Owens v. New York City Housing Authority
| Decision Date | 21 May 1991 |
| Docket Number | D,816,Nos. 733,s. 733 |
| Citation | 934 F.2d 405 |
| Parties | 55 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1604, 56 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 40,774 Catherine OWENS, Plaintiff-Appellant, Cross Appellee, v. NEW YORK CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY, H. Bresky, J. Arakel, L. Lieberman, L. Lefkowitz, C. Grossman, and R. Coss, Defendants-Appellees, Cross Appellants. ockets 90-7527, 90-7541. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Martin F. Marvet, Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, (Richard F. Ziegler, of counsel), New York City, for appellant and cross appellee.
Henry Schoenfeld, New York City Housing Authority Law Dept. (Manuel H. Quintana, General Counsel), New York City, for appellee and cross appellant.
Before OAKES and WALKER, Circuit Judges, and WEXLER, District Judge. *
Plaintiff Catherine Owens appeals from a grant of summary judgment in favor of defendants New York City Housing Authority and individual employees Arakel, Bresky, Lieberman, Lefkowitz, Grossman, and Coss (collectively, the Housing Authority), on her claims under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C. Sec. 621, et seq. The district court ruled that the adverse outcome of disciplinary charges litigated in state court precluded her from proving that she was qualified for the job--an essential element on her claim of age discrimination--and that her claim of retaliation should be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, since it had not been first filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Since we disagree with both rulings, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.
In January, 1977, the Housing Authority hired Catherine Owens. In 1978, Owens became a "housing assistant," responsible for maintaining records and reports and for meeting with tenants. Three years later, at the age of 51, she began working at LaGuardia Houses, a housing project managed by the Authority. In late 1981, defendant Lawrence Lefkowitz became Assistant Manager of LaGuardia Houses and, in late 1982, defendant John Arakel became Housing Manager. Lefkowitz and Arakel supervised Owens.
Owens' relationship with Lefkowitz and Arakel was strained. Owens alleges that in early 1983, Lefkowitz began to interfere Starting in February, 1983, Owens began to complain about Arakel and Lefkowitz. She raised the issue of her supervisors' behavior in several letters to Housing Authority superiors and requested transfer to another project. She also sought the assistance of the Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution ("IMCR"), where she filed actions against both Arakel and Lefkowitz. Lefkowitz appeared before an IMCR mediator in April, 1983, who thereupon issued an award requiring Lefkowitz and Owens not to harass or menace each other. The IMCR action against Arakel was later transferred to criminal court, where in August, 1983, Owens received a protective order directing Arakel to stay away from her.
with the performance of her job and verbally abused her. According to Owens, Lefkowitz told Owens that her "problems" had to do with her age and entry into menopause. Owens says that Arakel also abused her verbally and interfered with her work. She alleges that this abuse by both supervisors on occasion extended to physical pushing or shoving.
At the end of March, 1983, at the request of Arakel and Lefkowitz, the Housing Authority suspended Owens without pay and required her to submit to psychiatric evaluation. The test results, however, found no reason to disqualify her from her position as housing assistant. In May, 1983, at Owens' request, she was transferred to another project, Carver Houses.
Sometime during the spring of 1983, and after she had contacted the Housing Authority's internal office for equal employment opportunity, Owens took her complaints to the New York State Division of Human Rights and the EEOC. On June 27, 1983, acting pro se, she filed formal charges with the EEOC against the Housing Authority, Arakel, and Lefkowitz. On April 8, 1984, the EEOC issued Owens a right to sue letter.
In the meantime, in August, 1983, the Housing Authority filed fourteen formal disciplinary charges against Owens. Except for the first charge, which alleged that Owens had been disrespectful to another supervisor in July 1981, the charges were based on the reports of Arakel and Lefkowitz, and concerned incidents allegedly occurring during the period July 21, 1981, to March 29, 1983. Twelve of the thirteen charges alleged, among other things, that Owens had been disrespectful, insubordinate, and abusive. The thirteenth alleged that Owens had not properly performed her duties of processing tenant income reports.
