Madlock v. WEC Energy Grp., Inc.

• Decision Date: 14 March 2018
• Docket Number: No. 17-1278,17-1278
• Citation: 885 F.3d 465
• Parties: Rosemary MADLOCK, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WEC ENERGY GROUP, INC., d/b/a WE Energies, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

885 F.3d 465

Rosemary MADLOCK, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.WEC ENERGY GROUP, INC., d/b/a WE Energies, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 17-1278

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued November 1, 2017

Decided March 14, 2018

William Rettko, Attorney, Rettko Law Offices, Brookfield, WI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Emery K. Harlan, Attorney, MWH Law Group LLP, Milwaukee, WI, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before Manion, Kanne, and Rovner, Circuit Judges.

Manion, Circuit Judge.

Rosemary Madlock has worked for Wisconsin Electric Power Company ("WEPCO")¹ for approximately forty years. In 2016, she brought this § 1981 suit against WEPCO after she was transferred from one section of WEPCO’s billing division to another, a move she claims was the result of racial discrimination. She also claims WEPCO retaliated against her by disciplining her after she filed an internal discrimination complaint against her former supervisor.

The district court granted summary judgment to WEPCO, and Madlock now appeals. Because there is no genuine dispute about any material fact and WEPCO is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I.

This is an appeal from the grant of summary judgment, so we "view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party," Foskett v. Great Wolf Resorts, Inc. , 518 F.3d 518, 522 (7th Cir. 2008), and "draw all reasonable inferences from the evidence" in her favor, Cont’l Cas. Co. v. Nw. Nat’l Ins. Co. , 427 F.3d 1038, 1041 (7th Cir. 2005) (quoting Franklin v. City of Evanston , 384 F.3d 838, 843 (7th Cir. 2004) ).

Madlock, who describes herself as a "confident and knowledgeable African American woman," has worked at WEPCO since 1977. In the mid-1990s, Madlock began working in the "Meter to Bill" division of WEPCO, which was responsible for handling WEPCO’s billing. Meter to Bill was split into two sections: Industrial Billing, which served WEPCO’s large commercial customers, and Volume Billing, which served smaller commercial and residential customers. At the time of the events involved in this action, Madlock was working as a Lead Customer Service Specialist in the Industrial Billing section. As a "Lead," Madlock was not in management, but she was expected to be a point person for her team of "billers."

In 2011, WEPCO assigned a new management team to Meter to Bill, and Renee Rabiego-Tiller assumed the position of Manager. This new management team came in with a mandate to perform a comprehensive review of Meter to Bill to reduce rebills. As part of this focus, management instituted various metrics to measure performance.

Jean Frelka, the Director of Meter to Bill, hired Cathy Wrycza, a white woman, to be a "Team Leader" in the Industrial Billing section, meaning that Wrycza became Madlock’s direct supervisor. From very early on, Wrycza and Madlock butted heads. Wrycza, who had come from WEPCO’s Call Center, was unfamiliar with certain aspects of her new post. Due to her lack of experience, Wrycza would approach Madlock with questions, but these sessions would not go well, and Wrycza would storm away. At some point, Wrycza admitted to Madlock that she had problems dealing with Madlock’s stature, which Madlock took as a reference to her height and her demeanor in conversation.

Even before the new management team arrived in Meter to Bill, Madlock’s conduct, such as personal phone use, had drawn the attention of management, and under Wrycza and the rest of the new management team, Madlock’s conduct came under even greater scrutiny. In December 2011, Wrycza learned of a billing error Madlock had made the preceding June. In February 2012, Wrycza gave Madlock an official written "coaching,"² which constituted the first step on WEPCO’s graduated discipline system, for that error. Madlock filed a grievance against that discipline, but Tiller ultimately denied the grievance, noting Madlock had committed another error on a different account. In May 2012, Wrycza issued Madlock a "Record of Disciplinary Action," the second step in the discipline system, because Madlock had approved a bill that overbilled a customer by $58,900. In August 2012, Frelka rescinded the February discipline, concluding that Madlock had not received the requisite training at the time she committed the error. This downgraded the discipline for the $58,900 overbill to a first-step official coaching. In November 2012, Frelka instructed Wrycza to discipline Madlock for inappropriate behavior and the use of unprofessional language due to an incident with two co-workers. Madlock filed a grievance against that discipline, which Wrycza denied.

