Nance v. Lima Auto Mall, Inc.

• Decision Date: 22 June 2020
• Docket Number: CASE NO. 1-19-54
• Citation: 2020 Ohio 3419
• Parties: ANGELINA NANCE, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. LIMA AUTO MALL, INC., ET. AL, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

2020 Ohio 3419

ANGELINA NANCE, PLAINTIFF-APPELLANT, v. LIMA AUTO MALL, INC., ET. AL, DEFENDANTS-APPELLEES.

CASE NO. 1-19-54

COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO THIRD APPELLATE DISTRICT ALLEN COUNTY

June 22, 2020

OPINION

Appeal from Allen County Common Pleas Court

Trial Court No. CV2018 0324

Judgment Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part and Cause Remanded

APPEARANCES:

Matthew G. Bruce for Appellant

J. Alan Smith for Appellees

WILLAMOWSKI, J.

{¶1} Plaintiff-appellant Angelina M. Nance ("Angelina") appeals the judgment of the Allen County Court of Common Pleas, alleging the trial court erred in granting the defendants-appellees' motion for summary judgment. For the reasons set forth below, the judgment of the trial court is affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Facts and Procedural History

{¶2} Angelina's father, Henry Nance ("Henry"), worked as the manager of the Detail Department at Lima Auto Mall, Inc. ("Lima Auto Mall"). Henry Deposition, 7, 23. In 2015, a male detailer who worked for Henry at Lima Auto Mall was terminated for insubordination. McClain Deposition, 15. Henry Deposition, 25. Henry spoke to Rodger McClain ("McClain"), who was the vice president and general manager at Lima Auto Mall, about hiring Angelina to fill this vacant detailing position. McClain Deposition, 19, 23-24. Henry stated that Angelina had previous experience at detailing vehicles and was a "really good worker * * *." Henry Deposition, 22, 25.

{¶3} Henry then offered Angelina a job as a detailer at the Lima Auto Mall. Angelina Deposition, 26, 46. Angelina accepted this offer and was hired without having been interviewed. Id. at 46. She began working a full-time job as a detailer at Lima Auto Mall on May 8, 2015. Id. at 30, 57, 64. While Lima Auto Mall has employed a number of women, Angelina was the only woman to have applied for ajob in their detail department and was the first woman to work in the detail department. Doc. 29, Ex. A. McClain Deposition, 34, 37.

{¶4} At the time that she was hired, there were around six employees under Henry's supervision in the detail department. McClain Deposition, 14. Henry Deposition, 27. Of these six employees, there were three detailers, including Angelina. Angelina Deposition, 55, 61. Henry Deposition, 27. For the duration of her employment at Lima Auto Mall, Henry was Angelina's direct supervisor. Angelina Deposition, 64. Henry Deposition, 24.

{¶5} In his deposition, Henry stated that Angelina was "a hard worker" and a "good detailer." Henry Deposition, 9, 21. He also said that "she loved to run her mouth" and indicated that she "disrespected" him at work. Id. at 9, 20, 38. He testified that Angelina "would try to tell [him] how to do [his] job" and affirmed that she would "sometimes" intimidate him. Id. at 10, 19. He further stated that Angelina would, in front of the other employees, engage in "face to face" arguments with him and would tell him that he did not know what he was doing. Id. at 38.

{¶6} He stated that "[s]he would get on her phone and look up stuff and tell them, no, this is how you do it." Henry Deposition, 38-39. He stated that he would get complaints from other employees of Lima Auto Mall about Angelina's various comments, saying:

I have had complaints from other people, from salesmen, you know. And I was told many a time, if she wasn't your daughter, I would tell her off real good, but I'm coming to you. And I says,I'll handle it. And I would handle it. But it would be okay for a while and then back again. I just—just—just drove me nuts.

Id. at 14. He stated that he told Angelina, "[y]ou got to give respect to get respect. And I says, * * * you got to learn, this is your job. * * * [Y]ou can't go ahead and just say, hey I'm not going to do it because my dad's the boss. * * * You do your job." Id. at 16.

{¶7} Henry said that Angelina also spoke about politics and sports in the detail shop. Henry Deposition, 10, 38. He testified that her political comments "would upset some of the other guys" and that "she would go * * * on and on and on." Id. at 11. He said this "was making [him] so upset because these people are here to work, not to listen to politics." Id. Angelina was a "Green Bay Packer fan" and that "[e]verybody else was worthless." Id. at 12. Henry reported that

she would get some of these guys stirred up and, you know, there's a lot of guys there that, you know, they have their own favorite teams, and she would go ahead and get them to where they were screaming. I would have to come out—and sometimes I wished I had a whistle to blow, to cut it, but I didn't. I'd have to come out, stop my work completely, to tell her to go back to work; you guys go back to work. That's the problem that I've had.

