Shore v. Federal Exp. Corp., 81-2402-M.

• Decision Date: 03 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 81-2402-M.,81-2402-M.
• Citation: 589 F. Supp. 662
• Parties: Sophia SHORE, Plaintiff, v. FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPORATION, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Tennessee

589 F. Supp. 662

Sophia SHORE, Plaintiff, v. FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPORATION, Defendant.

No. 81-2402-M.

United States District Court, W.D. Tennessee, W.D.

July 3, 1984.

Katherine Carlyle, and David A. Valander, Memphis, Tenn., for plaintiff.

Louis F. Allen, and Elizabeth McKanna, Memphis, Tenn., for defendant.

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

McRAE, Chief Judge.

This is a civil action brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d), in which plaintiff seeks relief for sex discrimination. Jurisdiction of the court is properly invoked.

At the close of plaintiff's proof, defendant's Rule 41(d) motion to dismiss plaintiff's claims under the Equal Pay Act was granted, leaving only the Title VII claims for resolution by the Court.

After hearing and considering the testimony and exhibits, the Court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Plaintiff, Sophia Shore, is a white female citizen of the State of Tennessee. Defendant, Federal Express Corporation, is a Delaware corporation with its principal place of business in Memphis, Tennessee, and is an employer within the meaning of that term as it is used in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

2. Plaintiff holds a high school diploma and has attended one year of college. Plaintiff was hired by defendant in 1975 as a part-time secretary. After being promoted to full-time secretary, she held the respective positions of Acting Personnel Administrator, Policies and Procedures Coordinator, MBO Coordinator and MBO Analyst.

3. Plaintiff and James Bailey began a personal, intimate and illicit relationship in 1970, prior to the time either was employed by defendant. Both plaintiff and Bailey became employed by defendant in 1975, but neither's job had anything to do with the other's until late in 1979.

4. As plaintiff progressed with defendant from a secretarial position through the very responsible position of MBO Analyst, she always received satisfactory to outstanding performance evaluations. Throughout her career, she was commended for her devotion, loyalty and performance. There was not a "black mark" in plaintiff's personnel record with defendant until after she was removed from the MBO Analyst position.

5. During 1978, plaintiff worked as Personnel Policies and Procedures Coordinator in the Personnel Department under the supervision of Harry Keenan, Vice President of Personnel. Harry Keenan is a personnel expert. He was hired by the defendant to develop the most productive personnel programs, including the MBO Program. During the latter portion of her tenure in that position, plaintiff began to develop and validate the Management By Objectives (MBO) Program at defendant, Federal Express Corporation. Defendant's Management By Objectives Program is a management tool used to set goals for defendant's different managers and then measure performance against the goals. Bonuses are paid to managers based upon their department's performance in achieving the goals.

6. On February 1, 1979, plaintiff was promoted into the newly created position of MBO Coordinator. Plaintiff continued to work under the supervision of Harry Keenan. Although she had no formal training or education in Management By Objectives, plaintiff performed in an extremely exemplary fashion in the coordinator position. Plaintiff was instrumental in developing and implementing the MBO Program for defendant. Her contribution was recognized by Harry Keenan, who felt that plaintiff had "God given talent" which enabled her to do such an excellent job despite her lack of formal training or education (Exhibit 8).

7. According to Keenan, plaintiff was not being compensated appropriately for the work she was doing. He made repeated attempts to get her salary upgraded (Exhibits 2 and 5). Keenan also thought that one of the reasons defendant refused to upgrade plaintiff's salary was that plaintiff was a woman. This is clearly demonstrated in Exhibits 7 and 10. Although defendant's wage and compensation specialist, Steve Priddy, testified that company policy is to evaluate the job and not the individual, defendant rated plaintiff's job based upon its perceptions of plaintiff rather than based upon the duties and responsibilities of the job (Exhibit 2). Priddy was obviously rating plaintiff and not the job, in contradiction to his testimony.

8. In June of 1979, plaintiff was promoted to the position of MBO Analyst, still under the supervision of Harry Keenan. He continued his efforts to get plaintiff's job rating and salary upgraded, but to no avail. Keenan's testimony in court, although complimentary to plaintiff, was not as forceful as he had been in his memos concerning her job performance and his job performance evaluations of plaintiff (Exhibits 1, 6, 7 and 8).

