Munn-Goins v. Bd. of Trustees of Bladen Community

• Decision Date: 17 September 2009
• Docket Number: No. 7.08-CV-21-D.,7.08-CV-21-D.
• Citation: 658 F.Supp.2d 713
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of North Carolina
• Parties: Ophelia MUNN-GOINS, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF BLADEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE, et al., Defendants.

658 F.Supp.2d 713

Ophelia MUNN-GOINS, Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF BLADEN COMMUNITY COLLEGE, et al., Defendants.

No. 7.08-CV-21-D.

United States District Court, E.D. North Carolina, Southern Division.

September 17, 2009.

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John W. Gresham, Ferguson, Stein, Chambers, Gresham & Sumter, P.A., Charlotte, NC, for Plaintiff.

Kenneth P. Carlson, Jr., Robin E. Shea, William J. McMahon, IV, Constangy Brooks & Smith, LLC, Winston-Salem, NC, for Defendant.

ORDER

JAMES C. DEVER, III, District Judge.

Ophelia Munn-Goins ("Munn-Goins" or "plaintiff") alleges that Bladen Community College ("BCC"), its President, and its Vice-President of Curriculum and Instruction (collectively "defendants") discriminated against her in violation of federal and state law. Specifically, Munn-Goins contends that defendants violated her rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and her rights under Sections 1, 14, 18, and 19 of Article I of the North Carolina Constitution. The dispute centers around BCC's decision not to renew plaintiff's contract to serve as a full-time instructor for the 2007-08 academic year and certain alleged adverse employment actions that preceded the non-renewal.

Defendants seek summary judgment [D.E. 15], which plaintiff opposes [D.E. 21]. As explained below, the court grant defendants' motion for summary judgment [D.E. 15].

I.

Munn-Goins is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. See Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 22-23. After retiring from the United States Army in 2002, Munn-Goins became an instructor at BCC. Id. at 64-66, 70-71. BCC is part of the North Carolina Community College System.

At the time of the events alleged in the complaint, Dr. Darrell Page ("Dr. Page") was President of BCC. Compl. ¶ 6; Am. Answer ¶ 6. Beginning in 2004, Dr. Kathryn Geisen ("Dr. Geisen") was the Vice-President of Curriculum and Instruction for BCC. Geisen Aff. ¶ 1; see Geisen Dep. 17.¹ Dr. Sherry Garner, Dr. Geisen's predecessor, hired Munn-Goins as apart-time instructor for a computer science course offered in the Spring 2002 term. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 65-67. Munn-Goins became a full-time instructor in the Fall 2002 term. Id. at 70-71. As a full-time instructor, Munn-Goins worked pursuant to a year-to-year contract and was not tenured or on a tenure track. Id. at 74. For example, Munn-Goins' contract for the 2006-07 academic year stated:

The employer assumes no obligation whatsoever to continue the employee's employment beyond the expiration date of this contract. The employer shall, at least thirty (30) days prior to the expiration date of this contract, advise the employee, in writing, as to its intent to reemploy or not reemploy the individual upon expiration of this contract.

Id., Ex. 2.

In 2002, Munn-Goins requested the current salary of each BCC employee and the date and amount of each employee's most recent salary adjustment. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 130. Section 115D-28 of the North Carolina General Statutes permits any individual to request and inspect this salary information of community college employees. See N.C. Gen.Stat. § 115D-28; Geisen Dep. 17. Each year, Munn-Goins would request this salary information from Rosemary Crumb, a clerk in the BCC Human Resources office. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 130-35. After Munn-Goins paid a nominal copying charge, Crumb would deliver copies of the records to Munn-Goins. Id. at 132-33. Munn-Goins would then share this information with some fellow faculty members in her department. Id. at 133-35. In 2003 and 2004, Munn-Goins received and shared the pay information without incident. Id. at 135.

By February 2006, Crumb no longer worked at BCC. See id. at 135-36. Therefore, in February 2006, Munn-Goins requested the salary information from Tiina Mundy ("Mundy"), BCC's Director of Human Resources. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 137-38, Ex. 5. Mundy relayed Munn-Goins' request to Lloyd Home ("Home"), BCC's Executive Vice-President and Chief Financial Officer. Id. at 139; see Home Dep. 6-7. Home informed Mundy that Munn-Goins needed to ask Dr. Page for the information. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 139-40.

Munn-Goins then approached Dr. Page and asked for the information. Id. at 140. Dr. Page asked Munn-Goins why she wanted the information. Id. at 140-41. Munn-Goins explained that she sought the salary information for "personal reasons" and then told Dr. Page that she had friends who were applying for jobs with BCC and wanted to give them a "ballpark" estimate of what they could expect to earn if they worked at BCC. Id. at 140-41; 147-51. Page approved Munn-Goins' request, and in April 2006, Home provided Munn-Goins with the individually identifiable salary information for BCC faculty and staff. Id. at 141, Ex. 31, at 1.