Id. at 13. On two occasions, he had to tell her that she could either "go back to work or punch out and go home, cool off, then * * * come back." Id.

{¶8} Henry stated that Angelina also talked about her family a great deal. Henry Deposition, 34. He said,

Angie would go ahead and say, you know, my wife's the best shopper, my wife is the best at this, my wife is the best at that. Isaid, Angie, we—we don't care, you know, we have wives and girlfriends, too. I mean, you're making us look like we have nothing at home. I says, if you would, you can go ahead and say that she's good at this, good at that, but I said, don't every day, every day.

It didn't have nothing to do with being gay or anything. It just happened to be bragging too much.

Id. at 34. McClain had told Henry to tell Angelina to stop talking so much about her wife, Vanessa Nance ("Vanessa"). Id. at 35.

{¶9} Henry stated that the other employees in the detail shop did not talk about Angelina's sexuality. Id. at 37. He did testify that Angelina would bring up her lifestyle and would tell the others that they "don't know what it's like to be gay." Id. at 13. Henry further said that McClain was aware that Angelina was gay when she was hired and that McClain had never made any comments about Angelina's sexual orientation. Id. at 33.

{¶10} In his deposition, McClain stated that he was aware that Angelina was gay at the time she was hired and indicated that he was not aware of Angelina "pushing her sexuality on anyone" at work. McClain Deposition, 16, 38. He also said,

When she and her other half got married, she tended to want to talk more about the relationship, and everybody was complaining. You know, they get tired of hearing about it. And her son, this and that and the other. And I said something to Henry, to tell her to cool her jets about her personal life. And he did. And she got very, very on the defensive on that, towards me.

Id. at 16. McClain also said that he never talked to Angelina about her lifestyle but did say that Angelina's comments about her wife and son did make him feel uncomfortable. Id. at 44, 45.

{¶11} McClain said that "rather than being an employee, she created her dad some headaches." McClain Deposition, 10. He said that other employees would complain to him about how Angelina "treated them" and the way that she talked to Henry. Id. at 10-11. McClain said he would approach Henry about these issues, saying "Henry, you got to do something about this * * *. He'd say I'll talk to her." Id. at 10. One of the other detailers told McClain that Angelina was "was always showing him how to do" his job. Id. at 12. Angelina told McClain that "[s]he was trying to help [her coworker] * * *." Id.

{¶12} McClain further testified that he "heard a lot about politics, back there" and that Angelina would "even come after [him] on politics." McClain Deposition, 15. He said,

Just * * * it got to be on everybody's nerve, listening to her yab-jab. She talked too much. She's got a mouth. And don't disagree with her, because the argument is on. And she won't let loose. And if you corner her, she'll get really hatey. She can get really nasty.

Id. at 43. He further said that Angelina was "stirring the pot" in the detail shop and described a confrontation between her and Henry at work. Id. at 47.

{¶13} In her deposition, Angelina stated that, in the detail department, they "all argued" and that they argued "every day." Angelina Deposition, 73, 203. Shetestified that, more than arguing, they "bantered every day. It was like, hey, did you see this team? Hey, they sucked * * *." Id. at 203. She also said that everyone talked about politics in the shop and that she did not impose her views on any of her coworkers any more than they imposed their views on her. Id. She stated that she argued with her father about "petty stuff" but that she did not argue with him about the "actual job." Id. at 73. She also said that she "always" argued with another one of her coworkers in the detail shop about sports and politics. Id. at 74.

{¶14} When asked about how those she worked with addressed her lifestyle, Angelina stated that Henry once, in 2017, expressed displeasure over the fact that someone else was gay. Angelina Deposition, 76. However, Angelina said that Henry "embraced" and "accepted" the fact that she was gay. Id. 76-77. She said that Henry had told her to stop referring to Vanessa as her wife around McClain because this made McClain and others at work feel uncomfortable. Id. at 80. In response to this request, Angelina stopped referring to Vanessa as her wife. Id. at 83-84. She agreed that, aside from this "isolated incident," there was "no other expression of dislike or displeasure" with her lifestyle at Lima Auto Mall. Id. at 80. Angelina indicated that she did not talk "a lot" about her lifestyle with her coworkers and that she did not impose her views about her lifestyle on others. Id. at 204.

{¶15} When asked whether she was treated differently on the basis of her gender, Angelina replied by saying, "I believe the way that I received my raises and I just feel like I was treated differently than my male counterparts." AngelinaDeposition, 197. She believed that she was, in this way, discriminated against because she was female but also said that she did...