Rosemond v. COOPER INDUS. PRODUCTS

• Decision Date: 09 July 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. No. F 84-393.
• Citation: 612 F. Supp. 1105
• Parties: Mary S. ROSEMOND, Plaintiff, v. COOPER INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS, A DIVISION OF COOPER TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana

612 F. Supp. 1105

Mary S. ROSEMOND, Plaintiff, v. COOPER INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS, A DIVISION OF COOPER TIRE AND RUBBER COMPANY, Defendant.

Civ. No. F 84-393.

United States District Court, N.D. Indiana, Fort Wayne Division.

July 9, 1985.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Christopher C. Myers, Wilks & Kimbrough, Fort Wayne, Ind., for plaintiff.

J. Michael O'Hara and Thomas A. Herr, Barrett, Barrett & McNagny, Fort Wayne, Ind., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

WILLIAM C. LEE, District Judge.

This matter is before the court for a decision on the merits following a bench trial held June 17, 1985 through June 18, 1985. The court, having examined the entire record and having determined the credibility of the witnesses after viewing their demeanor and considering their interests, hereby renders and enters the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law pursuant to Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

Findings of Fact

Plaintiff Mary S. Rosemond (Rosemond) is a black, American female, residing in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The defendant Cooper Industrial Products (Cooper) is a division of Cooper Tire and Rubber Company, employing more than fifteen people and operating a plant in Auburn, Indiana. Alice Aldrich (Aldrich) is an employee of Cooper and was at all material times Supervisor of Data Processing. Aldrich was the person at Cooper who decided to hire Rosemond and decided, in part, to terminate the plaintiff's employment with Cooper.

Cooper employed Rosemond at the Auburn, Indiana plant from December 27, 1982, through August 26, 1983. Cooper hired Rosemond as a computer operator. Although a written job description existed at the time of Rosemond's interviewing and hiring, Cooper did not provide Rosemond with a copy of the job description. According to the job description, the job of computer operator at Cooper involves the performance of on-line and off-line duties. Rosemond worked in the Data Processing Department of Cooper. During Rosemond's period of employment with Cooper, Rosemond performed only off-line duties.

In October of 1982, Aldrich sent a personnel requisition to the Cooper personnel office, requesting the hiring of a computer operator to replace Margaret McCorkle, who was retiring on December 27, 1982. Aldrich stated that the minimum qualification required for the job of computer operator at Cooper was one year's experience on a multi-processing computer. The job opening at Cooper was advertised in the Fort Wayne newspapers. Rosemond saw the ad and applied for employment at Cooper as a computer operator in October of 1982. Seven people applied for the open position. Rosemond was the only black applicant. Aldrich hired Rosemond for the open position because Rosemond was the best qualified for the job of the seven applicants who applied.

Rosemond possessed substantial credentials in the area of computer operation and key punch both in terms of education and work experience. Rosemond possessed a college degree and a business diploma from International Business College, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Rosemond's courses at International Business College included data processing, typing, stenography and key punch. Rosemond received a diploma from International Business College, graduating in the top third of her class, in 1964. In 1978 and 1979, Rosemond completed, at Indiana/Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Indiana, sixteen hours of computer concentration courses in the areas of commercial systems, computer systems analysis and systems programming. During those sixteen hours of courses, Rosemond received training in the operation of the following computer systems: IBM 360, IBM 370, IBM 158, Honey-well, CDC 6500, and NOVA 800. Rosemond performed well enough in her courses to receive tuition reimbursement from her employer International Harvester. In the years 1964-1982, Rosemond worked fourteen years as either a key punch and data entry operator or as a computer operator.

Rosemond worked at International Harvester from 1964-1967 and from 1973-1982. Rosemond's work record at International Harvester was exemplary. Rosemond advanced through the International Harvester system from a key punch operator to a computer operator by virtue of applying for higher positions, taking tests and qualifying for the higher positions. During Rosemond's three years at International Harvester as a computer operator, Rosemond was not reprimanded for any mistakes, either orally or in writing.

