Pelli v. Stone Savannah River Pulp and Paper Corp.

• Decision Date: 20 January 1995
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 494-120.
• Citation: 878 F. Supp. 1559
• Parties: Barbara A. PELLI, Plaintiff, v. STONE SAVANNAH RIVER PULP AND PAPER CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia

878 F. Supp. 1559

Barbara A. PELLI, Plaintiff, v. STONE SAVANNAH RIVER PULP AND PAPER CORPORATION, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 494-120.

United States District Court, S.D. Georgia, Savannah Division.

January 20, 1995.

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Gregory V. Sapp, Savannah, GA, for plaintiff.

Ryburn Clay Ratterree, Savannah, GA, Philip N. Storm, Chicago, IL, for defendant.

ORDER

ALAIMO, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Barbara Pelli ("Pelli"), brings this federal question action against Defendant, Stone Savannah River Pulp and Paper Corporation ("Stone"), under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., as amended. Pelli contends that she was denied employment as a mechanical maintenance electrician by Stone because of her gender. Pelli also alleges that Stone's hiring practices, while seemingly neutral, have the effect of preventing women from being hired as electricians at Stone.

This case is presently before the Court on Stone's motion for summary judgment pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.Pro. 56. Stone argues that Pelli has failed to make out a prima facie case of sex discrimination, and that Stone has presented a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its failure to hire Pelli. Stone also contends that Pelli has not shown any factual basis for her claim that Stone's hiring practices discriminate against women. For the reasons discussed below, summary judgment for Stone will be GRANTED.

FACTS

Pelli applied for a job as a maintenance electrician at Stone's pulp mill in Savannah on March 12, 1992. Pelli was one of five applicants, and the only female, chosen to be interviewed for the position. Stone hired John Wade ("Wade"), one of the four males interviewed, on May 28, 1992.

Stone's maintenance department consists of approximately 100 skillcraft¹ mechanics who are assigned to the various production areas. The maintenance electricians generally perform repair, maintenance, and troubleshooting work on machines in the plant. Stone sought to hire an electrician proficient in the electrical functions performed at the plant, and with secondary skills in other mechanical or maintenance areas. Specifically, Stone was looking for:

(1) repair, maintenance and troubleshooting experience comparable to the tasks performed at the mill, such as repair/maintenance/troubleshooting experience involving motors, switchgear, other control devices and electrical equipment; (2) experience with AC drives and DC drives, including both electronic drives and motor generator sets and, if possible, experience with Distributive Control System controls; and (3) training and experience in high voltage electrical work. In addition, we looked for leadership skills and a minimum of two years electrical experience as a journeyman electrician in the successful candidate.

Affidavit of Max Sellars at 2.

The selection process at Stone consists of a written aptitude test and a panel interview. The panel of interviewers for this position consisted of Gary Templeton, the electrical/instrumentation superintendant, Max Sellars, an electrical/instrumentation supervisor, and Phillip Sullivan, an hourly electrician. The panel made a written evaluation of each of the five candidates. This score was added to the objective score on the written test to achieve a final score. Pelli ranked fourth out of the five candidates.

At the time Pelli applied for the maintenance electrician job, she had worked for approximately one year at various jobs as a journeyman electrician. Most of her experience has been as a construction electrician, doing installation and hookup work. Her prior maintenance electrician experience is limited to work splicing lines for the telephone company, which she concedes is not really comparable to the work at Stone. Pelli has rarely done any high voltage work, and she has never worked on "live" or "hot" high voltage wires.

Stone hired Wade, the highest-ranked candidate for the maintenance electrician position. Wade has more than twenty years experience as an electrician. He has extensive prior experience in repairing, maintaining, and troubleshooting electrical equipment like that used at Stone, including rebuilding generators, repairing high voltage distribution systems, testing live high voltage wires, and working with AC and DC motor controls.

Unlike the other four candidates, Wade is a journeyman lineman as well as a journeyman wireman. Wade also has a secondary skill as a certified welder. He has been welding for 30 years and has been recertified at higher levels at least four times. He has two years of college, National Guard training, and has been a foreman on several jobs.

After the decision was made to hire Wade, Stone's electrical and instrumentation superintendent, Gary Templeton, called Pelli and encouraged her to reapply for the next electrician job opening. He states that he was "very impressed" with Pelli, but that "there's not that many John Wade's out there," and that the interviewers felt Pelli needed more experience. Affidavit of Gary Templeton at 56-58.