By February 2013, the conflict between Wrycza and Madlock was apparently coming to a head. The two met with Tiller, who told them to communicate. A month later, Tiller decided to transfer Madlock out of Industrial Billing into Volume Billing. Tiller cited Madlock’s billing errors as the reason for the move. Because Volume Billing handled smaller accounts, the magnitude of any future errors would be mitigated.

As a result of the transfer, Madlock was moved to a cubicle in the center of the room between two managers, and her team from Industrial Billing was told to no longer go to her for help. Though WEPCO did not initially give her a new team in Volume Billing, this was due to Madlock’s unfamiliarity with Volume Billing’s processes. The transfer did not affect Madlock’s title or salary, but one co-worker described the transfer as a demotion and another referred to it as a total humiliation. Tiller herself wondered whether the move humiliated Madlock.

In Volume Billing, Madlock’s new supervisor was Shemieka Phillips, a black woman. At some point (Phillips cannot remember when), Wrycza discussed her insecurities about Madlock with Phillips, and Wrycza expressed her view that Madlock was a "strong black woman." Wrycza had also used this phrase in 2008 or 2009 in a conversation with a union steward at a dinner, asking her how she dealt with "strong black women."

On April 12, 2013, after prompting by Phillips, Madlock filed an internal discrimination complaint against Wrycza, alleging Wrycza discriminated against her on the bases of age and race. Reacting to the complaint, WEPCO’s investigator interviewed several people, including Phillips and Wrycza. Wrycza learned of the complaint on May 14, 2013, the day of her interview.

On April 4, 2013, before Madlock filed her complaint, a company trainer reported to Tiller that Madlock had made a billing error in August 2012 that resulted in a $10,000 credit back to the customer. On May 16, 2013—two days after Wrycza learned of the complaint—Phillips, after consultation with Tiller, issued Madlock a Record of Disciplinary Action for that error. On May 30, 2013, Madlock filed a grievance challenging the discipline.

In response to the grievance, Phillips set out, with Wrycza’s assistance, to compile a list of Madlock’s prior unofficial coachings and disciplines. The resulting list, composed by reference to Madlock’s personnel file, contained a notation for every time a supervisor had discussed an issue with Madlock, whether it was an official disciplinary action or not. On June 6, 2013, Phillips denied Madlock’s grievance. On November 21, 2013, the Vice President of Customer Service also denied the grievance, expressing shock at the number of errors Madlock had committed.

In December 2013, a Claims Analyst position opened at WEPCO, and Madlock applied. This position would have been a "promotion" for Madlock. On January 24, 2014, Madlock was notified that WEPCO was not offering her the position due to her work record. Madlock filed a grievance on this non-selection, which was denied.

Madlock then filed the instant § 1981 suit, alleging that WEPCO discriminated against her due to her race and retaliated against her for filing the internal discrimination complaint. WEPCO moved for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment to WEPCO. Madlock appealed.

II.

Our review of the grant of a motion for summary judgment is de novo , and we may affirm such a grant "for any reason supported by the record." Boss v. Castro , 816 F.3d 910, 916 (7th Cir. 2016). Summary judgment is appropriate "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). Considering that summary judgment may only be denied when there is a "genuine dispute" as to a "material fact," we are not tasked with determining whether there is any evidence in the record to support the non-movant, but rather "whether reasonable jurors could find by a preponderance of the evidence that the [non-movant] is entitled to a verdict." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 477 U.S. 242, 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986) ; see also Lynch v. Belden and Co., Inc. , 882 F.2d 262, 269 (7th Cir. 1989) (stating that the plaintiff in a discrimination suit bears the burden of proof by the preponderance of the evidence). In this case, Madlock makes claims of racial discrimination and retaliation. We address each in turn.

A. Racial Discrimination

We recently cleaned out "the rat’s nest of surplus tests" that plagued our case law on the subject of race discrimination. Ortiz v. Werner Enters., Inc. , 834 F.3d 760, 766 (7th Cir. 2016) (internal quotation marks omitted). In their place, we now employ the following straightforward inquiry: "[W]hether the evidence would permit a reasonable factfinder to conclude that the plaintiff’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, or other proscribed factor caused the discharge or other adverse employment action." Id. at 765. This test presupposes the existence of an adverse employment action, so the threshold issue we must resolve is whether such an action has even occurred.

An adverse employment action is "some quantitative or qualitative change in the terms or conditions of [the plaintiff’s] employment that is more than a mere subjective preference." Johnson v....