Norris v. Kohler Co., Case No. 4:18-cv-00337-KGB
| Decision Date | 02 November 2020 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 4:18-cv-00337-KGB |
| Parties | GLENN NORRIS PLAINTIFF v. KOHLER CO. DEFENDANT |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Arkansas |
Before the Court is defendant Kohler Co.'s motion for summary judgment (Dkt. No. 23). Plaintiff Glenn Norris filed a response in opposition to the motion, and Kohler filed a reply to Mr. Norris's response (Dkt. Nos. 29, 36). For the following reasons, the Court grants the motion for summary judgment and dismisses with prejudice Mr. Norris's claims against Kohler.
Mr. Norris filed a complaint against Kohler, his former employer, alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 621 et seq. (Dkt. No. 1). In support of its motion, Kohler filed a statement of undisputed facts (Dkt. No. 23-2). Along with his response to the motion, Mr. Norris filed a statement of disputed facts (Dkt. No. 30) and a response to Kohler's statement of undisputed facts (Dkt. No. 31). Kohler, along with its reply, filed a response to Mr. Norris's statement of disputed facts (Dkt. No. 37). The following facts are taken from the parties' statements, unless otherwise indicated.
Mr. Norris became a Kohler associate when he applied for—and received—a production team lead position at Kohler's Sheridan, Arkansas, plant in or about 2015. Mr. Norris learned about the production team lead position when he saw an ad in the local paper. Shortly after Kohler hired Mr. Norris, he applied for and received a promotion to General Supervisor over the night shift. After Mr. Norris became General Supervisor over the night shift, Mike Mayo, Plant Manager, and Debbie Thompson, who worked in Human Resources, asked Mr. Norris to make a lateral move to day shift to become a General Supervisor over the Faucet Department. Mr. Norris accepted and held this position until his termination.
Kohler hired Robert Landreth to replace Mr. Norris as General Supervisor on the night shift, and Mr. Landreth became Assistant Plant Manager in or about 2015, approximately one year later. Although Mr. Norris alleges that he complained to Mr. Mayo and Ms. Thompson about Mr. Landreth getting the night-shift General Supervisor position, Mr. Norris does not know whether they mentioned his complaint to Joseph Higdon, who is identified in the record evidence as a former Quality Supervisor and later as Acting Production Manager - Faucets at Kohler, or Kerri Arguello, Human Resources Manager at Kohler.
Mr. Norris never used Kohler's EthicsPoint hotline, which was available for him to report violations and complaints. Mr. Norris acknowledged receipt of the Ethics Policy. Kohler also has Equal Opportunity and Respectful Workplace Policies that prohibit discrimination and harassment.
Mr. Norris started his own independent insurance business in or about January 2013. Mr. Norris transitioned his insurance business to Primerica Insurance in or about August 2014. When Mr. Norris switched to Primerica, he paid $99 to buy into the business. Mr. Norris sells life insurance, variable annuities, indexed annuities, small business 401(k)s, mutual funds, and auto and home referral programs through Primerica. Mr. Norris earns money from Primerica on commission calculated based on how long his customers stay on Primerica insurance. Primerica has several tiers of insurance salespeople, and each representative's tier affects how much income he or she earns.
Since he bought into Primerica, Mr. Norris spent approximately 30 days as a Registered Representative and 30 to 90 days as a District Representative before becoming a Divisional Representative approximately three years ago. As a Divisional Representative, if Mr. Norris recruits another person to sell insurance with Primerica, he gets the "commission spread" difference between their commission and his commission. Mr. Norris's goal was to get to the highest level with Primera's structure—Senior National Sales Director—or to earn at least $100,000 annually with his insurance sales, both by writing his own business sales and recruiting others, so that he could capitalize on the commission spread.
At Mr. Norris's goal level, he would also get a portion of sales by those he recruited and the people his recruitees recruited. Within this compensation structure, and with the goal of earning $100,000 annually, Mr. Norris sought referrals and also sold insurance directly to friends, coworkers, and family. From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Norris sold insurance to approximately one to three new people per year and recruited approximately one to two new people to sell insurance with Primerica per year. Approximately 25 to 45% of the new people he sold to or recruited from 2014 to 2017 were his coworkers at Kohler. If people turned down his insurance-sales overtures, Mr. Norris sometimes approached them a second time if they had a change in circumstances, such as divorce or marriage.
