Mannie v. Potter

• Decision Date: 20 January 2005
• Docket Number: No. 03-4340.,03-4340.
• Citation: 394 F.3d 977
• Parties: Lynnette MANNIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John E. POTTER, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 977

394 F.3d 977

Lynnette MANNIE, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. John E. POTTER, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 03-4340.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued September 30, 2004.

Decided January 20, 2005.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Armand L. Andry (argued), Oak Park, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Donald R. Lorenzen (argued), Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellee.

Before ROVNER, WOOD, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Lynnette Mannie brought this action against the United States Postal Service, claiming disability discrimination, retaliation, and hostile work environment in violation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. §§ 701 et seq. The district court granted summary judgment for the Postal Service on the retaliation and hostile work environment claims. The discrimination claim, alleging that Mannie received disparate treatment in the assignment of work hours due to her mental illness, paranoid schizophrenia, went to trial and the jury found for the Postal Service. Mannie appeals, challenging the grant of summary judgment as well as an evidentiary ruling excluding the testimony of Mannie's former co-worker at trial. We affirm.

Mannie first applied to the Postal Service in January 1994. In a pre-employment medical history questionnaire, known as a "Form 2485," she revealed that she had undergone treatment for paranoia and submitted a doctor's statement reflecting treatment for delusions resulting from her condition. When Mannie was not offered a position, she filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") but dropped it when the Postal Service hired her later that year. Mannie completed another Form 2485 before she was hired, and this time she omitted her history of psychiatric treatment. In 1995 Mannie's supervisor, Phyllis James, reported that Mannie's co-workers had complained about her "erratic behavior, constant staring, and paranoia." Mannie underwent a "fitness for duty" exam and again denied having ever been treated for a psychiatric disorder. When the Postal Inspection Service discovered Mannie's original Form 2485 describing her paranoid schizophrenia, she was terminated for falsifying the two other forms. Mannie filed a charge with the EEOC, claiming that her termination was based upon her mental illness and was therefore discriminatory. After arbitration, Mannie was reinstated, but there was no finding that the Postal Service had discriminated against her.

In 1996 Mannie injured her wrist while working and filed a successful claim for workers' compensation. After her injury, Mannie was placed in the Nixie Unit where employees restricted to "light duty" for non-work related injuries and "limited duty" for work-related injuries are typically assigned because the work is not strenuous. In 1998 Mannie was diagnosed with tendonitis in her right wrist, and her doctor recommended that she be restricted from heavy lifting. The Postal Service again assigned her to the Nixie Unit where she has remained.

In August 2000 Mannie filed a charge with the EEOC, claiming that her supervisors had denied her work hours and benefits because of her mental condition and had retaliated against her for the filing of previous EEOC charges. She alleged that her schedule had been limited to 30 hours per week although part-time regular mail processors are usually allowed to work 37 1/2 hours per week. According to Mannie, supervisors Camille Buford and Phyllis James made derogatory comments about her mental health and shared this "negative information" with subsequent supervisors who continued to deny her hours. Mannie claimed that the Postal Service accommodated employees with physical disabilities and scheduled them for "full hours" but did not extend the same treatment to employees with mental disabilities. Mannie also claimed that her supervisors instructed her to undergo an additional "fitness for duty" examination in June 2000 because of her mental disability.

In November 2001 Mannie filed suit in federal district court after her administrative claim had been pending for more than 180 days without resolution. In her complaint, Mannie claimed that she had been subjected to disparate treatment, retaliation, and hostile work environment. She alleged that her supervisors had ridiculed her paranoid schizophrenia and revealed her mental disorder to her co-workers. She also claimed that her supervisors had scheduled her for fewer hours than other employees in her job category because of both her mental disability and her prior EEOC filings.

