Salters v. Condolux, Inc.

• Decision Date: 20 May 2016
• Docket Number: Civil Action No.: 4:14-cv-2435-BHH-TER
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina
• Parties: AMELIA SALTERS, f/k/a Amelia Woods, Plaintiff, v. CONDOLUX, INC.; CONDOLUX PROPERTIES, LLC; and CONDOLUX SALES & DEVELOPMENT, LLC; Defendants.

AMELIA SALTERS, f/k/a Amelia Woods, Plaintiff, v. CONDOLUX, INC.; CONDOLUX PROPERTIES, LLC;and CONDOLUX SALES & DEVELOPMENT, LLC; Defendants.

Civil Action No.: 4:14-cv-2435-BHH-TER

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF SOUTH CAROLINA FLORENCE DIVISION

May 20, 2016

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

I. INTRODUCTION

Plaintiff brings this action pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. § 2000(e) et seq., alleging that Defendants harassed and discriminated against her because of her race and retaliated against her for engaging in protected activity. She also raises state law claims for breach of contract and violation of the South Carolina Payment of Wages Act (SCPWA), S.C. Code Ann. § 41-10-10, et seq. Presently before the court is Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment (Document # 50). All pretrial proceedings in this case were referred to the undersigned pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(A) and (B) and Local Rule 73.02(B)(2)(g), DSC. This report and recommendation is entered for review by the district judge.

II. FACTS

Condolux, Inc. is a property management and reservation company, and Condolux Properties, LLC, is a real estate company, both of which are owned by Evelyn Brown. S. Brown Dep. 14 (Ex. B to Pl. Resp.). Her son, Stewart Brown, is the Vice President and Director of Operations for both entities.¹ S. Brown Dep. 19-20. He has the power to hire and fire employees at both entities. S.Brown Dep. 29, 36.

Plaintiff, an African-American female, was hired in May of 2010 as a reservations agent for Condolux, Inc. S. Brown Dep. 63, 69. At the time of her hire, Plaintiff was the only African-American in her department; the only other African-Americans that worked for Condolux, Inc. worked in the housekeeping department. S. Brown Dep. 52. Stewart testified that Plaintiff was an average employee who was good at reservations. S. Brown Dep. 80-81. She never received any written warnings because Defendant had not implemented a written warning system at the time Plaintiff was employed. S. Brown Dep. 75-76. However, Stewart verbally counseled Plaintiff for giving false information to a new employee on one occasion and for using her personal email address to correspond with guests, which was against company policy, on several occasions. S. Brown Dep. 76-78.²

Plaintiff testified that she could not remember exactly when she first complained to Stewart about racial discrimination, but it was approximately five or six months after she started working. Pl. Dep. 48 (Ex. B to Def. Motion). She testified that she met with him on ten or more occasions,three or four times a week. Pl. Dep. 44-45, 49.³ Plaintiff testified that her co-workers, Terry, Sherry, Hannah, and Diane, would shout at her and call her "nigger" and say things like "let the maid make the coffee." Pl. Dep. 43-44. She testified that Stewart's office was close enough to hear these comments made by Plaintiff's co-workers, and that he admitted to her that he had heard the comments when she would discuss the issues with him. Pl. Dep. 44.

However, Stewart testified that Plaintiff never complained to him that she felt she was being harassed or discriminated against or otherwise treated differently because of her race. S. Brown Dep. 82-83, 101. Stewart testified that Plaintiff often came to his office to talk to him about being shy and feeling like an outsider from the others in the office, but it never had any relation to race. S. Brown Dep. 101-02. He testified that the only differences about which Plaintiff spoke were differences in interests, such as sports or cooking. S. Brown Dep. 116.

On November 16, 2011, Plaintiff wrote a letter and gave it to Evelyn Brown, documenting complaints she had regarding the treatment she was receiving from coworkers and supervisors. Pl. Letter (Ex. C to Pl. Resp.). At the beginning of the letter, Plaintiff stated that she has been getting the most bonuses⁴, which upset her coworkers and resulted in hostility towards her. Pl. Statement. She raised numerous complaints in the letter:

• she cannot hold reservations or give company discounts while others can;

• Pam Fury asked her whether the credit card numbers she entered to hold reservations were accurate or fake;• she is always criticized for small mistakes and her coworkers will discuss her mistakes where Plaintiff can hear them, even though they make mistakes as well and Plaintiff usually just fixes the mistakes for them;

• her coworkers are constantly searching through her reservations to find flaws;

• she is unsure whether she is supposed to answer the switchboard phone, because even though she was told by Stewart Brown and Pam Fury to answer the phone, her coworkers get upset if she does;

• "the supervisor" is biased and hears and sometimes participates in criticizing Plaintiff's work, and also has other coworkers tell Plaintiff what to do rather than telling Plaintiff herself;

• Ms. Linda was "throwing comments all around her" about a mistake that was actually made by someone else, and talked to Cindi Moore about it within Plaintiff's earshot; and

• Hannah complained to Plaintiff about a mistake she made by leaving a key tag on the board and Hannah printed out a memo regarding "proper procedures."

