Nichelson v. Quaker Oats Co.
| Decision Date | 22 June 1983 |
| Docket Number | No. 80-1076.,80-1076. |
| Citation | 573 F. Supp. 1209 |
| Parties | Vernice C. NICHELSON, Plaintiff, v. QUAKER OATS COMPANY, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Tennessee |
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Avon N. Williams, Jr., Nashville, Tenn., for plaintiff.
Jeremy Sherman, Chicago, Ill., J. Daniel Breen, Jackson, Tenn., for defendants.
Vernice Nichelson filed this lawsuit against the Quaker Oats Company, its employees and agents, charging the Quaker Oats Company discriminated against her with respect to the terms, conditions and privileges of her employment because of her race and retaliated against her for exercising rights secured to her by the civil rights laws of the United States. Mrs. Nichelson claims the defendants' conduct violated legal rights guaranteed her under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1985, 1986 and 2000e et seq., Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Jurisdiction of this Court is invoked pursuant to the above-mentioned statutes along with 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331, 1343(4), 2201 and 2202. Specifically, Mrs. Nichelson charges:
The Quaker Oats Company denies that it has violated the civil rights laws of the United States. Instead, Quaker Oats charges that Mrs. Nichelson has failed to prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that she was treated differently from white employees because of her race or that its actions were motivated by an intent to discriminate or retaliate against her because of her race and because she filed charges against Quaker Oats with the EEOC. Mrs. Nichelson seeks a declaratory judgment that the Quaker Oats Company, its agents and employees, violated the civil rights laws of the United States, injunctive relief, compensatory and punitive damages, attorneys' fees and costs.
The issue presented in this case is whether Mrs. Nichelson has shown, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the Quaker Oats Company, its agents and employees, violated her legal rights as established by the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments and 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1985, 1986, and 2000e et seq. After trial before the Court and after a careful and thorough review of the entire record in this case, the Court finds Nichelson has shown, by a preponderance of the evidence that the Quaker Oats Company violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., § 2000e-2(a)(1) which makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer "to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." The Court also concludes that Nichelson has shown by a preponderance of evidence that the Quaker Oats Company violated 42 U.S.C. § 1981 which provides that:
All persons within the jurisdiction of the United States shall have the same right in every State and Territory to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, give evidence, and to the full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of persons and property as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, penalties, taxes, licenses, and exactions of every kind, and to no other.
However, the Court finds that Quaker Oats did not violate the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments or 42 U.S.C. §§ 1985 and 1986. Although several individuals were named as defendants in this lawsuit, the Court finds the evidence in this case related primarily to Quaker Oats, and at an appropriate time the Court will entertain a motion to dismiss the claims against the individuals.
An exhaustive and comprehensive factual background exists in this case. An extensive recital of particular facts is necessary to illustrate the atmosphere and climate in Quaker Oats' Jackson, Tennessee plant. The atmosphere and climate at the plant is evidenced and illustrated by the treatment afforded Mrs. Nichelson and other blacks by defendant's supervisory personnel.
Plaintiff, Vernice Nichelson, a black woman, who completed three years of college, was employed by the Quaker Oats Company on or about August 16, 1976. She is still so employed. Mrs. Nichelson was hired in 1976 as a production worker. In May of 1977, she was promoted to the position of laboratory technician in the plant's Quality Assurance Department where she was trained initially as an analytical laboratory technician. In 1979, she was trained to perform the duties of a microbiological laboratory technician in the Quality Assurance Department. In October of 1980, Mrs. Nichelson was transferred from the job of laboratory technician to the position of quality assurance monitor by Quaker Oats. Since June 1981 and to the time of this lawsuit she has worked as a laboratory technician.
The Quaker Oats Company owns and operates a large frozen food manufacturing plant in Madison County, Jackson, Tennessee. The plant manufactures frozen foods such as waffles, pancakes and pizza. The Quality Assurance Department in the plant controls the quality of incoming ingredients, products in process and finished products at the plant to assure that products are manufactured in accordance with specifications and to eliminate risks to the consumers.
The following management personnel are named defendants in this lawsuit; Mr. Douglas Dean, Employee and Community Relations Manager; Mr. Dale Smith, Quality Assurance Manager; and Mr. Gregory Nold, Laboratory Manager at the Jackson plant.
The alleged discriminatory and retaliatory actions against plaintiff began in 1979. Prior to the filing of this lawsuit, Quaker Oats did not post managerial job vacancies. Employees at the plant were made aware of such positions after they had been filled by management.
Mary Wondolowski was hired in 1977 as Sensory Specialist Supervisor. This vacant managerial position was not posted by Quaker Oats. Plaintiff nor any other hourly employee at the plant knew that the position was available. The position of Sensory Specialist Supervisor had been vacant at the plant for some time. Ms. Wondolowski, a white female, was hired for the position in September, 1977. She graduated from the University of California at Davis with a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science. While enrolled at the University of California at Davis, she took a basic statistics course and a statistics course which emphasized statistical applications to environmental sciences.
The duties of a Sensory Specialist Supervisor included the selection of people for use on taste panels, evaluation of the tasters' judgments and the utilization of statistical techniques for the purpose of testing the sensory attributes of certain food products.
Mrs. Nichelson testified she observed Ms. Wondolowski and her predecessor in the Sensory Specialist Supervisor position perform their job. Further, Mrs. Nichelson testified she assisted Ms. Wondolowski in her sensory specialist work. Ms. Wondolowski also testified that Mrs. Nichelson, along with others, assisted her in preparing the foods used in the taste panels. However, Mrs. Nichelson did not assist Ms. Wondolowski in the statistical analysis of the taste panels nor in the preparation of a quality assurance sensory manual prepared by Ms. Wondolowski.
Ms. Wondolowski and Mr. Dale Smith testified that in 1979 Ms. Wondolowski began spending far less time on sensory evaluation matters because the use of taste panels was almost completely eliminated. Instead, her duties shifted to a concentration on evaluating in-process weight data, conducting short term capability studies on the processing line, coordinating research tests, preparing a computerized weight control program for collection and statistically analyzing data on pizza products. In recognition of this change in duties, Ms. Wondolowski's job title was changed in 1979 to Quality Assurance Engineer, and the position of Sensory Specialist Supervisor was eliminated. As Quality Assurance Engineer, Ms. Wondolowski continued to be responsible for sensory evaluation work. Mrs. Nichelson does not claim she should have received the position of Quality Assurance Engineer created for Ms. Wondolowski.
Mrs. Nichelson asserts Quaker Oats should not have eliminated the position of Sensory Specialist Supervisor in 1979, that she should have been promoted to that position and that she was not promoted because of her race. It is Nichelson's position that she should have been promoted to the position of Sensory Specialist Supervisor in 1979 because she knew the duties of the position as a result of her observance of prior supervisors in that position and because she assisted Wondolowski. She further asserts she could have adequately performed the duties of Sensory Specialist Supervisor if she had received the same training Quaker Oats gave Ms. Wondolowski.
Nichelson admits she was not...
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