The Postal Service moved for summary judgment on all of Mannie's claims. It argued that Mannie was not disabled within the meaning of the Rehabilitation Act because her physical and mental impairments did not limit her ability to perform any major life activities. The Postal Service also argued that Mannie had not suffered any adverse employment action on which to base her claims because Mannie had admitted that she was guaranteed only six hours of work per day and she had always been scheduled and paid for this full amount. Moreover, Mannie had never signed the "overtime-desired" list that was the first step in being scheduled for overtime work. Finally, the Postal Service argued that Mannie could not establish that she was subjected to a hostile work environment because the conduct that she alleged was not sufficiently severe or pervasive.

In response to the motion for summary judgment, Mannie asserted that she had a disability because her supervisors perceived her as disabled and discriminated against her as a result. She also argued that she experienced adverse employment action because other part-time regular employees were scheduled to work more than six hours per day and allowed to sign up for overtime, while she was never scheduled for additional hours and was not given the opportunity to apply for overtime. In her affidavit, she listed the names of several employees whom she claimed were treated more favorably, but did not substantiate the hours that these employees worked. Additionally, most of the employees she listed were either full-time employees or part-time flexible employees, while Mannie was a part-time regular. As for her hostile work environment claim, Mannie asserted that she had suffered from "years of abuse" that would be considered objectively hostile by a reasonable person. As support, she submitted affidavits from co-workers who attested that Mannie's supervisors referred to her as "crazy." One co-worker attested that supervisors "regularly" told Mannie to go home, and often "paged" Mannie to instruct her to go home or to return from cigarette breaks. Mannie also stated that certain female co-workers intentionally offended her by wearing tight-fitting clothing and "strutting" in front of her, that someone had once placed two letters in her locker at work to harass her, and that a woman had hugged her in an effort to smell her.

The district court granted summary judgment for the Postal Service on the retaliation and hostile work environment claims. With respect to the retaliation claim, the district court applied the burden-shifting analysis adopted from McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), because Mannie had provided no direct evidence of retaliation. The district court found that Mannie had engaged in protected activity in filing two prior EEOC charges, but she had not identified any similarly situated persons who had not filed such charges and received more favorable treatment. The court also noted that Mannie had not established "even the slightest link" between her earlier complaints and the adverse actions of her supervisors.

In granting summary judgment for the Postal Service on the hostile work environment claim, the court held that none of the incidents of harassment that Mannie cited rose to the level of a hostile work environment as described in Silk v. City of Chicago, 194 F.3d 788 (7th Cir.1999). The court noted that Mannie had produced no evidence that any harassing remarks were made directly to her; rather, she heard from other employees that her supervisors and co-workers had made derogatory statements about her. Moreover, the court found that Mannie did not establish that the harassment affected her job performance or altered the conditions of her employment.

Mannie's discrimination claim proceeded to trial where she argued that her supervisors perceived her as "crazy" and consequently assigned her fewer hours than other workers and denied her overtime. The Postal Service presented evidence that Mannie was always paid for six hours of work per day, and that she had never signed up for overtime. During the trial, the district court declined to allow the testimony of Edmund Lindsay, Mannie's former co-worker. Mannie's attorney submitted as an offer of proof an affidavit in which Lindsay attested that Mannie's former supervisor, Phyllis James, frequently made derogatory statements about Mannie, such as calling her "crazy" and suggesting that she was not a "live body." The district court noted that Mannie's claims of discriminatory treatment originated in 2000, whereas James had left the Postal Service in 1997, and excluded the testimony on that basis. The jury found for the Postal Service. Mannie appeals the district court's evidentiary ruling at trial, as well as the grant of summary judgment on her hostile work environment and retaliation claims.

Turning first to the exclusion of Edmund Lindsay's testimony, we review the district court's evidentiary ruling for abuse of discretion. Wyninger v. New Venture Gear, 361 F.3d 965, 974 (7th Cir.2004). Mannie argues for the first time on appeal that James had assigned her to a work schedule that she followed for years after James left for another branch of the Postal Service, and that James's derogatory statements...