Pennell v. Judd
| Decision Date | 12 August 2022 |
| Docket Number | 8:19-cv-2433-CEH-TGW |
| Parties | CHRISTIN PENNELL, Plaintiff, v. GRADY JUDD, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida |
CHRISTIN PENNELL, Plaintiff,
v.
GRADY JUDD, Defendant.
No. 8:19-cv-2433-CEH-TGW
United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Tampa Division
August 12, 2022
ORDER
Charlene Edwards Honeywell, United States District Judge.
This cause comes before the Court upon Defendant Grady Judd's Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. 44), to which Plaintiff Christin Pennell responds in opposition (Doc. 57), and Pennell's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment (Doc. 45), to which Judd responds in opposition (Doc. 55).
Former Deputy Sheriff Christin Pennell asserts that, within approximately a three-year span of time, Sheriff Grady Judd, in his official capacity as Polk County Sheriff, interfered with her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, retaliated against her for exercising her rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act, retaliated against her for exercising her rights under Florida's Workers' Compensation Law, discriminated against her on the basis of her sex, discriminated against her on the basis of her disability, and discriminated against her on the basis of her association with her husband's disability.
Pennell seeks summary judgment on her FMLA interference claim. Judd seeks summary judgment on all claims. The Court will deny Pennell's motion and grant-in-part and deny-in-part the Sheriff's motion.
I. BACKGROUND
A. Statement of Facts[1]
Christin Pennell began working for the Polk County Sheriff's office as a clerical assistant in March of 2011. Doc. 66 ¶1. Following her swearing-in on June 24, 2014, she started working as a deputy sheriff. Id. at ¶3. She “mostly stayed” in that position until the end of her employment with the Polk County Sheriff's office on March 31, 2021, when she voluntarily resigned on good terms. Id. at ¶¶1, 36. She met her husband, Deputy Sheriff Adam Pennell, while working for the Polk County Sheriff's office. Id. i. Pilot Trainee Program, Tactical Flight Officer Program, and Initial FMLA Requests
In June of 2015, Pennell applied to the pilot trainee program. Id. at ¶4. At that time, she had worked as a law enforcement officer for only one year and was in a probationary period. Id. Because prior law enforcement training is highly beneficial to a pilot's success in working with other law-enforcement officers while flying missions, a pilot trainee generally should have prior law enforcement training. Id. at ¶5. She was not selected for the position because more qualified candidates existed. Id. at ¶7. She
also applied for admission into the tactical flight officer program. Id. at ¶8. On January 19, 2016, she was accepted into the program. Id.
In August of 2016, Pennell applied for FMLA leave due to “pelvic issues,” but her FMLA application was denied because she was ineligible, as she had not worked 1,250 hours within a 12-month period. Id. at ¶9. After she met this hourly requirement, she applied for FMLA leave again in September of 2016. Id. at ¶10. Her application was approved. Id. Prior to the approval, she completed a “Leave of Absence Without Pay Request” on September 30, 2016, for seven dates that she missed work. Id. Chief-of-Staff Steve Lester approved that request on October 13, 2016. Id.
ii. Adam's Injury, Pennell's Return to Work, and FMLA Leave
On October 29, 2016, Adam Pennell suffered critical injuries when a truck hit him while he responded to a call. Id. at ¶11. Intubated, in a coma, and fighting for his life, Adam underwent surgeries. Id. Within days of the accident, Benefits Supervisor Melissa Calandros and Benefits Coordinator Heather Strafford visited Adam's hospital room to speak with Pennell about FMLA leave. Id. at ¶12. Adam “had a serious health condition”; both Calandros and Strafford understood that Adam would be in inpatient care for some time. Id. at ¶13. Pennell did not receive FMLA leave during the time when Adam was hospitalized. Id. at ¶14. The Polk County Sheriff's office placed Pennell on an unpaid leave of absence. Id. at ¶15. On December 19, 2016, Captain Theresa Garcia sent a text message to Pennell, reminding Pennell that she should be eligible for FMLA leave since she was now Adam's caretaker. Id. at ¶16.
On January 8, 2017, Workers' Compensation Case Manager Dan Boreland drafted a letter to Adam's physician. Id. at ¶17. The letter indicated that Adam did not require a home health aide. Id. Later, the letter was sent to the Sheriff. Id. On January 9, 2017, after she received an e-mail from Heather Strafford, Pennell sent an FMLA application to the Sheriff and indicated that she would take the verification to Adam's doctor once she received it. Id. at ¶18. The next day, Pennell received the verification from the Sheriff and delivered the verification to Adam's physician at the Watson Clinic. Id.
