Morales v. Dain, Kalman & Quail, Inc.
| Decision Date | 29 March 1979 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 4-76-198. |
| Citation | 467 F. Supp. 1031 |
| Parties | Luis G. MORALES, Plaintiff, v. DAIN, KALMAN & QUAIL, INC., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
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Donald J. Heffernan, Connolly & Heffernan, Ltd., St. Paul, Minn., for plaintiff.
Jay L. Bennett, Dorsey, Windhorst, Hannaford, Whitney & Halladay, Minneapolis, Minn., for defendant.
This is a civil rights action brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. The jurisdiction of this Court is predicated on 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(f)(3) and 28 U.S.C. § 1343(4). The case came on for trial before this Court without a jury on September 26, 1978. Donald J. Heffernan, Esq., of Connolly & Heffernan Ltd., appeared for the plaintiff. Jay L. Bennett, Esq., of Dorsey, Windhorst, Hannaford, Whitney & Halladay, represented the defendant. This Court, having heard and considered all of the evidence presented at trial, as well as the pleadings and respective memoranda of both parties, hereby makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(a).
Plaintiff Luis Morales brought this action in a timely manner alleging that his discharge from employment as a coder at the Minneapolis office of defendant violated Section 703(a) of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1), because the termination was the result of national origin discrimination. Plaintiff is of Cuban origin, and at the time of trial was 61 years of age. In 1968, plaintiff was hired by defendant as a coder, a job function which is part of the defendant's billing department. The plaintiff was discharged from his position as a coder on January 30, 1976. Defendant Dain, Kalman & Quail, Inc., during the applicable period from 1968 to the beginning of 1976, was engaged in an industry affecting commerce and had 25 or more employees, thus being an employer under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(b).
As a coder, plaintiff's main task was to hand record on certain "tickets" trade information regarding stock transactions. The coded or recorded ticket was then delivered to the data processing section of the company and eventually fed into the computer, which issued billing information. Another type of work normally performed by coders was known as cancelling and correcting, a function related to the correction of errors on the previously coded tickets. As coding itself was dependent on available information regarding stock transactions, a significant amount of the actual ticket coding performed in the coding section occurred in late morning and during the afternoon, because the required information concerning recordable transactions had to be transmitted from stock exchanges. Accordingly, it was a regular practice for coders to perform cancelling and correcting as well as various other duties in the morning. Also, due to the acquisition of another company by Dain, Kalman & Quail, the major portion of available overtime work for coders was comprised of cancelling and correcting duties. When the plaintiff commenced his employment at Dain, Kalman & Quail, the billing department employed six male coders. At the time of plaintiff's discharge, he was the coder in the department with the longest experience, as newer female Dain, Kalman & Quail employees had taken the place of the former male coders. Plaintiff was the only coder of Cuban origin employed at the Minneapolis office of defendant. The coder employees, including plaintiff, were assigned similar job responsibilities and worked under the same physical conditions.
The coding section of the billing department at Dain, Kalman & Quail underwent a transformation during the period when plaintiff was employed there. Towards the end of 1971, William Engebretson assumed managerial duties over the billing department, which included supervision over the coders. In 1972, Engebretson appointed Joseph Pokotylo to be the immediate supervisor of the coders. The emergence of Engebretson as the manager of the billing department in 1971 was due to certain problems perceived by management in that department. Specifically, these problems were related to poor supervision and inadequate evaluation of employees, as well as diminished efficiency of the department as a whole, including the coding section.
The plaintiff claims that his discharge in early 1976 was the result of national origin discrimination, and that he was subject to verbal and other harassment by his supervisors because of his Cuban ancestry. Plaintiff's claim that he was harassed by supervisory personnel because of his Cuban origin serves as the foundation for three of plaintiff's arguments. First, plaintiff argues that evidence of verbal harassment because of national origin infers that defendant utilized impermissible considerations in the discharge decision. Second, plaintiff asserts that the reasons advanced by defendant for his discharge are ineffective because plaintiff's alleged deficiencies resulted from discriminatory harassment by defendant's supervisory personnel. Third, apart from the discharge arguments, plaintiff apparently contends that this harassment amounts to discrimination in the conditions of his employment within the meaning of Section 703(a) of Title VII. The plaintiff has also contended that his employer failed to promote him because of his Cuban ancestry.1
In his testimony, plaintiff pointed out a number of specific incidents involving supervisory personnel which serve as a basis for his argument that he was harassed and discharged because of his Cuban origin. The evidence established that William Engebretson on occasion told Morales to "speak English" and that such comments were considered offensive by plaintiff Morales.2 The plaintiff also took offense at criticism directed to him by Engebretson concerning plaintiff's custom of inviting his fellow employees to lunch and purchasing gifts for his fellow employees, including Engebretson. As these practices were the regular custom of plaintiff, he tends to equate these practices with his ethnic origin and asserts that they reflect a discriminatory animus on the part of Engebretson.3 As time progressed, plaintiff's relationship with Engebretson deteriorated to the point where plaintiff, in 1974 and again in 1975, had filed complaints with local or state human rights agencies charging defendant with national origin discrimination. As further evidence of Engebretson's discriminatory state of mind, plaintiff stated that Engebretson's response, upon learning of the filing of the complaint, was that the agency was "garbage."4
Morales also testified about certain verbal encounters he had with Joseph Pokotylo which plaintiff asserts reflect his immediate supervisor's disposition concerning his Latin American origin. Plaintiff testified to his chief complaint concerning Pokotylo as follows:
The evidence also established that Pokotylo made comments to plaintiff about how the company could hire women to do the plaintiff's job cheaper than what they paid plaintiff.6
Plaintiff alleges that he was treated differently by supervisory personnel than were his fellow coders. For instance, plaintiff claims that he was singled out in front of other employees and subjected to verbal abuse from his supervisors concerning his performance. Plaintiff asserts that other coders were not exposed to such public humiliation. Also, plaintiff alleges that other coders were not watched so closely regarding tardiness and that other coders received opportunities to do overtime work while he was denied overtime. Plaintiff also argues that other employees received merit raises while he did not and that other coders, unlike him, were not given deferred raises.
During plaintiff's employment at Dain, Kalman & Quail, a number of evaluation sessions concerning plaintiff's job performance were held. As early as January of 1973, three years prior to his discharge, plaintiff was informed at a meeting with Engebretson, Wayne Fadden (personnel director) and John Hake (Vice President of Communications) that he was tardy and absent too often, that he committed excessive coding errors and that he spent too much time away from his desk. On other occasions, Morales was urged to be more cooperative with Pokotylo and to perform essentially non-ticket coding functions when requested to do so. There were also disruptive incidents engaged in by plaintiff during working hours stemming from plaintiff's refusal or reaction to requests to perform assigned tasks other than the coding of tickets.7 The problems which surfaced concerning Morales' job performance were recurring. The concerns of defend...
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...discriminatory animus in termination decisions. Leichihman v. Pickwick International, 814 F.2d 1263 (8th Cir.1987); Morales v. Dain, et al., 467 F.Supp. 1031 (D.Minn.1979). Such isolated comments referring to age have been held to be irrelevant to the issue of whether an employee was discha......
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...EEOC, 454 F.2d 234, 238 (5th Cir. 1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 957, 92 S.Ct. 2058, 32 L.Ed.2d 343 (1972); Morales v. Dain, Kalman & Quail, Inc., 467 F.Supp. 1031, 1040 (D.Minn.1979). ...
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