Mr. Norris feels that he was discriminated against because he was not on the leadership team that attended Kohler's North American Leadership meeting in 2015 or 2016. Mr. Norris did not ask to be included on the North American Leadership Team, and he does not know who made the decision not to include him. In or about 2015 or 2016, a younger male in his mid-40s led an organic-spraying-process project (the "Spraying Process Project") that Mr. Norris wanted to lead. In or about 2015 to 2017, approximately three to four times each year, Vice President of OperationsJoseph Hnilicka and Director of Faucet Operations for the Americas Michael Oberlander came to visit the Sheridan plant and walked past Mr. Norris to talk to his production supervisor instead of Mr. Norris. In 2017, Mr. Norris was not invited to attend a weekly Friday telephonic meeting with Mr. Oberlander, but Mr. Norris admits that he never asked to be included on the call. Mr. Norris also alleges that Mr. Mayo called him the wrong name in 2017. In 2017, Mr. Norris alleges that Josh Drumm, who was an engineer with an engineering degree which Mr. Norris did not have, led projects that Mr. Norris should have led, such as projects related to scrap reduction (the "Scrap Reduction Project") and the organic finishing process (the "Finishing Process Project").
The Scrap Reduction Project began at the end of 2016 and concluded by Spring 2017. When the Faucets Department's footprint changed in an engineering project (the "Footprint Project"), Ian Laughlin, the "top engineering guy," spoke with Wayne Stuckey, who is "3-5 years younger than Plaintiff," about the project. Neither the Footprint Project, Scrap Reduction Project, Finish Process Project, nor the Spraying Process Project affected the money Mr. Norris earned, and Mr. Norris does not know whether he asked to get involved in any of these projects. Mr. Norris does not know the specific employment backgrounds, certifications, or educational information of those ultimately assigned the Footprint Project, Scrap Reduction Project, Finish Process Project, and the Spraying Process Project, and he does not know what the decisionmakers considered in assigning these projects. Ms. Arguello had no role in deciding whether Mr. Norris would work on these various projects.
In or about April or May 2017, Kohler corporate leadership came from Wisconsin to the Sheridan plant for a quarterly meeting. In advance of this meeting, Mr. Norris alleges that he emailed Mr. Hnilicka to ask "when we would see more opportunities for African-Americans and women at the Sheridan plant." Mr. Norris attended the quarterly meeting with Mr. Hnilicka. Atthis meeting, Mr. Norris alleges that Ms. Arguello and Mr. Hnilicka "stared him down" while he was in the middle row of a meeting attended by approximately 100 people (Dkt. No. 31, ¶ 38). Mr. Norris avers that Ms. Arguello looked at him, made eye contact, read his question, and then said, "if you see something that you want to apply for, tell someone." (Id., ¶ 39). Mr. Norris does not know whether Ms. Arguello knew that he had sent in the question to Mr. Hnilicka. Kohler received an anonymous question regarding diversity that was addressed at the quarterly plant meeting.
After Mr. Mayo became Plant Manager in or about June 2017, Mr. Norris bid on a promotion to Production Manager—Faucets. Kohler did not select any employee to fill permanently the position in 2017 and cancelled the position requisition without permanently filling it at that time. Instead, Bill Armstrong selected Joseph Higdon—who was "in the same level" as Mr. Norris—to fill temporarily the position on an interim basis "until [Kohler] finished the interview process." (Id., ¶ 44). Mr. Norris does not know what happened after Mr. Higdon's temporary placement in the position ended. Mr. Norris believes that his failure to be selected for this position was retaliatory and based on race discrimination.
Kohler's Job Posting Policy aligns with Mr. Norris's understanding of how Kohler posted jobs. Kohler generally posted jobs for a minimum of seven days on Company Bulletin Boards, which were located throughout the facility. In Summer 2017, Mr. Norris states he applied for a "BL-MOD" position which he did not receive. According to Kohler, Kohler did not have a "BL-MOD" position open in or about Summer 2017, but Kohler posted a Project Leader—Custom Finishing position in or about Summer 2017. Kohler believes that Mr. Norris is referring to that position. Mr. Norris does not know whether this position was ever posted or advertised anywhere. Mr. Norris never applied for this position and does not know the decisionmaker for the position.
Nevertheless, Mr. Norris alleges that he did not receive the BL-MOD position because of race and age discrimination and retaliation. Mr. Norris believes that he was retaliated against because of the question he submitted before the April or May 2017 meeting...
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