Marshall v. American Hosp. Ass'n, 97-2488
| Decision Date | 07 October 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-2488,97-2488 |
| Citation | 157 F.3d 520 |
| Parties | 78 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 233, 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,566 Tari MARSHALL, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Thomas R. Meites, Paul W. Mollica (argued), Meites, Frackman, Mulder & Burger, Chicago, IL, for plaintiff-appellant.
Ellen E. McLaughlin, Frederick T. Smith (argued), Seyfarth, Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson, Chicago, IL, for defendant-appellee.
Before BAUER, WOOD, Jr., and FLAUM, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff, Tari Marshall, filed suit against her former employer, American Hospital Association ("AHA"), alleging that AHA terminated her employment on the basis of pregnancy in violation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k), an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. After discovery was completed, AHA filed a motion for summary judgment. The district court granted the motion and entered summary judgment in favor of AHA. Marshall appeals.
In August 1994, AHA placed an employment advertisement in the Chicago Tribune, soliciting applications for an Associate Director position in its American Society for Health Care Marketing and Public Relations division ("Society"). The advertisement stated that applicants should have a bachelor's degree in journalism, marketing or communications and seven to eight years of health care experience in public relations, marketing or communications. Tari Marshall, who had extensive experience in public relations and marketing, saw the ad. Although she did not have health care experience, Marshall sent the Society her resume. After receiving the resume, in October 1994, AHA contacted Marshall to set up an interview.
On November 2, 1994, Marshall had her first interview with AHA. Lauren Barnett, Executive Director for the Society, interviewed Marshall and described the Associate Director's responsibilities, which included the organization of the Society's government relations symposium in January and its annual education conference in September. Barnett stressed the importance of the September conference, which provided 40% of the Society's annual revenue and was the Society's premier event of the year. Barnett told Marshall that the conference represented a large time commitment for the Associate Director, whose tasks for the conference included soliciting speakers, assisting the speakers with their preparations, coordinating the program, and attending the conference. Marshall also met with Sidney Cristol, another Associate Director at the Society, who told Marshall that she enjoyed working for the Society, but that the atmosphere was "very intense, that it was very hard work, that there was a lot to do," and "that because it was a small staff, ... everybody was kept very, very busy." Marshall knew that she was pregnant at this time and that the baby was due at the end of June 1995, but she did not inform anyone at the Society of her condition.
Several weeks later, Marshall was called for a second interview with the Society. At this second interview, Marshall and Barnett discussed Marshall's need to become more knowledgeable about health care issues. Marshall told Barnett that she was "a pretty quick study" and that she was prepared to do a lot of independent work to acquire the health care knowledge that she needed; however, both women knew that Marshall would need some time to familiarize herself with the health care field.
Barnett contacted Marshall's references, and one of them told her that Marshall had recently had a miscarriage and was trying to become pregnant. Barnett and Cristol discussed the need to fill the Associate Director position and Marshall's lack of health care experience. Cristol suggested looking at other candidates, but Barnett told Cristol that she believed that she could teach health care to the right individual. Barnett made the decision to hire Marshall on November 23, 1994. Marshall began working for AHA on December 12, 1994, with the understanding that her first ninety days of employment were considered a probationary period.
During Marshall's first week of work, Barnett apologized to Marshall for not having spent much time with her, but told her that everything seemed to be going well. On December 27, 1994, approximately two weeks after beginning work at the Society, Marshall informed Barnett that she was pregnant and that the baby was due at the end of June 1995. Marshall told Barnett that she was planning on working until the baby was born and anticipated taking an eight-week maternity leave beginning after the birth.
Barnett expressed concern about Marshall's absence during the months just before the September conference, the busiest time of the Society's year, and told Marshall that her absence would cause extra work for Barnett and Cristol. Barnett doubted that the Society could afford to pay Marshall's salary during her leave and to hire a temporary employee to fill the vacancy. Barnett told Marshall that the other Associate Director candidate she had been considering did not have "this issue." Marshall assured Barnett that she would return to work at the end of her maternity leave. Barnett responded by questioning Marshall about her child care and financial arrangements. Barnett stated that she had learned that Marshall was attempting to get pregnant from one of her references, but that she had no idea Marshall would succeed so soon. Marshall offered to take unpaid leave and to install office equipment in her home to allow her to continue working during her leave. Marshall wanted to tell the rest of the staff about her pregnancy so they could begin to prepare in advance for the September conference; however, Barnett requested that Marshall wait to tell anyone other than Cristol of her pregnancy. Barnett said that the news of the pregnancy might cause the rest of the staff to become upset or to panic about its effect on the educational conference and suggested that Marshall give the others a chance to get to know her and to work with her before telling them.
Following her meeting with Barnett, Marshall told Cristol that she was pregnant and that Barnett had expressed concerns. Cristol congratulated Marshall and urged her not to pay any attention to Barnett. Cristol said that the Society would be fine in Marshall's absence, since the Society had been without an Associate Director during the same time period the previous year. Cristol told Marshall that Barnett was unsympathetic toward her employees' family needs because Barnett was unable to have children of her own.
Shortly after Marshall disclosed her pregnancy to Barnett, Barnett asked her to write a membership recruitment letter. Normally, this type of assignment was performed by Cristol, not Marshall. Marshall alleges that Barnett gave her this assignment outside of her field to set her up for failure because of her pregnancy. AHA contends that Cristol had other tasks, that the letter needed to be sent out, and that Marshall should have been capable of writing such a letter considering her public relations and marketing background. Marshall asserts that the recruitment letter was the only new substantive assignment given to her after her pregnancy announcement. In any event, Barnett was displeased with the letter because she believed that it merely repeated information set forth in the Society's membership brochure and did not differentiate the Society from its competitors. Barnett also asked Marshall to write a letter to the CEO of a health care corporation inviting him to speak at the September conference. Barnett ended up writing the letter herself because she thought that Marshall's draft was unsuitable.
Marshall contends that Barnett prohibited her from becoming substantially involved in the January Government Relations Seminar. It is undisputed that most of the work for the seminar had been completed before Marshall was hired. Marshall was assigned to sit at a registration table during the seminar and was asked to stuff envelopes along with other staff members including Barnett and Cristol. Marshall was not allowed to sit in on the sessions at the seminar; however, because Society staff members were busy coordinating the seminar, the presentations were taped and the staff was allowed to listen to the tapes after the seminar. Additionally, Marshall testified that after she made her pregnancy announcement, "there were just a lot of times, too, when [she] just could tell [Barnett's] anger."
On January 19, 1995, Cristol wrote a memo to Barnett outlining her concerns about Marshall's attempts to procure speakers for the September conference and about Marshall's relationship with the other people involved in the project. By the end of January, Barnett had decided to terminate Marshall's employment with the Society. Barnett wrote a memo to the file dated January 31, 1995, outlining her decision to terminate Marshall based on Marshall's lack of health care experience which resulted in an unsatisfactory level of job performance. On February 6, 1995, about eight weeks after Marshall began working at AHA, Barnett told Marshall she was fired because her lack of health care background was causing problems with her work. Marshall responded that Barnett had never brought any problems to Marshall's attention and asked Barnett to provide specific examples of performance problems. Barnett pointed to the draft membership letter and the Call for Speakers for the September conference as problem areas.
After her termination, Marshall wrote a letter to the AHA Human Resources Department, asserting that Barnett had terminated her because she was pregnant and requesting a copy of her personnel file. In her letter, Marshall stated that Barnett had "repeatedly said that [Marshall's] leave would cause...
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