In the late afternoon on April 26, 2006, Munn-Goins made copies of the salary information and gave copies to fellow faculty members, Lee Anne Bryan ("Bryan"), Felisa Williams ("Williams"), and Kenneth Oxendine ("Oxendine"). Id. at 153-55; see id. at 160-61, Ex. 31, at 1. Williams, in turn, made a copy of the salary information and gave it to another faculty member, Ella Jo Sellers ("Sellers"). Id. at 154, 157. Apparently, Sellers left the copy on her desk. Id., Ex. 31, at 2.

Around 4:45 p.m. on April 26, 2006, Sondra Guyton, then Interim Vice-President of Continuing Education, informed Dr. Geisen that someone had left copies of the salary information in faculty mailboxes with "UNFAIR!" and "INEQUITY IS AMAZING!" scrawled on the copies. Geisen Dep. 20, 32-33; Geisen Aff. ¶ 3; see Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, Ex. 6; Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. II, Ex. 30. Dr. Geisen promised to investigate and immediately instructed a staff member to remove the remaining copies of the salary information from the mailboxes. See Geisen Dep. 33; Geisen Aff. ¶ 3.

On April 27, 2006, at least twenty-five faculty members approached Dr. Geisen to complain about the distribution of the salary information. Geisen Dep. 49-50; Geisen Aff. ¶ 5. Later that afternoon, Dr. Geisen held a personnel meeting to explain to her employees that the salary information was a matter of public record but that the manner of distribution was inappropriate. Geisen Dep. 48-49; Geisen Aff. ¶ 5. When the salary information was distributed, no formal policy prohibited the distribution of salary information. Geisen Dep. 48-49, 64-67. What Dr. Geisen deemed inappropriate about the incident was that someone had manipulated the salary information and written comments on it before distributing it to college employees. See id. at 66-67; see Geisen Aff. ¶ 5. Munn-Goins did not learn of the comments written on the salary information copies until this meeting. See Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 172, 174.

After the meeting, Dr. Geisen contacted Dr. Page and Horne and formed a committee to investigate the incident. Geisen Aff. ¶¶ 4, 6. On May 1, 2006, the committee interviewed Munn-Goins, Bryan, Williams, Oxendine, and Sellers. Id. ¶ 6; see Geisen Dep. 52-56. During the investigation, Munn-Goins acknowledged that she had obtained the salary information and had given it to her colleagues, but she denied placing the copies in the faculty mailboxes. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, at 186-88, Ex. 31. Bryan, Williams, Oxendine, and Sellers confirmed that they had received the salary information from Munn-Goins. Id., Ex. 31. Williams and Sellers also stated that they had not secured their copies. Id. No one admitted to putting the salary information into the mailboxes. See id.; Geisen Dep. 74, 88.

At the conclusion of the investigation, on May 29, 2006, Dr. Geisen reprimanded Munn-Goins for providing the salary information to her four colleagues, which "whether by design or not, contributed to the widespread circulation" of the information. Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, Ex. 7; see Geisen Aff. ¶ 6. Dr. Geisen then stated that providing the information to her colleagues was "an attempt to inflame and incite members of the staff and to create a hostile workplace environment." Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, Ex. 7. Dr. Geisen acknowledges that she did not use the phrase "hostile work environment" to connote the legal term of art. See Geisen Aff. ¶ 6. Rather, Dr. Geisen asserted that "the impact of [Munn-Goins'] action(s) toward faculty and staff [caused] disharmony." Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I, Ex. 7. Dr. Geisen then "officially reprimanded [plaintiff] for significant errors in judgment and conduct unbecoming an employee." Id. Dr. Geisen placed Munn-Goins on probation, froze her salary for the upcoming academic year, withheld a bonus she otherwise would have received, and placed the letter of reprimand in her employee file. Geisen Aff. ¶ 6. Dr. Page, as president of the BCC upheld the discipline. Page Dep. 83-84, Ex. 47. Although Munn-Goins had the right to appeal Dr. Page's decision to the Board of Trustees, Munn-Goins did not appeal. Id. at 83-84. In June 2006, Munn-Goins retained counsel. See Munn-Goins Dep. Vol. I. at 204-05.

Munn-Goins returned to teach at BCC in the Fall 2006 term. Id. at 213-14. Munn-Goins also continued to pursue her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at Fayetteville State University. See id. at 217-18. During the Fall 2006 term, Munn-Goins discussed with Dr. Geisen the possibility of taking educational leave to continue her graduate studies. Initially, Dr. Geisen seemed open to approving Munn-Goins' educational leave request. Id. at 223-24.

BCC has a policy permitting faculty and staff to take educational leave in certain circumstances. Geisen Dep., Ex. 42. To request educational leave, an employee must submit a formal written proposal to the Vice-President of Curriculum and Instruction (then Dr. Geisen) who, in turn, would present the proposal to the President (then Dr. Page). Geisen Aff. ¶ 11. If the President determined that the proposal met the requirements of the leave policy, the President then...