Laughlin v. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

• Decision Date: 02 July 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-1188,97-1188
• Citation: 149 F.3d 253
• Parties: 77 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 269, 73 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,434, 41 Fed.R.Serv.3d 299 Karen LAUGHLIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORTS AUTHORITY; Augustus Melton, Jr., Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 253

149 F.3d 253

77 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 269,

73 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,434, 41 Fed.R.Serv.3d 299

Karen LAUGHLIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON AIRPORTS AUTHORITY; Augustus Melton, Jr., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 97-1188.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued April 7, 1998.

Decided July 2, 1998.

ARGUED: Jerry William Boykin, Redmon, Boykin & Braswell, L.L.P., Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Morris Kletzkin, Friedlander, Misler, Friedlander, Sloan & Herz, Washington, DC, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Jerome Ostrov, Mark D. Crawford, Friedlander, Misler, Friedlander, Sloan & Herz, Washington, DC, for Appellees.

Before WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge, PHILLIPS, Senior Circuit Judge, and OSTEEN, United States District Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Senior Judge PHILLIPS and Judge OSTEEN joined.

OPINION

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge:

Karen Laughlin appeals the grant of summary judgment on her claim of retaliatory discharge in violation of Title VII, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-3 (West 1994), in favor of her former employer, Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (the MWAA). Title VII prohibits an employer from retaliating against a worker for either participating in a Title VII proceeding or opposing an employer's discriminatory practices. ¹ See 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-3(a). Laughlin argues that the district court erred when it determined that the unauthorized removal of documents from her boss's desk constituted opposition rather than participation under Title VII. See 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-3(a). Additionally, she asserts that the district court erred when it applied an improper balancing test, which incorporated a rebuttable presumption, to the facts of her case. Finally, Laughlin alleges that the district court abused its discretion when it did not give her appropriate notice that it intended to treat the motion captioned, "Motion to Dismiss, or, in the alternative, Motion for Summary Judgment," as a motion for summary judgment under Rule 56. Because we determine that summary judgment was appropriate, we affirm.

I.

These facts, drawn from Laughlin's pleadings, affidavits, and depositions, are expressed in the light most favorable to her as the non-moving party. See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 255, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) (stating that an appellate court reviewing a grant of summary judgment is required to view the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party and must draw all reasonable inferences therefrom).

Essential to understanding the incident that directly led to Laughlin's termination are the events related to another MWAA employee. Kathy LaSauce, an operations officer at the MWAA, filed an informal complaint with the EEO officer at the MWAA against William Rankin, LaSauce's supervisor. In her complaint, she alleged that Rankin had retaliated against her for providing testimony in another operations officer's EEO action. Initially LaSauce took her complaint to the Washington National Airport manager, Augustus Melton, Jr., in April 1994. Melton took steps to settle the complaint informally. Those steps failed, and LaSauce filed a formal complaint with the MWAA EEO officer and tendered her resignation. In the process of investigating and attempting to settle the LaSauce/Rankin dispute, in September 1994, Melton drafted a written warning to Rankin regarding the inappropriate retaliatory actions that he had taken against LaSauce. The written warning, however, was never formalized; it was neither signed by Melton nor seen by Rankin, it was simply prepared and left on Melton's desk. At about the same time that LaSauce's resignation became effective and Melton had drafted the written warning, Rankin was selected for the job of El Paso Airport manager and tendered his resignation to the MWAA officials.

Meanwhile, Laughlin, a secretary to Melton, reported directly to the airport manager's staff assistant. During the course of her regular duties, on or about September 29, 1994, she discovered a copy of the unsigned written warning on Melton's desk addressed to Rankin. She noticed immediately that the written warning discussed the LaSauce dispute. The written warning was date-stamped September 8, 1994. Laughlin believed that the existence of the dated warning on the desk was highly irregular because correspondence was not generally date-stamped at the MWAA until it was in final form awaiting signature. Alongside the written warning she found Rankin's resignation letter explaining that he had been offered the position in El Paso, and a news clipping, predating the resignation letter, from an El Paso newspaper mentioning that Rankin was the front runner for the position in El Paso. Laughlin was so surprised to see the unsigned correspondence on her boss's desk that she immediately concluded that he was engaging in a coverup to prevent LaSauce from having adequate access to relevant documents for a future lawsuit. As a result of these suspicions, Laughlin removed the documents, photocopied them, and replaced the originals on her boss's desk. She sent the copies to LaSauce with a note stating that she thought LaSauce might find them interesting.

