Lewis v. Young Men's Christian Ass'n

• Decision Date: 10 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. CV 98-BU-1799-S.,CV 98-BU-1799-S.
• Citation: 53 F.Supp.2d 1253
• Parties: Grace LEWIS, Plaintiff, v. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, a Corporation, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Alabama

53 F.Supp.2d 1253

Grace LEWIS, Plaintiff, v. YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, a Corporation, Defendant.

No. CV 98-BU-1799-S.

United States District Court, N.D. Alabama, Southern Division.

June 10, 1999.

John F. Kizer, Jr., Birmingham, AL, for Plaintiff.

Fern Singer, Gail C. Washington, Elizabeth Barry Johnson, Jeffery A. Whitney, Sirote and Permutt, P.C., Birmingham, AL, for Defendant.

Memorandum Opinion

BUTTRAM, District Judge.

Now before the Court is a motion for summary judgment filed by Defendant, Young Men's Christian Association ("YMCA"), on April 15, 1999. (Doc. 11). The motion is accompanied by a brief and evidence in support of the motion. Plaintiff, Grace Lewis, has filed evidence and submitted a brief in opposition to the motion, and the YMCA has submitted a brief in reply thereto. In addition, the YMCA has filed a motion to strike two exhibits Lewis filed as evidence in opposition to the motion for summary judgment. (Doc. 15). The motions are now ripe for decision, and, upon due consideration, the Court concludes that the motion for summary judgment is due to be GRANTED and the motion to strike is MOOT.

SUMMARY JUDGMENT STANDARD

Summary judgment provides the parties an invaluable opportunity to test the mettle of a case before it ever reaches trial. On a motion for summary judgment, the court assesses all of the proof the parties can bring to bear in order to ascertain whether a genuine need for trial is present. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). Summary judgment is weighed heavily in favor of the non-movant; it is appropriate only if the court concludes that no genuine issue of material fact exists and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c). See Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 249, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S 317, 322, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). A party seeking summary judgment has the initial responsibility of informing this court of the grounds for its motion and specifically identifying those portions of the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and any affidavits that it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. Id. at 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548. The movant's burden is not meager; it must illuminate for the court the reasons why the non-movant cannot raise a genuine issue of material fact sufficient to support a trial.

Once the moving party has satisfied this initial burden, however, the nonmoving party "must make a sufficient showing to establish the existence of each essential element to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Howard v. BP Oil Company, 32 F.3d 520, 523 (11th Cir.1994). Rule 56(e) requires the nonmoving party to "go beyond the pleadings" and by "affidavits, or by the `depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file' designate `specific facts'" showing there exist genuine issues for trial. Celotex, 477 U.S. at 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548; Cottle v. Storer Communication, Inc., 849 F.2d 570, 575 (11th Cir.1988). "Tenuous insinuation" and empty speculation based on loose construal of the evidence will not satisfy the nonmovant's burden. Cf. Mesnick v. General Elec. Co., 950 F.2d 816, 820 (1st Cir.1991), cert. denied, 504 U.S. 985, 112 S.Ct. 2965, 119 L.Ed.2d 586 (1992).

While the court may consider the offered "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any" in deciding whether to grant or deny a summary judgment motion, FED. R. CIV. P. 56(c), the Rule "saddles the non-movant with the duty to `designate' the specific facts in the record" supporting its claims. Jones v. Sheehan, Young & Culp, P.C., 82 F.3d 1334, 1338 (5th Cir.1996). "Rule 56 ... does not impose upon the district court a duty to survey the entire record in search of evidence to support a non-movant's opposition." Id. See also Resolution Trust Corp. v. Dunmar Corp., 43 F.3d 587, 599 (11th Cir.) (en banc) ("There is no burden upon the district court to distill every potential argument that could be made based upon the materials before it on summary judgment."), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 817, 116 S.Ct. 74, 133 L.Ed.2d 33 (1995).