There has never been a female electrician at Stone. Pelli and Barbara Hodges, an oiler in the maintenance department at Stone, are the only females who have applied for electrician positions while Templeton has been the electrical and instrumentation superintendent.

Pelli claims that the electricians at Stone are resistant to working with a female electrician, and that this bias taints the interview process at Stone, since electricians are part of the interview panel. Additionally, Pelli believes that Stone's practice of "checking out" prospective employees with the union allows negative perceptions of women into the hiring process. Pelli knows of no negative statements made by Stone employees about her application for employment. She does cite one comment made by a maintenance worker to Barbara Hodges that "management is not the only one that doesn't want women in the electrical department," as evidence of the discriminatory attitude at Stone. Deposition of Pelli at 226.

Pelli filed this suit under Title VII, claiming that she was not hired as an electrician by Stone because she is female. She states that she is as qualified as Wade for the position at Stone, and that Wade is overqualified and has skills not used by maintenance electricians at Stone. She also claims that Stone has hired electricians with similar experience to hers in the past. Pelli argues that she received disparate treatment in the interview process because she is female, and that the process itself has a disparate impact on women applicants, because it uses subjective opinions as part of the basis for hiring.

DISCUSSION

I. Summary Judgment

Summary judgment requires the movant to establish the absence of genuine issues of material fact, such that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c); Lordmann Enterprises, Inc. v. Equicor, Inc., 32 F.3d 1529, 1532 (11th Cir.1994). After the movant meets this burden, "the non-moving party must make a sufficient showing to establish the existence of each essential element to that party's case, and on which that party will bear the burden of proof at trial." Howard v. BP Oil Co., Inc., 32 F.3d 520, 524 (11th Cir.1994) (citing Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 324, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 2553, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986)). The non-moving party to a summary judgment motion need make this showing only after the moving party has satisfied its burden. Clark v. Coats & Clark, Inc., 929 F.2d 604, 608 (11th Cir.1991). The court should consider the pleadings, depositions and affidavits in the case before reaching its decision, Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c), and all reasonable inferences will be made in favor of the nonmovant. Griesel v. Hamlin, 963 F.2d 338, 341 (11th Cir.1992).

II. Title VII Claims

"A plaintiff may establish a prima facie Title VII case in three ways: by presenting direct evidence of discriminatory intent; by meeting the test premised on circumstantial evidence set forth in McDonnell Douglas citation omitted; or by demonstrating through statistics a pattern of discrimination." Earley v. Champion Int'l Corp., 907 F.2d 1077, 1081 (11th Cir.1990).

Direct evidence is "evidence which, if believed, `establishes discriminatory intent without inference or presumption.'" Kelly v. K.D. Construction of Fla., Inc., 866 F.Supp. 1406 (S.D.Fla.1994) (quoting Clark v. Coats & Clark, Inc., 990 F.2d 1217, 1226 (11th Cir.1993)). When the evidence of discriminatory intent is direct, once the plaintiff proves a discriminatory motive, the defendant can only rebut it "by proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the same decision would have been reached even absent the presence of that factor." Bell v. Birmingham Linen Service, 715 F.2d 1552, 1557 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1204, 104 S.Ct. 2385, 81 L.Ed.2d 344 (1984) (emphasis in original) (quoting Lee v. Russell County Bd. of Education, 684 F.2d 769, 774 (11th Cir.1982)).

When the evidence presented is circumstantial, the Supreme Court's disparate treatment cases provide the appropriate framework for evaluating claims of sex-based discrimination under Title VII. Batey v. Stone, 24 F.3d 1330, 1333 (11th Cir.1994); Meeks v. Computer Associates Int'l, 15 F.3d 1013 (11th Cir.1994). In McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, the Supreme Court found that "the complainant in a Title VII trial must carry the initial burden under the statute of establishing a prima facie case of racial discrimination." 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). The Supreme Court clarified this finding in Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, stating that:

Establishment of the prima facie case in effect creates a presumption that the employer unlawfully discriminated against the employee. If the trier of fact believes the plaintiff's evidence, and if the employer is silent in the face of the presumption, the court must enter judgment for the

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