Laughlin's removal and copying of the documents was discovered in 1996 during a deposition in a civil suit filed by LaSauce. Laughlin was terminated as a result of removing the documents. Her termination notice stated in pertinent part that:

1) you are a confidential employee in that you are an employee who acts in a confidential capacity with respect to me, the Airport Manager, who effectuates management policies in labor-management relations; 2) you released a draft letter of reprimand, a personnel related document which is confidential by nature; 3) you released personal documents of Mr. William Rankin's, without his or my consent, that had been sent to me for my information; 4) you sent these documents to Ms. Kathy LaSauce on your own accord, without my consent; and 5) according to Ms. LaSauce's sworn deposition, she never asked you for these documents.

(J.A. at 20.)

II.

As a result of her termination, Laughlin filed a complaint with the EEOC on April 18, 1996, alleging retaliatory dismissal. The EEOC adjudicated the complaint and determined that the charge of unlawful retaliation should be dismissed and issued a Notice of the Right to Sue on June 20, 1996. Subsequently, Laughlin filed a complaint in the district court on September 16, 1996, asserting a claim for unlawful retaliation in violation of Title VII, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e-3 (West 1994). The MWAA filed as its responsive pleading a "Motion to Dismiss, or, in the alternative, Motion for Summary Judgment" to which it attached affidavits, a list of points upon which no material facts were in dispute, the documents received by LaSauce, and several excerpts from depositions taken in another case. Laughlin filed a memorandum in opposition to the motion and attached an affidavit.

The district court held a hearing on the motion, characterized the motion as one for summary judgment because matters outside the pleadings had been introduced, and granted summary judgment to the MWAA. The district court issued a Memorandum Opinion in which it outlined the rationale for granting summary judgment. In its opinion, the district court noted that to prevail on a Title VII claim of retaliatory termination, a plaintiff must first prove that she engaged in protected activity. Protected activity under Title VII is divided into two categories, opposition and participation. ² The district court decided as an initial matter that Laughlin's act of removing documents from her boss's desk did not constitute participation because there was no ongoing investigation or proceeding relating to LaSauce at the time of the incident. Therefore, the district court analyzed Laughlin's actions under the opposition clause.

The court noted that a balancing test is usually applied to determine whether opposition activity is protected under Title VII. See Armstrong v. Index Journal Co., 647 F.2d 441, 448 (4th Cir.1981) (adopting balancing test first articulated in Hochstadt v. Worcester Found. for Experimental Biology, 545 F.2d 222, 231 (1st Cir.1976)). The test balances the purpose of the Act to protect persons engaging in reasonable activities opposing discrimination, against Congress' desire not to prevent employers from legitimately disciplining their employees. See id. The district court concluded, however, that the balancing test should not apply in this case. Rather, it concluded that there should be a presumption against finding surreptitious, dishonest, and disloyal behavior to be protected activity under Title VII. The district court applied the presumption, and determined that Laughlin could not overcome it. As an alternative holding, the district court applied the long-standing balancing test (sans presumption) to determine whether Laughlin's activity was protected under the opposition clause. The district court balanced the competing interests of Laughlin and the MWAA and determined that Laughlin's subjective belief that she needed to purloin the written warning and accompanying information to preserve the items as documentary evidence was completely unsupported. The district court also indicated that Laughlin had made an insufficient showing that the MWAA's internal grievance procedure would have proven inadequate to address her concerns about the documents. Because the court concluded that Laughlin's asserted reasons for taking her boss's documents were inadequately supported by the affidavits before it, it concluded that Laughlin's interest in promoting the nondiscriminatory purpose of Title VII was outweighed by her employer's interest in maintaining confidentiality and loyalty.

Laughlin filed a timely notice of appeal. She claims that the...