Marshall v. Precision Pipeline LLC, 13-cv-443-wmc
| Decision Date | 14 January 2015 |
| Docket Number | 13-cv-443-wmc |
| Parties | BARBARA KIM MARSHALL, Plaintiff, v. PRECISION PIPELINE LLC, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Wisconsin |
Plaintiff Barbara Kim Marshall alleges that her former employer, Precision Pipeline LLC, discriminated and retaliated against her in violation of Title VII, as well as tortiously interfered with her prospects for future employment. Specifically, Marshall claims that: (1) Precision Pipeline engaged in sex discrimination by paying her less than male coworkers; and (2) after she complained about this alleged pay differential, Precision Pipeline retaliated by making her working conditions so extreme that she was forced to resign. She also alleges that Precision Pipeline interfered with -- and ultimately sabotaged -- a job offer from another company made after her resignation.
Defendant moves for summary judgment on all of Marshall's claims. (Dkt. #44.) After reviewing the admissible evidence, as well as Marshall's tepid and sometimes non-existent responses to defendant's proposed facts and well-taken arguments, the court agrees that no reasonable trier of fact could find for Marshall on any of her claims and will enter judgment in defendant's favor.
Defendant Precision Pipeline LLC is a national oil and gas pipeline contractor with a corporate office in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Precision Pipeline is in the business of installing underground pipelines for the transportation of oil and gas. Precision Pipeline has adopted an Equal Employment Opportunity Policy statement and a Freedom from Harassment policy as part of its Employee Working Rules & Policies. Marshall was familiar with these policies, as well as Precision Pipeline's policy that employees should report suspected discrimination or harassment to the Corporate Safety Director, in writing if possible. Even so, Marshall never made any such report during her employment.
Precision Pipeline Vice President of Eastern Operations, John "Skip" Holley, and Project Manager, Jeff Taylo, hired Marshall on May 23, 2011, as a "Coating Specialist." Both had worked with Marshall before.
Marshall is certified by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers ("NACE"), a qualification which entails several certificates relating to coating and corrosion. Specifically, Marshall has current certifications as a Corrosion Technician, Corrosion Technologist, Internal Corrosion Technologist, Cathodic Protection Tester, and CIP from NACE.Marshall's starting salary was $3,801.00 per week, plus an extra $500.00 if she worked on Sunday.
Upon Marshall's hiring, Holley and Taylor informed her that one of her job duties would be to find NACE-certified employees to work on projects. Marshall also had the duties of a coating inspector, requiring her to inspect the coating that is applied to pipes before they are placed in the ground, looking for imperfections and ensuring that the ambient conditions, such as temperature and moisture, are correct at the time coating is applied, so as to prevent corrosion. Coating inspectors are also required to fill out three-page forms verifying that the coating was performed properly. One certified coating inspector is expected to observe up to three laborers complete their work.
As a Coating Specialist, Marshall was also expected to perform additional duties, including: (1) assigning coating inspectors to crews each day; (2) monitoring inventory levels of coating materials and supplies and communicating those levels to the on-site warehouse foreman; (3) collecting and compiling daily coating reports from the other Coating Specialists; and (4) ensuring that the proper one-call notifications were placed with the appropriate underground facilities protection organization before scheduled earth disturbance activities. Marshall also had to ensure crews were adhering to contract specifications. Among other things, this required her to monitor whether crews were using and properly storing the correct warm-weather or cold-weather coatings.
