Rogers v. Medline Indus., Inc.
| Decision Date | 18 January 2019 |
| Docket Number | Civil No. 1:17cv118-HSO-RHW |
| Citation | 361 F.Supp.3d 616 |
| Parties | Richard K. ROGERS, Plaintiff v. MEDLINE INDUSTRIES, INC., and John Does 1-5, Defendants |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Mississippi |
Cecil Maison Heidelberg, Chadwick M. Welch, Watson Heidelberg, PLLC, Jackson, MS, Virginia (Ginny) Y. Deliman, Taylor, Wellons, Politz & Duhe, APLC, Madison, MS, for Plaintiff.
Robin Banck Taylor, Timothy W. Lindsay, Butler Snow LLP, Blythe K. Lollar, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, PC, Ridgeland, MS, for Defendants.
BEFORE THE COURT is Defendant Medline Industries, Inc.'s Motion [55] for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff Richard K. Rogers alleges Defendant discriminated against him based on his age when it terminated his employment. After due consideration of the record, Defendant's Motion, and relevant legal authority, the Court is of the opinion that Defendant's Motion [55] for Summary Judgment should be granted in part and denied in part. Defendant Medline Industries, Inc., is entitled to judgment as a matter of law as to the disparate-impact age discrimination claim asserted against it by Plaintiff Richard K. Rogers. Plaintiff's disparate-treatment claim should proceed.
Plaintiff Richard K. Rogers ("Rogers" or "Plaintiff") began his employment with Medline Industries, Inc. ("Medline" or "Defendant") in 2002 as a salesperson. Compl. [1] at 2. After Medline terminated Rogers in July of 2016, Plaintiff timely filed a Charge of Discrimination [1-1] with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"), alleging that Medline discriminated against him on the basis of his age. Compl. [1] at 2. The EEOC provided Rogers with a Notice of Right to Sue [1-2], and Rogers timely filed suit against Medline Industries, Inc. and John Does 1-10. Compl. [1] at 1. Rogers alleges that Medline unlawfully terminated him from employment because of his age in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"), 29 U.S.C. § 623. Id. at 4.
Construing all facts in Rogers' favor, at the time of his termination Rogers held the position of Acute Care Manager, a specialty sales position. Compl. [1] at 2; Briggs Decl. [55-3] ¶ 6. Rogers worked in direct sales and managed client accounts. Id. Each year during Rogers' employment Medline set sales quotas for salespersons, which it calculated using the base revenue of the accounts assigned to the salesperson from the prior year plus a percentage growth expectation. Def.'s Mem. [56] at 4; see Rogers Dep. [55-2]. Medline also incentivized its salespersons with what it called a "STAR incentive plan" under which salespersons could be rewarded each year with a trip based upon their level of sales of certain Medline products. Id.
Mark Taylor, who served as a Senior Vice President for Medline, hired Rogers in 2002. Taylor Decl. [55-9] ¶ 2. Until approximately 2013, Claude "Trey" Smith directly managed him. Pl.'s Resp. Mem. [70] at 5; Smith Dep. [69-2]. According to Taylor and Smith, while he was under their management Rogers met their expectations and was not the subject of any customer complaints, with the exception of one complaint that Smith attributed to a customer's last-minute ordering of a product. Id. at 6; Taylor Aff. [69-3] ¶¶ 6-7; Smith Depo. [69-2] at 14-16. Medline subsequently demoted both Taylor and Smith, Halberg Decl. [55-1] ¶¶ 4-5, and in 2013, assigned Andrew Briggs as Rogers' Division Manager, Pl.'s Resp. Mem. [70] at 7; Rogers Dep. [55-2] at 119. About this time, Medline also assigned Mark Gallarelli as Senior Vice President of Sales for the Southeast, replacing Taylor. Pl.'s Resp. Mem. [70] at 7; Def.'s Mem. [56] at 4-5. Until the end of Rogers' employment, Briggs served as his direct manager, and Gallarelli served as Briggs' immediate supervisor managing the entire Southeast region for Medline. Pl.'s Resp. Mem. [70] at 7; Def.'s Mem. [56] at 4-5; Rogers Dep. [55-2] at 119.
At the time Briggs was appointed Division Manager in 2013, he reviewed the sales records of all salespersons under his management. Briggs Decl. [55-3] ¶¶ 17-18. He noted and discussed with Rogers his failure to meet his sales quota in 2012, id. ¶¶ 19-20, and then worked with Rogers to meet quota, id. ¶ 20. It is undisputed that Rogers never met Medline's established sales quotas from 2012 until the date of his termination in 2016. In 2012, Rogers achieved 88.8% of his sales quota. Ex. "A" [55-1] at 43-44. In 2013, he achieved 91.7% of his sales quota, and in 2014, he achieved 80.3% of his sales quota. Id. In 2015, the year prior to his termination, Rogers achieved 99.2% of his sales quota. Id.