On January 12, 2017, Pennell sent an e-mail to Calandros and Human Resources Director Lance Fulse, which recapped their January 5, 2017 conversation, when they discussed Pennell's return to work and advised Pennell that they would send documents to Pennell for Adam's physicians to complete. Id. at ¶19. On the same day, Pennell notified Strafford that she had delivered the FMLA verification to Adam's doctor and that the clinic had indicated that the FMLA paperwork would be ready by January 20, 2017. Id. at ¶20. She also questioned why her application was already denied. Id.
Returning to work on January 16, 2017, Pennell worked on January 16, 17, 20, 21, and 22. Id. at ¶21. On January 23, 2017, Boreland submitted a letter from Dr. Kazmier to the Sheriff, which stated that Adam required a home health aide because he could not dress himself or drive until January 23, 2017. Id. at ¶22. On January 24, 2017, Strafford advised Pennell that her application for FMLA leave had been preapproved. Id. On January 26, 2017, the Sheriff fully approved her application for
FMLA leave to care for her husband from December 12, 2016, through January 23, 2017. Id. at ¶24. Thus, Pennell was retroactively approved for FMLA leave from December 12, 2016, to January 23, 2017. Id. at ¶25.
iii. Performance Evaluation and Second Application to Pilot Trainee Program
On July 17, 2017, Garcia provided Pennell with her annual performance evaluation. Id. at ¶27. Pennell's rating cycle for the application time period extended from June 24, 2016, through June 23, 2017. Id. at ¶26. During this cycle, Pennell was out on several different types of leave: FMLA, workers' compensation, and leave of absence without pay (“LWOP”). Id. Her performance evaluation indicated that she used 330 hours of FMLA and 129 hours of “sick/unscheduled” paid time off. Id. at ¶27. Leave is considered “unscheduled” when it is taken less than 12 hours before an officer's shift. Id. at ¶32. Under the Sheriff's General Orders, a deputy sheriff is ineligible for a fixed step pay increase if the deputy had more than 96 unscheduled hours during his or her annual rating cycle. Id. at ¶31. Indeed, the General Orders provide:
Effective for all performance evaluations, absences utilizing unscheduled paid time off and/or a leave of absence without pay in excess of the allotted 96 hours of unscheduled absences per year (excluding FMLA leave) shall be considered excessive and result in the loss of a step pay increase merited in that fiscal year.
Id. at ¶40 (internal quotation marks omitted) (original emphasis removed).
Upset that she did not receive a pay raise, Pennell walked out of the performance evaluation meeting and considered resigning. Id. at ¶28. However, she
returned and apologized. Id. Garcia offered to facilitate a meeting between Pennell and the Human Resources department. Id.
According to Payroll Supervisor Lisa Wojdyla, during Pennell's performance review period (from June 24, 2016 to June 23, 2017), Pennell had 1,291.50 unscheduled hours, 1,186 of which were “protected” and not used against Pennell in determining whether she was eligible for the step raise. Id. at ¶29; Doc. 44-4 at ¶3. In contrast to the performance evaluation, Wojdyla's calculations show that Pennell had 105.5 unscheduled hours, rather than 129 hours. Doc. 66 at ¶29. Wojdyla attributed it to a “simple mistake” by the Sheriff's payroll department at the time. Id. According to Wojdyla, the Sheriff previously maintained a policy “in which an employee was required to use a bank of holiday PTO hours that may not have been accrued until sometime in the future.” Id. at ¶30 (internal quotation marks omitted). As such, Pennell “used several hours of holiday PTO that ran concurrent with her unpaid leave and resulted in her having a negative forty hours of holiday pay upon her return to work. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).
On July 18, 2017, Pennell sent a text message to Garcia, which contained a photograph of the November 30, 2016 doctor's note that addressed the length of time for which Mr. Pennell would need care. Id. at ¶33.
On June 11, 2018, Pennell applied again to the pilot trainee program. Id. at ¶34. She testified that she was not critical about anything that occurred during the interview process during her second application for the pilot training position. Id. She “had no issues” with the candidate who was selected for the position, Deputy Reveron.
Id. at ¶ 34. When Reveron was unsuccessful in this position, Dustin Johnson was selected to replace him. Id. at ¶ 35.
iv. Pennell's Disability and Workers' Compensation Claims
Pennell claims that she has a disability related to ongoing, personal female issues. Id. at ¶38. Although she underwent surgery in October of 2014, she considers this condition a permanent disability because she has flare-ups that affect her day-today activities. Id. She recalls that Sergeant Strickland delayed an opportunity for her to leave by one hour. Id. She also claims that she has a disability related to hypertension, for which she has received medication since April or May of 2018. Id. at ¶39.
...To continue reading
Request your trial