Singletary v. District of Columbia

• Citation: 351 F.3d 519
• Decision Date: 16 December 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-7138.,02-7138.
• Parties: Willie Troy SINGLETARY, Appellant, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

Page 519

351 F.3d 519

Willie Troy SINGLETARY, Appellant, v. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, et al., Appellees.

No. 02-7138.

United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 23, 2003.

Decided December 16, 2003.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 94cv00419).

Barbara Kraft argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant.

James C. McKay, Jr., Senior Assistant Corporation Counsel, argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief was Charles L. Reischel, Deputy Corporation Counsel at the time the brief was filed. Edward E. Schwab, Assistant Corporation Counsel, entered an appearance.

Before: GINSBURG, Chief Judge, and EDWARDS and GARLAND, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge GARLAND.

GARLAND, Circuit Judge:

At issue on this appeal are plaintiff Willie Troy Singletary's allegations of employment discrimination and retaliation by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA), a District of Columbia agency, and two of its officials. We conclude that the district court erred in rejecting three of Singletary's claims, and therefore affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings.

I

Plaintiff Singletary, an albino African-American male who is legally blind, was hired by RSA on October 4, 1971. Singletary v. District of Columbia, 225 F.Supp.2d 43, 50-55 (D.D.C.2002).¹ RSA is an agency within the District of Columbia Department of Human Services (DHS) that provides job training and placement for persons with disabilities. From 1972 to December 1987, Singletary worked as a vocational rehabilitation specialist, a job that required him to place disabled individuals — particularly blind and visually impaired persons — in jobs with local employers. Id. at 50.

In March 1986, Singletary applied for a supervisor position in RSA's Visual Impairment Section, a job for which he was rated as highly qualified and that paid a higher salary. After RSA failed to select him for the position, Singletary filed an internal discrimination complaint with DHS. DHS rejected Singletary's complaint on March 5, 1987. Singletary then filed a discrimination complaint with the D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR); OHR denied Singletary's complaint as well. On October 28, 1987, however, the plaintiff filed an appeal with the Office of the City Administrator that led to a partial victory: Two months later, the City Administrator concluded that DHS had discriminated against Singletary in denying him an opportunity to serve as an acting supervisor, ordered DHS to "cease and desist from further discriminatory conduct against the Complainant," and remanded Singletary's complaint to OHR for additional investigation regarding his March 1986 non-selection for the supervisor position. Id. at 51.

On November 17, 1987, three weeks after Singletary filed his appeal with the City Administrator, defendant Katherine Williams transferred the plaintiff and sixteen other employees to RSA's Vending Facility Program. Unlike the other transferees, who were given regular offices, Singletary was assigned to work in a storage room. The district court described the plaintiff's workspace as follows:

The storage room was dirty, dusty and without heat, ventilation or adequate lighting. Access to the storage room was through a clinic to which plaintiff did not have keys. As a result, he could not enter the room at will, and he and colleagues visiting him in the room risked being locked in the room. The phone in the room often did not work, and plaintiff's colleagues often could not get hold of him. No other employee used the storage room as an office space before defendants assigned the room to plaintiff. None of the other employees assigned to the Vending Facility Program at that time were placed in workplaces similar to plaintiff's office.... RSA had vacant offices available in the same building....

Id. at 50-51 (citations omitted). Singletary was not given a regular office until 1990. Id. at 51.

Despite his repeated requests, during the six years he worked in the Vending Facility Program "plaintiff had no position description and no official job duties." Id. at 54. Without an official job description, "it was possible that in the event of on-the-job injury or death, compensation from the D.C. Government might not be available." Id. During the same period, the "plaintiff received no annual reviews except for a `non-review' in 1992 and a `satisfactory' in 1993." Id. The non-review stated that, "because there is no job description, there is nothing to evaluate this employee on." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

In October 1989, the position of acting supervisor in the Visual Impairment Section again became available. Singletary applied for, and was again denied, the position. On May 15, 1990, he filed a second discrimination complaint with OHR, alleging that this most recent non-promotion was in retaliation for his 1987 OHR complaint. Nine days later — on a separate appeal from the remand of the 1987 complaint — the City Administrator found there was probable cause to believe that RSA's failure to select Singletary for the supervisor position in 1986 was discriminatory. The Administrator ordered RSA to give Singletary priority consideration for the next available position for which he was qualified. Id. at 52.

In January 1991, RSA posted five supervisory vacancies, including one in the Visual Impairment Section. The selection process for these positions took place during April-May 1991. Although he interviewed for all of the positions, Singletary was not chosen for any. Id. at 53, 63.

OHR closed Singletary's discrimination case in August 1991. A few weeks later, Singletary appealed the closure to the City Administrator. On March 5, 1993, Singletary's counsel wrote a letter to the City Administrator to inquire about the status of his appeal. The Administrator responded that Singletary did not have grounds for appeal because OHR's closing of the case was not a final decision. Singletary's counsel sent a second letter seeking reconsideration, which the City Administrator denied on April 21, 1993. In the denial letter, the City Administrator erroneously advised that Singletary had a right to appeal to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Id. at 54. On May 21, 1993, Singletary filed an appeal with that court. Pl.'s Ex. 133.²

In June 1993, Singletary applied for another acting supervisor position, this time within RSA's Client Services Division. Again, he was not selected. Then, in August 1993, defendant Ruth Royal Hill transferred Singletary out of the Vending Facility Program and into the Marketing and Placement Unit, where he returned to the placement work that he had performed at the beginning of his tenure at RSA. Shortly after returning to the Placement Unit, Singletary requested clerical help, a computer, and computer training as an accommodation for his disability. Singletary's supervisor initially told him that he was asking for too much, and that he would have to wait until the National Rehabilitation Hospital evaluated his job and his need for accommodation. Singletary, 225 F.Supp.2d at 54-55.³

On September 17, 1993, Singletary filed a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging discrimination and retaliation. On March 3, 1994, Singletary filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the District, DHS, and two RSA officials had discriminated against him on the basis of his skin color and disability, and had retaliated against him for complaining of that discrimination, in violation of: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq.; the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq.; and Section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, now codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983. At trial, Singletary's case was based on five theories: "(1) retaliation in violation of Title VII; (2) hostile work environment in violation of Title VII; (3) violation of 42 U.S.C. § 1983; (4) failure to accommodate plaintiff's disability in violation of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act; and (5) intentional disability discrimination in violation of the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act." Singletary, 225 F.Supp.2d at 55. After a nine-day bench trial, the court entered judgment against Singletary on all of his claims.

With respect to the plaintiff's retaliation claims, the court held that Singletary had proven that three of RSA's employment actions constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of Title VII: the 1987 transfer of Singletary to the Vending Facility Program; the 1987 failure to give Singletary an official job description; and the 1991 failure to grant Singletary priority consideration and to select him for a supervisory position. Id. at 57-60. Nonetheless, the court concluded that Title VII's 300-day statute of limitations for filing an EEOC complaint barred recovery for any of those violations. Id. at 61.⁴ The plaintiff does not challenge the denial of those three claims on appeal. He does, however, challenge the denial of a fourth Title VII retaliation claim — that the defendants retaliated against him in 1993 by failing to promote him to a supervisory position and transferring him back to the Placement Unit. The district court denied that claim, not because of the statute of limitations, but because it concluded that Singletary had failed to show a causal connection between the defendants' 1993 actions and the protected activity for which the plaintiff claimed those actions constituted retaliation. Id. at 57.

The district court also rejected the plaintiff's claim that the defendants intentionally created a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII. That claim was denied on statute of limitations grounds, and is a subject of this appeal. Id. at 62. Also rejected on...