Pl. Letter. Plaintiff ended the letter by stating "this is not a very good work environment because everyone around me is worrying about what I'm doing I have several women around me everyone harassing me, gossiping about me, and treating me badly, etc. This environment is very unprofessional, and hostile." Pl. Letter.

Plaintiff testified that, when she gave the letter to Evelyn Brown, she told her that she thought her coworkers were treating her poorly because she was black. Pl. Dep 40. She testified that she told Evelyn she did not want to put it on paper, but they were calling her nigger four or five times a week. Pl. Dep. 40. Plaintiff also kept notes at the suggestion of one of her coworkers, Eleanor,in which she documented the treatment she was receiving from her coworkers. Pl. Dep. 45-46.⁵ On November 14, 2011, Plaintiff noted that she "had her meeting with Evelyn Brown."⁶ Pl. Handwritten Notes. She noted several things she told Evelyn, including her coworkers "calling me a nigger or stupid every chance they get." Pl. Handwritten Notes. She also wrote, "Evelyn ask me why they were doing these things. I said, I said [sic] they are Intimidate [sic] and racists." Pl. Handwritten Notes. In another noted dated November 14, Plaintiff wrote "after meeting I'm sitting at my desk and Mrs. Linda still not [sic] transfer calls. She looks at me and say [sic] the nigger will not get a call today. . . . Mrs. Linda says she will be glad when they get rid of that nigger." Pl. Handwritten Notes. In a note dated November 16, 2011, Plaintiff wrote "Carolyn Martinez, the head of housekeeping, calls me outside and says 'Evelyn thinks you are crazy for writing her a letter complaining about racial discrimination and hostility in the environment, because you should ignore people screaming at you and complaining about your work and making racial slurs because they don't cut your paycheck." Carolyn says they never [sic] work with a black person before." Pl. Handwritten Notes.

After meeting with Plaintiff, Evelyn called Stewart, who was out of town at the time, to inform him of Plaintiff's concerns and ask him to investigate her claims of hostility from Plaintiff's coworkers. S. Brown Dep. 84-85. Stewart testified that Evelyn did not tell Stewart that Plaintiff made any race-related complaints. S. Brown Dep. 87-88.

Stewart first investigated Plaintiff's claims by reviewing audio and video footage from thesecurity cameras that are located throughout Defendant's building. S. Brown Dep. 86. He testified that he did not see any occurrences that appeared to be "anywhere remotely close to what [Plaintiff] was describing." S. Brown Dep. 86. When Stewart returned to the office, he spoke with Plaintiff about her complaints. S. Brown Dep. 86. He testified that

it was almost like a different personality. It-she said that she just felt silly and alone, and when the rest of the people were still friends with each other outside of the office and they were able to go socialize and go to have lunch together and stuff like that, that she didn't have any friends at work. . . . The personality that I was speaking to afterwards almost seemed as though she felt like she had jumped the gun, like maybe she had caused too much attention-drawn too much attention to everybody else and didn't want to create a scene, so to speak.

S. Brown Dep. 86-87. Plaintiff testified that after she complained, the treatment got worse. Pl. Dep. 52.

Just prior to her termination in late March of 2012, Plaintiff failed to appear for work, but called and left a message that she would not be coming to work. S. Brown Dep. 91-93, 124-25. From what Stewart could recall during his deposition, the reason for Plaintiff's absence on that day was due to car troubles. S. Brown Dep. 125. The next day, Plaintiff was again absent from work but did not call to inform anyone that she would not be there. S. Brown Dep. 91-93. Stewart testified that, if an employee was going to be absent from work, they would have to notify him that they were not coming. S. Brown Dep. If an employee failed to show up for work and did not call or did not answer his calls, "that's grounds for dismissal. . . . Failure to notify was immediate grounds for dismissal." S. Brown Dep. 49-50. He testified that there has never been an incident where an employee failed to notify him that he was going to be absent from work but was not fired. S. Brown Dep. 123-24. Stewart testified that he made the decision to fire Plaintiff for her absence from work and her failure to notify them of her absence on the evening of the second day she was absent, sometime between 5:00 and 8:00, and he informed Evelyn of his decision that same night.S. Brown Dep. 102-03. In an...