Shortly after filing these disciplinary charges, the Housing Authority, through its counsel, began settlement talks with Owens, who was represented by counsel. Negotiations then broke off when, according to Owens' counsel, the Housing Authority refused to engage in plea-bargaining because Owens had filed charges with the EEOC. At no time, however, did Owens file charges with the EEOC complaining of retaliation for the Housing Authority's refusal to plea bargain.
After settlement efforts failed, a Housing Authority hearing officer conducted a full hearing, over eight days between August and December 1983, on the disciplinary charges brought against Owens. Pursuant to N.Y. Civil Service Law Sec. 75(2), Owens was permitted to be represented by counsel and to present and examine witnesses. On all but the last day in which she chose to represent herself, Owens was represented by counsel. Owens, Lefkowitz, Arakel, and the 1981 supervisor testified. The hearing officer found each of the fourteen charges proven, concluded that Owens' behavior was "disorderly," "disruptive," "insubordinate," and "abusive," and recommended dismissal. The Housing Authority adopted the findings and in June, 1984, terminated her employment.
Owens then commenced a proceeding in New York State Supreme Court under Article 78, N.Y.Civ.Prac. L. & R., to review the administrative decision. In a decision dated February 25, 1985, the Article 78 court upheld the hearing officer's finding of "gross insubordination."
In July, 1984, shortly after she received her right-to-sue letter from the EEOC, but before her discharge had been affirmed by the Article 78 court, Owens commenced the In October, 1985, the Housing Authority unsuccessfully moved for summary judgment. The district court rejected the Housing Authority's argument that no genuine issue of fact existed as to Owens' qualifications. The district court also found that by presenting direct evidence of discrimination, Owens had raised a triable issue as to whether defendants' allegations of insubordination and incompetence were pretextual. The district court relied primarily on Lefkowitz's reported comment concerning Owens' age and entry into menopause, noting that the comments were "direct evidence" of Owens' supervisor's state of mind. The district court also rejected the Housing Authority's argument that res judicata precluded Owens' federal claims, because the Article 78 reviewing court could not have considered an age discrimination claim brought by Owens.
instant action. She claims that (1) her termination was the result of age discrimination or, alternately, was in retaliation for letters to superiors complaining of age discrimination, all in violation of the ADEA; and (2) after she filed charges with the EEOC on her age claim and wrote letters to her superiors claiming race as well as age discrimination, the Housing Authority retaliated, in violation of the ADEA and Title VII, by refusing to plea-bargain her disciplinary charges. 1
The district judge later granted permission to the Housing Authority to move for summary judgment a second time. The district judge granted this second motion. He ruled that the state court proceedings which affirmed the Housing Authority's guilty findings on the disciplinary charges precluded her from litigating the issue of her qualification for the job, and thus from establishing a prima facie case of age discrimination. The district judge also dismissed plaintiff's claim of retaliation arising out of the Housing Authority's refusal to plea bargain, on the grounds that subject matter jurisdiction was lacking since the retaliation claim was not the subject of a prior complaint to the EEOC.
Owens appeals both rulings. A cross-appeal by the Housing Authority was not pressed and is deemed abandoned.
We review the district court's grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same standard as the district court. We must determine whether "a genuine issue as to any material fact exists and if the moving party is entitled to judgment on the merits." Taggart v. Time, Inc., 924 F.2d 43, 45-46 (2d Cir.1991). In deciding a summary judgment motion, "[i]t is not the trial court's function to weigh the evidence and resolve the factual issues; rather, its role on such a motion is to determine as a threshold matter whether there are genuine unresolved issues of material fact to be tried." Gibson v. American Broadcasting Cos., 892 F.2d 1128, 1132 (2d Cir.1989). On appeal, all doubts in the factual record must be resolved in favor of the non-movant. Taggart, 924 F.2d at 45-46.
We turn first to the district court's decision that the state court finding of misconduct collaterally estopped Owens from presenting a prima facie case of age discrimination under the test set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). McDonnell Douglas, which applies to ADEA actions, see Montana v. First Fed. Savings & Loan Ass'n of Rochester, 869 F.2d 100, 103 (2d Cir.1989), requires a plaintiff alleging discriminatory termination to show (1) that she is within the protected class; (2) that she is qualified for the position; (3) that she has been terminated;...
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