9. During her tenure as MBO Coordinator and MBO Analyst, plaintiff made a unique contribution to the MBO Program. She invented the job and nurtured the MBO Program to fruition. Plaintiff's efforts enabled the MBO Program to develop into the full fledged bonus payment plan that it is today and, according to Keenan, she was an integral part of the success of the program.

10. In November of 1979, Harry Keenan left defendant's employ. In December of 1979, James Bailey, with whom plaintiff had been and continued to carry on an affair, was promoted to Vice President of Objectives and Audits. Bailey thus became plaintiff's immediate supervisor. Prior to assuming his new job, Bailey advised Fred Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Federal Express, that he had previously had an illicit sexual relationship with plaintiff, however, he dishonestly reported that the affair had ended. Even though he was aware of the relationship between Bailey and plaintiff, Smith, nonetheless, promoted Bailey into a position which made him plaintiff's immediate supervisor.

11. When Bailey became plaintiff's immediate supervisor, it was necessary for the plaintiff to teach Bailey about the MBO Program because he had no previous experience in the execution of this Program and plaintiff was intimately familiar with it. Plaintiff's performance continued to be considered excellent. Bailey approved a maximum merit increase for plaintiff in January, 1980.

12. After Bailey became plaintiff's supervisor, he undertook to bring another female, Peggy St. John, into the MBO Department. Bailey was also carrying on a social and personal relationship with St. John. When Bailey told plaintiff that St. John refused to come into the MBO Department as long as plaintiff was there, plaintiff telephoned St. John to see if she could "work things out" with her. Plaintiff had a second telephone conversation with St. John during which insults were exchanged. Following that conversation, Bailey became extremely upset with plaintiff and, on February 1, 1980, fired her from her position as MBO Analyst because he was unwilling to continue the relationship with the plaintiff.

13. Plaintiff attempted to appeal Bailey's decision to fire her by requesting a meeting with Fred Smith. Plaintiff had a meeting on February 4, 1980, with Bailey and Jim Perkins, Vice President of Personnel of Federal Express. Prior to the meeting, Bailey met with Perkins and told him that he could no longer work with plaintiff and that he wanted her out of the Department. During the meeting with Bailey and Perkins, plaintiff became emotional and got on her hands and knees and begged for her job, stating that she had done nothing to warrant being fired by Bailey. Perkins, who did not understand why plaintiff wanted to remain in MBO when Bailey, her supervisor, wanted her out, did not allow plaintiff to explain her side of the story. Perkins stated that the defendant's employee handbook and the grievance/review procedures contained in it did not apply to plaintiff's situation. When he learned that Bailey and plaintiff were to meet with Fred Smith the next day, Perkins washed his hands of the entire situation, thereby totally neglecting his duties as personnel officer.

14. The next day, on February 5, 1980, plaintiff and Bailey were scheduled to meet with Fred Smith. Bailey had a preliminary meeting with Smith, during which he informed Smith about the "problem" that had arisen.

There were three versions of what occurred during the meeting where Smith, Bailey and the plaintiff were present. Both Bailey and plaintiff testified that although she tried to explain her side of the story, she was not allowed to do so. Smith, like Perkins, told plaintiff that the employee handbook did not apply to her. The handbook itself, however, clearly states that the defendant's Problem and Complaint Procedure may be invoked when a problem arises which "may be based on a personal problem" (Exhibit 15). Smith made it plain to plaintiff that he felt Bailey's role in MBO was more important than plaintiff's, although Smith may not have realized that it was not. After plaintiff had been denied the opportunity to explain and after Smith had lauded the virtues of having Bailey in the Department, it was clear to plaintiff that both Perkins and Smith were going to side with Bailey in the dispute, that no one was going to listen to her side of the story and that she was not going to be allowed to exercise her rights as specified in the employee handbook. Smith and Bailey testified that plaintiff "volunteered" to leave the MBO Department. Plaintiff testified that Smith told her that she was being removed from her job. Smith did promise plaintiff that he would find her a comparable position in defendant's organization, then concluded the meeting by sending Bailey back to work and telling plaintiff to "go shopping." Both Smith and Bailey applied the age old double standard, namely, that the male is forgiven for illicit sex and the female is not.

15. Bailey has not been disciplined by defendant in any manner for his part in the affair,...