.
On July 10, 2010, Plaintiff was invited to attend a physicians' event at the Mayfield Country Club. ECF No. 25-3 at 24, pages 137-38. The event was attended by somewhere between seventy-five and one hundred people. ECF No. 25-2 at 10, page 34. Plaintiff spotted Ford when she walked towards the back of the room to get food. Id. at 9, page 31. Plaintiff testified that the sight of Ford petrified her, but admits that Ford never interacted with Plaintiff during the event. Id. at 10, page 33; ECF No. 25-13 at 19, page 71.
On July 22, 2010, Plaintiff emailed Donnelly about the Mayfield event. ECF No. 25-7 at 38-39. Plaintiff stated that Ford "was right in front of me" and that she was anxious that she would cross paths with Ford again. Id. Plaintiff also mentions...
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