Lockheed Martin Corp. v. Balderrama
| Decision Date | 31 March 2016 |
| Docket Number | No. 379, Sept. Term, 2015.,379, Sept. Term, 2015. |
| Citation | 134 A.3d 398,227 Md.App. 476 |
| Parties | LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION v. Vincent BALDERRAMA. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Steven M. Klepper (Louis P. Malick, Kramon & Graham, PA, Baltimore, MD and Tamika R. Nordstrom, Constancy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP, Atlanta, GA), all on brief, for appellant.
Adam A. Carter (R. Scott Oswald, The Employment Law Group, PC, Washington, D.C.), on brief, for appellee.
Panel: GRAEFF, LEAHY, and ALAN M. WILNER (Retired, Specially Assigned), JJ.*
This case arises from a lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County by Vincent Balderrama, appellee, against Lockheed Martin Corporation, his former employer, alleging that Lockheed Martin terminated his employment in retaliation for claiming that his negative performance evaluation resulted from discrimination based on national origin. Although Mr. Balderrama also sued on the ground of discrimination based on national origin, the circuit court granted Lockheed Martin's motion for summary judgment on that claim, finding that there was not legally sufficient evidence to support it. The sole issue presented to the jury was the claim that Lockheed Martin fired Mr. Balderrama in retaliation for making a complaint of discrimination. The jury found in favor of Mr. Balderrama and awarded him $830,000.
On appeal, Lockheed Martin presents several questions for our review, which we have rephrased slightly, as follows:
For the reasons set forth below, we answer the first question in the affirmative, holding that Mr. Balderrama did not produce sufficient evidence to submit the retaliation claim to the jury. Accordingly, we shall reverse the judgment of the circuit court.1
Mr. Balderrama stated in his amended complaint that, at the time of filing, he was a 58–year–old Hispanic male. He was hired by Lockheed Martin in 2004 to fill the role of Business Development Manager. In 2007, Mr. Balderrama transferred to the Mission Systems and Sensors Integration Division. He was tasked with, inter alia, "identifying and qualifying international sales opportunities of MH–60 Seahawk helicopters for sale to governments of countries in his portfolio." Mr. Balderrama was a member of "Team Seahawk," a cooperative enterprise comprised of multiple teams within multiple organizations, with the unifying goal of producing and marketing Seahawk helicopters internationally.2
During his first five years with the company, Mr. Balderrama was considered a "higher performer." In 2009 and 2010, however, Mr. Balderrama's then supervisor, Ron Christensen, gave him a significantly lower performance rating than in previous years. For the 2010 evaluation year, Mr. Christensen gave Mr. Balderrama an overall performance score of 3 out of 5, which corresponds to "acceptable" performance.
In January 2011, Doug Laurendeau replaced Mr. Christensen as Mr. Balderrama's immediate supervisor. Mr. Laurendeau gave Mr. Balderrama the same "acceptable" score of 3 out of 5 for his performance in 2011.
In 2012, Mr. Balderrama, acting as "business development lead," was tasked with selling Seahawk helicopters to Denmark. That year, Team Seahawk succeeded in selling nine helicopters to Denmark, a sale of approximately $700 million, which resulted in approximately $130 million in gross revenue to Lockheed Martin. Mr. Balderrama's customer relationships were credited as having a "tangible impact on the win."3 In February 2013, Lockheed Martin issued an "Independent Lessons Learned" document that rated positively Team Seahawk's work on the Denmark "capture."
Despite the significant Team Seahawk "win," Mr. Balderrama's supervisors were not satisfied with his performance during that year, particularly his failure to follow management direction and his inability or unwillingness to communicate with his team. Mr. Balderrama would disparage Mr. Laurendeau's managerial decisions and "bad-mouth" him in conversations with senior members of their Navy customer. Mr. Laurendeau believed that Mr. Balderrama was either unwilling or unable to create a "political call plan" that would establish acceptable customer "counterparts," and instead, he contacted those "counterparts" himself. In some instances, Mr. Balderrama violated company policy by contacting senior Navy officials that he was not authorized to engage. Mr. Laurendeau gave Mr. Balderrama a lower performance rating for 2012, which placed him in the bottom 10% of employees in his peer group at Lockheed Martin.