In resolving whether a given factual dispute requires submission to a jury, the court must inspect the presented evidence through the looking glass of each party's substantive evidentiary burden. Anderson, 477 U.S. at 254-55, 106 S.Ct. 2505. The court, however, must avoid weighing conflicting evidence for probity or making credibility determinations. Welch v. Celotex Corp., 951 F.2d 1235, 1237 (11th Cir.1992). "It is not part of the court's function, when deciding a motion for summary judgment, to decide issues of material fact, but rather decide whether such issues exist to be tried. The Court must avoid weighing conflicting evidence or making credibility determinations." Hairston v. Gainesville Sun Publishing Co., 9 F.3d 913, 919 (11th Cir.1993). At the same time, "[t]he nonmoving party must provide more than a mere scintilla of evidence to survive a motion for judgment as a matter of law; `there must be a substantial conflict in evidence to support a jury question.'" Tidwell v. Carter Products, 135 F.3d 1422, 1425 (11th Cir.1998) (citing Carter v. City of Miami, 870 F.2d 578, 581 (11th Cir.1989)).

The Court will now proceed to consider the application of the foregoing standards to the evidence presented in this case.

FACTS¹

Lewis was employed as an aerobics instructor by the YMCA from approximately April 1988 until August 29, 1995. The YMCA requires that each instructor have a current recognized fitness instruction certificate in order to be eligible to teach classes at its facilities. On August 25, 1995, Lewis delivered a current certification that she purportedly received from the Aerobics Fitness Association of America ("AFAA") to the YMCA's Senior Physical Director, David Henley. Later that same day, Henley learned that Lewis had never been a member of the AFAA and that the card she had submitted actually belonged to someone else. On August 29, 1995, Henley met with Lewis and informed her that she was being taken off the aerobics schedule because of her failure to complete a certification course offered by the YMCA and her act of submitting a false certification card. During the course of an investigation into the discrepancies relating the AFAA certification card she submitted, Lewis demanded that Henley turn over her personnel file that the YMCA maintained on her. When he refused to do so, Lewis took the file from his hand and ran out of the YMCA with it. She later returned it after the YMCA requested her to do so.

After she was removed from the aerobics schedule, Lewis filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), alleging that the YMCA had discriminated against her on the basis of age. On July 22, 1996, Lewis filed a lawsuit claiming that the YMCA had violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621, et seq. The basis of her claim was that she was discriminated against on the basis of her age due to the fact that two younger employees were not immediately removed from the aerobics schedule when they failed to attend the YMCA certification course. Chief Judge Pointer of this Court, however, granted summary judgment in favor of the YMCA in an unpublished memorandum, holding that Lewis failed to demonstrate that she was treated differently that any similarly situated employee because the two younger employees, unlike Lewis, had arranged with the YMCA to take another certification course and had not submitted a false certification card. Lewis v. YMCA, CV96-P-1866-S, Doc. 9 at *3 (N.D.Ala.1997).

On September 20, 1997, Lewis acquired the necessary certification to be an aerobics instructor at the YMCA. In November 1997, Lewis visited the YMCA's Five Points South branch, a different branch from where she had previously worked. During that visit Lewis was approached by the branch Aerobics Coordinator, Terrie Crain, who recognized Lewis as a former YMCA aerobics instructor and inquired whether Lewis would be interested teaching a class there. Lewis replied that she was interested and that she had recently been certified. About two days later, on or about November 18, 1997, Lewis returned for a meeting with the branch Executive Director, Phil Noble, at which time she filled out an application and other paperwork. Noble indicated that he was looking forward to working with Lewis and that he would take Lewis's application information and "walk" it by Linda Johnston, who was the personnel manager for the YMCA. On that day, Crain also showed Lewis where to park, where to clock in, and Noble told her that she would start teaching classes the following Thursday.²

After her meeting with Noble, however, Lewis was worried at the prospect of Noble contacting Johnston because Johnston had been involved in defending the YMCA against Lewis's ADEA suit and knew that Lewis had submitted a false certification card and taken her personnel file. Lewis called Johnston with hopes that she might receive a second chance, and she asked Johnston to give her a favorable recommendation when contacted by Noble about the Five Points South instructor position. Johnston, however, said she would not be able to give Lewis a favorable recommendation. Lewis directly asked Johnston if it was because of her prior lawsuit, and Johnson admits that she replied, "The lawsuit was probably part of it, but there were other circumstances," Johnston Dep. at 23. Johnson acknowledges that she told Lewis that the lawsuit "was time-consuming and it cost us a lot of effort," id. at 24. But she also explained that "[the reason she couldn't give a favorable recommendation] wasn't just the lawsuit, Grace. ...