In 2013, soon after Gallarelli was assigned as the Senior Vice President for Sales, Rogers attended a promotional meeting at which Gallarelli was present. Rogers Dep. [55-2] at 198-200. As Rogers was walking into the meeting, Gallarelli remarked, "I didn't know you were 50 something years old," and added, "[y]ou don't really look that old; you're older than me." Id. Medline had in place a procedure for reporting complaints of discrimination and a policy of instructing employees that they should report any incident of discrimination or harassment. Halberg Decl. [55-1]. Rogers had received a copy of Medline's policies and procedures for reporting discrimination during his employment with the company. Rogers Dep. [55-2] at 111-13. He did not complain about Gallarelli's comment, or of any other comment or conduct while employed by Medline. Id. at 114.
In January 2016, Gallarelli sent an email to Jim Boyle, Medline's Senior Vice President for Acute Sales, Katie Halberg, Medline's Human Resources Director, and Briggs, noting that Rogers was not currently on a corrective action plan and that they were waiting for the 2015 numbers to be released to place him on one. Ex. "E" [69-5]; Halberg Decl. [55-2] ¶ 3. After Rogers did not meet his 2015 quota, on March 11, 2016, Medline presented Rogers with a Corrective Action Form, setting out a ninety-day plan "to assist [Rogers] in improving [his] performance...." Ex. "S" [69-19].
The corrective action plan, drafted by Briggs, indicated that Rogers failed to respond when in late 2015, Briggs asked him what his plan was to make quota for that year. Id. at 1. Briggs noted that Rogers had failed to achieve quota for the past five years, had only achieved STAR for two of those years, and had not met his month-to-date quotas for January or February 2016.1 Id. Briggs also added that he had received a number of customer complaints that Rogers "lack[ed] product knowledge and [demonstrated an] unwillingness to ask the right questions," and did not have a "sense of urgency to handling problems when they ar[o]se."2 Id. According to Briggs, Rogers did not follow up, complete projects in a timely manner, attain goals, or actively engage in presented opportunities. Id. The plan set quota and STAR targets for Rogers to achieve and required him to complete, "without exception," weekly summaries and gain/loss updates, to receive zero customer complaints, and to reply to emails within twenty-four hours. Id. Rogers acknowledged that he received a copy of the plan and that it was clearly communicated to him. Id.
Before he was placed on corrective action, Rogers had secured a prime vendor contract with Memorial Hospital of Gulfport, Mississippi, which would make Medline the Hospital's supplier for medical supplies. Def.'s Mem. [56] at 8. On March 17, 2016, Briggs sent an email to David Mimms, the Director of Materials Management for Memorial Hospital, which included an email chain to Rogers outlining the procedure Rogers should use throughout Memorial's prime vendor conversion process.3 Ex. "D" [69-4]; Ex. "AA" [69-27]. Briggs indicated that he was committed to keeping Mimms "in the know" and added:
"Please let me know anytime you feel that something can be improved upon and I will get right on it." Ex. "AA" [69-27]. Mimms responded:
I have told [Rogers] not to give me the standard answer, I need him to work toward being my voice with Medline. I never got ‘no’ from Hunter [Russum] he [sic] always said ‘I'll see what I can do’. And for the most part he came back with some sort of answer or compromise. I need that from [Rogers].
Id.4 Briggs replied that he was "working on that." Id.
Although Rogers secured the prime vendor contract with Memorial Hospital at the beginning of 2016, he was unable to implement it by the expiration of the corrective action plan. Pl.'s Resp. Mem. [70] at 9. Briggs discussed with Katie Halberg, Medline's Human Resources Director, Rogers' failure to meet the corrective action plan's expectations. Ex. "I" [69-9] at 1. In an email to Gallarelli, Briggs explained that, given Rogers' performance under the plan and Rogers' father's health issues, Halberg recommended that they extend the plan. Id. Briggs noted that he had failed to document the meetings he had with Rogers regarding his performance. Id.
On June 14, 2016, Medline extended the corrective action plan an additional sixty days under similar terms, requiring updates and zero customer complaints. Rogers' Dep. [55-2] at 177-78; Ex. "A" [55-1] at 53-54; Pl.'s Resp. Mem. [70] at 10. Subsequently, on June 29, approximately three months after Mimms first expressed concerns regarding Rogers' service, Briggs approached Mimms regarding his working relationship with Rogers. Mimms Decl. [55-10] ¶¶ 11-13; Mimms Decl. [69-4] ¶ 9. Mimms indicated that he felt that there was "room for improvement for [Rogers]." Mimms Decl. [69-4] ¶ 9. Specifically, Mimms "expressed concerns about Mr. Rogers' [sic] following up and following through with issues concerning implementation of the prime vendor agreement." Mimms Decl. [55-10] ¶ 12; ...
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