Prior to notifying Mr. Balderrama of his evaluation, Mr. Laurendeau notified his supervisor, George Barton, and Cindy Gadra, a member of Lockheed Martin's human resources department. He stated that, although Mr. Balderrama "brings some significant strengths to the team," Mr. Balderrama had "not been successful at demonstrating improvement" in areas of development that had been discussed. Mr. Laurendeau expected that Mr. Balderrama would be upset with his performance review, and he proposed a meeting with Mr. Shultz to bring the issue to his attention so Mr. Schultz would not be "blindsided" if Mr. Balderrama reached out to him to challenge his negative evaluation.4
On February 12, 2013, Mr. Laurendeau met with Mr. Balderrama to discuss his performance review for 2012. Mr. Laurendeau credited Mr. Balderrama's contribution to the Denmark win, but he stated "that's not everything." Mr. Laurendeau explained that Mr. Balderrama had not provided him with all the expected plans, and he "tended to do stuff by [him]self" instead of engaging the whole team. When Mr. Balderrama was asked about his "positioning to win" strategy, he "tend[ed] to just come up with anecdotes and not real facts to support [them]."
Mr. Balderrama refuted these criticisms, asserting that he gave Mr. Laurendeau all the requisite plans, and he regularly updated and fully briefed Mr. Laurendeau. He claimed that the problem was that Mr. Laurendeau did not believe the briefings that he received, and he accused Mr. Laurendeau of being unfair. Mr. Balderrama stated: "I gave you all this information, and I don't think you're judging me by the same standard as everybody else."
Mr. Laurendeau then reiterated his criticism that Mr. Balderrama failed to engage his team, and Mr. Balderrama did not engage executives and allow them to establish relationships with their counterparts in Denmark, but rather, he "stifled [management] at every opportunity to do that." Mr. Balderrama again disputed these allegations. He stated that, even though the Danes with whom they were negotiating stated that they did not want executives "parachuting" into their negotiations, the Lockheed Martin executives nonetheless had numerous opportunities to meet with Danish officials.
Mr. Balderrama responded that his meeting with Danish politicians was authorized, and he argued that he had "always taken in people's opinions," and he was a "team player," as well as a "team leader."
Mr. Laurendeau then told Mr. Balderrama that, "when you add all these things up together, the total average comes out to you're in the bottom ten percent of [your] peer group." Mr. Balderrama responded:
Are you kidding me? I'm in the bottom ten percent? I mean, we won Denmark. We've been a team player with everybody. Everybody except for you [Mr. Laurendeau] seems to think that I did a wonderful job, you know? I just think you've been—I've said it before. I think you're prejudiced. I think this whole thing is—you've been measuring—this shows you've been measuring me by a different yardstick.
Mr. Balderrama stated that Mr. Laurendeau was "speaking in generalities," and he asked for specific examples of misbehavior. Mr. Laurendeau stated that Mr. Balderrama did not get executive management or other leadership engaged. Mr. Laurendeau advised that his review was "a fair and accurate assessment" of Mr. Balderrama's performance in 2012. Mr. Balderrama responded:
You've been prejudiced to me. This is—it's a pure example again of how you've been measuring me by a different yardstick. You didn't even look at the facts.... I don't get it. I don't understand it. That's unfair. You know? I have to do something about this. I can't let this stand.
Mr. Laurendeau asked Mr. Balderrama what he intended to do, and Mr. Balderrama replied that he did not know, but he would talk to Dan Schultz. Mr. Laurendeau stated that Mr. Schultz was "not in the chain," to which Mr. Balderrama replied that Mr. Schultz knew him, and he would have to talk to human resources "or something else." Mr. Laurendeau told Mr. Balderrama that he was "free to talk to HR," and he referred Mr. Balderrama to Ms. Gadra.
Mr. Balderrama signed his performance review on February 28, 2013...
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...superior employee who knew of it and was motivated by gender-based animus. Id. at 205, 66 A.3d 1152.In Lockheed Martin Corp. v. Balderrama , 227 Md. App. 476, 134 A.3d 398 (2016), we reversed a judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of a plaintiff who alleged that he was fired for comp......