Sennello v. Reserve Life Ins. Co., 84-1209-Civ.

• Citation: 667 F. Supp. 1498
• Decision Date: 24 August 1987
• Docket Number: No. 84-1209-Civ.,84-1209-Civ.
• Parties: Gendra SENNELLO, Plaintiff, v. RESERVE LIFE INSURANCE CO., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida

667 F. Supp. 1498

Gendra SENNELLO, Plaintiff, v. RESERVE LIFE INSURANCE CO., Defendant.

No. 84-1209-Civ.

United States District Court, S.D. Florida.

August 24, 1987.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Elizabeth J. DuFresne, Steel Hector & Davis, Miami, Fla., for plaintiff.

William E. Sizemore, Thompson, Sizemore & Gonzalez, Tampa, Fla., for defendant.

ORDER, FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

MARCUS, District Judge.

This action was brought by Plaintiff Gendra Sennello, a woman formerly employed by Defendant Reserve Life Insurance Company, alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1969, as amended, 42 U.S.C. Section 2000e, et seq. Ms. Sennello's complaint was tried before the Court without a jury, and pursuant to Rule 52(a), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we make the following Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law.

I. FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Plaintiff, Gendra Sennello, was employed by Defendant Reserve Life Insurance Company ("Reserve Life") from August 1972 until January 10, 1980. She held a variety of positions with Reserve Life, including district manager of the district office known as Ft. Lauderdale # 1, until November 15, 1979, when she was demoted by Defendant to sales agent, which position she held until January 10, 1980, when she was terminated by Defendant.

2. At all times relevant to this cause of action, Reserve Life has been a corporation engaged in the health and life insurance business. Defendant has operated in Florida since prior to 1972 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It employs more than fifteen employees.

3. At all times relevant to this proceeding, Reserve Life's marketing programs were formulated in its home office in Dallas. Its sales efforts were managed on a geographical basis. Some of the Company's regions were state-wide in scope, while others were multi-state in nature. The Defendant corporation was headed by a president, and serving immediately under him were a national vice president for marketing and regional vice presidents for marketing. Each region generally was supervised by a regional manager, and each region was further subdivided into marketing agencies, which, in turn, were divided into districts. The selling efforts in each district were supervised by a district manager.

In Florida, the state-wide region was managed by a regional manager. Subordinate to the regional office were a number of agencies, each of which was managed by an agency manager. The agency primarily involved in this case was the Ft. Lauderdale agency; and beneath that agency were a number of district offices. Prior to 1978, the district offices were further subdivided into branch offices, supervised by branch managers. By the end of 1978 approximately, Reserve Life terminated its branch offices and the district office became the lowest level of management organization.

4. Douglas Pierce was, from approximately May 1978 until March 1984, the President of Reserve Life, and maintained his office in Dallas, Texas.

5. Jerry Edgin was employed by Reserve Life as its National Sales Vice President in 1978 and 1979, and was responsible for its marketing efforts.

6. John Crooks was for many years Regional Manager of the Florida Region of Reserve Life, until his termination from the Company in May 1979. The Florida Region was also known as the Southeast Region.

7. William Ebert was for many years prior to 1979 employed by Reserve Life as regional manager of various regional offices throughout the country. In August 1979, Ebert was assigned to the position of regional manager in Florida. Ebert resigned from Reserve Life in 1986 8. William Leahan served as the agency director for Reserve Life's Ft. Lauderdale agency office for many years. He was terminated by Reserve Life in December 1979.

9. Roger Silversmith was employed by Reserve Life as a district manager. On November 15, 1979 he was demoted from the position of district manager of the "Hollywood" district. In February 1980, Silversmith was terminated by Reserve Life.

10. Michael Schiff was, in November 1979, employed by Reserve Life as district manager of the district office known as Ft. Lauderdale # 3. On November 15, 1979, Schiff continued to serve as district manager, but changed his location to the Ft. Lauderdale # 1 office, as the Ft. Lauderdale # 3 district office (then managed by Plaintiff) and the Hollywood office (then managed by district manager Silversmith) were consolidated into a single district.