Marshall was specifically hired to work on three projects for Precision Pipeline: (1) Appalachian Gateway, a project in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania in which Precision Pipeline served as a contractor for Dominion Transmission Inc. ("Dominion"); (2) a project in Cheylan, West Virginia in which Precision Pipeline served as a contractor for Dominion;and (3) the Sunrise Project, a project in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania in which Precision Pipeline served as a contractor for EQT Corporation. Marshall expected her distribution of work between the three projects to include going to the Cheylan project once every two weeks, with her time otherwise divided such that she would spend 75% on the Dominion Waynesburg project and 25% on the EQT Waynesburg project. Because the Cheylan project had already begun, and the Dominion Waynesburg and EQT Waynesburg projects did not begin until mid-August and mid-September, respectively, Marshall's job duties from May until August of 2011 included securing road bonds, hiring and training coating inspectors, and finding a site for the construction yard. She also spent about two days per week assembling office furniture, performing administrative work, waiting for permits, looking at maps, and finding a construction office location.2
In the Dominion Waynesburg project, Precision Pipeline was to install more than 50 miles of pipeline. Marshall's first supervisor on that project was Superintendent Hubert Ross, who served in that capacity from August until November of 2011; she had different supervisors on the other two projects. While Ross was her supervisor, Marshall estimated she spent about 40% of her time doing inspection work and filling out forms for the Dominion Waynesburg project.3
As was typical of Precision Pipeline's other projects, the Dominion Waynesburg project had different crews performing different work. For instance, the main line crew welds and lays pipe, skipping some sections; the road bore crew bores the pipe underneath major roadways; the hill crew works on steep hillsides; and the tie-in crew fills in the gap in the pipeline left by other crews, bending and burying pipes. Each crew had a foreman. There was also supposed to be a NACE-certified coating inspector assigned to each crew, as well as a Dominion employee assigned as a coating inspector to ensure Precision Pipeline was performing the work correctly. Marshall herself sent five laborers to school to become NACE-certified for this purpose, although only two passed. Those two were JJ McCollum, foreman of the main line crew, and Josh Nelson. Jason "Tall Boy" Meier, who was foreman of a tie-in crew, was also NACE-certified.
Between May and August of 2011, Marshall found and hired Brian Hodge and Steven Reed as coating inspectors for the Dominion Waynesburg project with Taylor and Holley's approval. Hodge was assigned to the hill crew, and Reed to the tie-in crew. Craig Brennan joined the project as a coating inspector in October of 2011. Thus, as of October 11, 2011, the NACE-certified employees capable of performing coating inspection on the Dominion Waynesburg project included: Coating Specialist Marshall; coating inspectors Brennan, Hodge and Reed; and NACE-certified foremen McCollum and Meier.
On the Dominion Waynesburg project, Marshall inspected coating for (1) the hill crew as needed, (2) Meier's crew, when his other foreman duties did not allow time for inspection, (3) the road bore crew, and (4) two tie-in crews.
In August of 2011, Precision Pipeline brought in some foremen from a different project in West Virginia to work on the Dominion Waynesburg project. Those foremen received raises, because the pipeline at the Dominion Waynesburg project was 30 inches in diameter -- larger than the pipeline they had previously been installing -- and so their wages increased to match the wages Precision Pipeline generally paid to foremen working on larger pipes. As with the foremen already assigned to the project, Marshall did not receive a raise at this time.
Project Superintendent Hubert Ross left Precision Pipeline in November of 2011. His replacement, Russ Fischer, became the Superintendent on the Dominion Waynesburg project as of November 12, 2011. Marshall claims that Fischer adopted a confrontational attitude toward her from the beginning of his involvement on that project. Within a week of Fischer becoming Marshall's supervisor, her job duties changed. Under Fischer's supervision from November 12 until December 22, 2011, Marshall estimated that she spent just 10% of her time performing coating inspections and the remainder of her time on other tasks, such as handling road bonds, dealing with municipalities and moving and setting up trailers. Marshall felt that Fischer was assigning her these other duties to "hinder her" from performing the work she actually needed to do personally.
Although Fischer had not reduced the number of coating inspectors when he became superintendent, Marshall believed there were not enough on the Dominion Waynesburg project. At the first foreman meeting that Fischer attended, Marshall asked him for more coating inspectors. Fischer responded that Marshall would have to make do with the peopleshe had because Fischer did not want to bring new employees on board with the project nearing winter layoff.4 Fischer also told Marshall that she should "go out there." Marshall explained that she already was, but that he had assigned her a number of other duties as well. From mid-November onward, Marshall persisted in asking Fischer to hire more coating inspectors every day or two.
Fischer wanted Marshall to check in with him every day to let him know what she would be doing. Marshall believed this was unnecessary and...
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