Rosemond possessed all the necessary basic skills to perform the job of computer operator at Cooper. Rosemond made it clear at the time of her hiring that she had not worked on computer equipment or computer related equipment for four to five years because of the elimination of computer operations at the Fort Wayne, Indiana International Harvester plant. Aldrich was aware that Rosemond had been away from the computer area when Aldrich hired Rosemond. Even with the fact that Rosemond had been away from the computer area for four to five years, Rosemond was by far the best qualified applicant for the job of computer operator at Cooper. Rosemond was the first black person hired by Aldrich; Aldrich had never worked with or supervised a black person. Rosemond was the only black office worker at Cooper; other minorities did work in the factory division at Cooper.

When Aldrich hired Rosemond as a computer operator at Cooper, Aldrich explained that Rosemond would work off-line duties for the first few months. Following those first few months of performing only off-line duties, Rosemond could expect to perform on-line duties and to be placed in rotation with the other computer operators as all the computer operators at Cooper perform both on-line and off-line duties. The job description of a computer operator at Cooper describes both on and off-line duties. At the time of Rosemond's application for employment as a computer operator at Cooper, Rosemond completed an employment application on which Rosemond stated that in addition to the job of computer operator, she was interested in performing the jobs of typist, key punch operator, accounting clerk, or secretary. Rosemond's skills and background qualified her for those other positions as well as qualifying her for the position of computer operator at Cooper.

Rosemond's first day of work was December 27, 1982. Rosemond's first day of work was Margaret McCorkle's last day at work. Rosemond replaced McCorkle as one of the three computer operators employed at Cooper. McCorkle had trained six or seven people in the job of computer operator at Cooper during her employment, both before and after job manuals were developed by Aldrich. It was customary that the outgoing computer operator would train the incoming computer operator in the specifics of the computer operator position at Cooper. Although McCorkle believed that she would have had the opportunity to train Rosemond had she not become ill, Aldrich did not contemplate such training because Aldrich requested, in the October personnel requisition, that someone be hired as a computer operator to replace McCorkle as of McCorkle's retirement date: December 27, 1982. The off-line duties at Cooper involve many different jobs and many different tasks, some of which are quite complicated.

Cooper makes available to its computer operators a set of guidelines for operation of the Cooper system using Cooper's documentation. This documentation consists of processing guidelines, balance guidelines and distribution guidelines for each job processed. These job manuals are meant to be the primary means of training persons employed as computer operators at Cooper. Aldrich presented Rosemond with the location of these job manuals and the specific job manuals needed for the various jobs Aldrich expected Rosemond to perform. Aldrich meant for the job manuals to provide to Rosemond all the training and guidance Rosemond needed to perform adequately the job of computer operator at Cooper. Some of the job manuals meant to be utilized by Rosemond in performing her job were outdated or contained wrong information which caused various jobs to be incorrectly performed by Rosemond. The job manuals themselves were often hard to understand or to read as the job manuals were handwritten and sometimes somewhat cryptic. Aldrich managed by exception, not by personal supervision. Aldrich wanted to be notified only when there was a problem and did not want to be contacted to explain various jobs Aldrich expected Rosemond to perform.

One of Rosemond's co-workers, Cathy Smith, could not remember any amount of assistance being given to Rosemond on her first day with the exception of Aldrich explaining the first job to Rosemond. Aldrich's explanation consisted of Aldrich showing Rosemond the location of the manuals, the specific manual needed for the first job and the source documents or data Rosemond needed in order to perform her first job. Rosemond's co-workers, particularly Cathy Smith, did, at first, answer questions Rosemond poised, but each co-worker had a full time job to perform and did not always have the time to answer Rosemond or to assist Rosemond. Computer operators at Cooper operate under time pressures and schedules. Aldrich assigned Rosemond to actual production jobs immediately upon her arrival; Rosemond was given no opportunity to practice or observe other computer operators performing actual production jobs.

Computer operators working at Cooper basically learned their job by doing, by trial and error. Aldrich specifically informed Rosemond that she did not want nor welcome repetitious questions. Aldrich believed all the jobs were interrelated such that questions on different jobs were defined by her as repetitious if she felt the questions related to similar phases of the different jobs. All of the computer operators at Cooper had problems at some time in performing correctly the various jobs required of them.

Rosemond initially experienced...