11. Plaintiff Sennello moved to southeast Florida from Michigan, and in the fall of 1972 she secured a position as sales agent with Reserve Life in the branch agency that later became the Ft. Lauderdale agency. By April 1973, Plaintiff was promoted to a management position, becoming branch manager, and in September 1973 she was again promoted to the position of district manager. Between September 1973 and late 1977-early 1978, Plaintiff, at the request of the Company, moved to a number of different locations as certain offices were restructured by Reserve Life. In early 1978, Plaintiff assumed the position of district manager of the Ft. Lauderdale # 1 district office. She held that position until November 15, 1979, when she was demoted by Defendant.

12. Management personnel at Reserve Life generally held two contracts, one as sales agent, and another as to the particular management position held. When Plaintiff was demoted as district manager in mid-November 1979, she continued as a sales agent, operating under her sales contract with Reserve Life. Soon thereafter, on January 10, 1980, Reserve Life cancelled Plaintiff's contract, thereby severing its relationship to Plaintiff.

13. On April 10, 1980, Sennello filed sex discrimination charges with the Broward County Human Relations Division and with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On December 1, 1980, Plaintiff filed an amended charge with the EEOC. On February 16, 1984, the EEOC terminated its administrative process and issued to Plaintiff its "Notice of Right to Sue." The instant action was commenced on May 14, 1984.

14. Based upon the testimony and documentary evidence adduced at trial, we find in sum that Plaintiff's "resignation" as district manager in Ft. Lauderdale in November 1979 was coerced by the Defendant, Reserve Life, and that this constituted a substantial demotion. We also find that the decision to demote Plaintiff by forcing her to resign, and the concomitant decision to select Michael Schiff and not the Plaintiff to serve as district manager of a newly consolidated Reserve Life district office in Ft. Lauderdale, was in fact the result of gender-based discrimination. This record reveals both direct and circumstantial evidence of Defendant's discriminatory motive or purpose. It is clear to us that Plaintiff was a member of a protected class, that she was fully qualified for the job of district manager — indeed she was more qualified by her background and experience to be selected for the consolidated district manager's position than Mike Schiff — and that she was improperly forced to resign from her position as Ft. Lauderdale district manager. While we find that Reserve Life had valid and neutral business reasons justifying its decision to consolidate three Ft. Lauderdale offices into one, upon a fair review of this record, we are compelled to conclude that Plaintiff was not selected to manage that newly consolidated district as a result of pronounced gender-based discrimination.

15. In the Florida Region, the Regional Manager for many years had been John Crooks. He served in that position until his termination in May 1979. At trial Crooks testified that he had hired Plaintiff sometime in 1972, and had observed her steady advancement in the company from branch manager to district manager. He indicated that Plaintiff's job performance had been very good, that she regularly qualified to participate at the Defendant's annual sales conventions, and indeed that she had been selected as the top life insurance salesperson for the Region. Crooks was terminated by Reserve Life's Sales Vice President, Jerry Edgin, in 1979 because the management of Reserve Life had concluded that the Region was foundering and was without effective leadership. Edgin and Reserve Life's President, Douglas Pierce, decided to transfer William Ebert to fill Crooks' position as Florida's Regional Manager.

16. The Ft. Lauderdale operations of Reserve Life experienced considerable operational difficulties in 1979. In substantial measure, this was the result of personnel changes, and in particular was a function of certain activities by Ft. Lauderdale Agency Director William Leahan who, while still employed by Defendant, assisted others in the formation of a separate insurance company which sold life insurance. There is no evidence, however, that Plaintiff Sennello encouraged Leahan or participated in any way in these activities.

17. William Leahan was employed by Reserve Life from approximately December 1966 until late 1967, and from February 1970 until December 1979. He held the position of Agency Director and directly supervised Plaintiff's work at Reserve Life for many years. Under his immediate direction, Plaintiff was promoted to the position of district manager. While it is true that Leahan was involved personally and socially with Plaintiff, we nevertheless credit his testimony as to Plaintiff's job performance. Leahan observed that Plaintiff was so able a manager that Reserve Life offered her the position of agency director in another region of the country; she rejected that offer as she did not wish to move out of state. Leahan also testified that Plaintiff performed well in the critical area of recruitment, that she enthusiastically and ably hired agents to work in her offices, and that no one had ever complained to him about Plaintiff's performance.

18. Leahan also testified — and we credit this testimony, too — that when William Ebert...