Spearman v. Ford Motor Co.

• Decision Date: 03 November 2000
• Docket Number: No. 99-3538,99-3538
• Citation: 231 F.3d 1080
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) Edison K. Spearman, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ford Motor Company, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 1080

231 F.3d 1080 (7th Cir. 2000)

Edison K. Spearman, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Ford Motor Company, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 99-3538

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued April 5, 2000

Decided November 3, 2000

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 98 C 452--David H. Coar, Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Before Manion, Kanne, and Evans, Circuit Judges.

Manion, Circuit Judge.

Edison Spearman sued his current employer, Ford Motor Company, alleging that Ford violated Title VII by subjecting him to a hostile environment of sexual harassment, retaliating against him for opposing sexual harassment, and for discriminating against him on the basis of his sex. Ford moved for summary judgment, which the district court granted. Spearman appeals, and we affirm.

I.

Edison Spearman is a black man and a homosexual¹ who has been working for Ford since 1990. In October 1995, Spearman worked as a "blanker operator" at Ford's Chicago Heights Stamping Plant, where he operated press machines that "blank" or "stamp" sheet metal into dimensional form. In the summer of 1997, Spearman was promoted to the position of "blanker utility" worker, and assigned to relieve two blanker operators (Gregory Curtis and Steve Neeley) for their work breaks, lunch breaks and other rotations.

Spearman filed his first of several complaints of harassment on December 8, 1995, in which he reported that since his assignment as a blanker operator in October 1995, Curtis constantly took personal items (pens, newspapers, and gloves) from him without his permission. When Spearman told Curtis to stop, Curtis (a black man) called Spearman a "nigger" and a "selfish bitch." Curtis would also hound Spearman for lunch money, and then call him a "cheap ass bitch" if his requests were occasionally denied. Following a glove- snatching incident, Spearman had two meetings with his union representative and Curtis to resolve the matter.

Spearman reported no further incidents of harassment until May 16, 1997, when he filed a written complaint concerning an altercation with Curtis over the timing of lunch breaks. Curtis confronted Spearman, called him a "little bitch," told him that he hated his "gay ass," and threatened to go to Spearman's residence in Indiana and "f---- [his] gay faggot ass up." To defuse the situation, a foreman assigned Spearman and Curtis to different press areas for the balance of the shift. The following week, labor relations investigated the matter and held two meetings with Spearman, Curtis and a union representative.

Curtis and Neeley testified that they and their co-workers at Ford suspected that Spearman was a homosexual. According to Curtis, he thought that Spearman was homosexual when they first met and Spearman supposedly took "a full look" at Curtis like a man would look at a woman. Curtis also opined that other blanker operators at Ford were uncomfortable with Spearman because they observed that he "looked [them] over" like a man would "take a full look" at a woman, that he got too close to his male co-workers when he talked to them, and even "rubbed up especially close" to some of them. Curtis also testified that one co- worker started "squirming" when others teased him that Spearman had a "crush" on him. And Curtis also claimed that his brother-in-law and a co- worker told him that they saw Spearman at gay nightclubs.

According to Spearman, Curtis continually harassed him after the May 1997 incident by reporting to work late and returning from his breaks late in order to disrupt Spearman's relief schedule as a utility worker, and thus deprive him of his breaks and lunches. Curtis's negative behavior toward Spearman continued until he was moved to another press machine (and away from Spearman) in October 1997.

Spearman submitted another written complaint concerning a June 21, 1997 argument with Neeley over the timing of a break. As a blanker utility worker, Spearman told Neeley to take a break, but Neeley refused, leaned into Spearman's face, and taunted him by telling Spearman to hit him. In his complaint, Spearman wrote: "[T]here's a constant problem with Steve, when it comes to breaks; since I've become utility, he rebels and insist [sic] on debating me about how and when I relieve." Labor relations responded by conducting a meeting with all of the parties involved in the matter.

In June 1997, Spearman discovered graffiti on the bulletin board that stated: "Aids kills faggots dead . . . RuPaul, RuSpearman."² Spearman waited five months to report the incident, and when he did, labor relations representatives promptly painted over it the following day.

On October 21, 1997, Spearman delivered another complaint to Ford that involved an altercation with George Pearson (who was temporarily assigned to work with Spearman) about the timing of a break. While Pearson was leaving his work station, he said to Spearman, "You f----ing jack- off, pussy-ass," and saluted Spearman with his middle finger. Spearman reported the incident to his foreman, Anthony Perez, who assured Spearman that he would discuss the matter with Pearson and "discipline him." Shortly after Spearman filed his complaint about the incident, a labor relations representative investigated the matter and conducted a meeting with Spearman and his union representative.

In November 1997, Spearman discovered more graffiti outside a portable toilet that stated: "Ed Sperman [sic] is a fag and has AIDS" and "Edison Sperman [sic] is gay." Labor relations representatives painted over the graffiti immediately after Spearman's report.

Ford received another letter from Spearman around November 24, 1997, in which he complained that he was being harassed by Perez, who used the following instructional hypothetical at a department meeting about sexual harassment:

Say for instance, Greg and Ed are in the back bringing in a coil, and Ed touches Greg in a way that made him feel uncomfortable, that can be a charge of sexual harassment.

Spearman believed that Perez's hypothetical was about himself (Ed) and Greg Curtis, and thus it was "totally inappropriate" and harmful to Spearman because he and Curtis had been involved in several altercations in the past. Perez testified that he was not referring to Spearman in the example, but to Ed Rolff, one of Spearman's co-workers.

In the same letter, Spearman also complained that Perez had offered to give him a hug on two separate occasions. On the first occasion, Spearman admits that Perez greeted him with a hug because he showed up for work during a staff shortage in the summer of 1997. But Spearman stated that he "felt very awkward" about Perez's second offer of a hug that occurred when Spearman was confused about overtime duties and consulted Perez for advice. Perez testified that Spearman appeared to be distraught because the press machine was not working, and that Perez offered to give him a hug to lift his spirits.

During the afternoon of November 24, 1997, Perez instructed Spearman to perform housekeeping duties and wash the windows of the press machines for about an hour before the end of his shift. Spearman believed that his assignment was punitive and that Perez was retaliating against him for his November 17, 1997 harassment complaint about Perez's instructional hypothetical and offers to hug Spearman. He left work that day, went on medical leave in December 1997, and did not return to work until May 4, 1998. Perez testified that he assigned similar housekeeping tasks to other utility workers and operators to keep them busy when they were not operating the press machines.

During his medical leave, Spearman received treatment for depression. When he returned to work after a five-month absence, he discovered that his tool box was destroyed and that his tools had been stolen.

Spearman then sued Ford, alleging that it violated Title VII by subjecting him to a hostile environment of sexual harassment; by retaliating against him because he filed complaints opposing sexual harassment; and by discriminating against him because of his sex by failing to investigate his sexual harassment complaints as promptly as similar complaints from female employees. Ford moved for summary judgment. The district court granted Ford's motion, concluding that while Spearman established a reasonable inference that he was harassed because of his sex, his sexual harassment claim failed because he did not show that the harassment was severe enough to cause a change in his employment conditions. The district court also denied Spearman's retaliation claim by concluding that he failed to establish a prima facie case by showing that he suffered an adverse employment action. The court did not address Spearman's sex discrimination claim. Spearman appeals.

II.

"We review the district court's entry of summary judgment de novo," Miller v. American Family Mut. Ins. Co., 203 F.3d 997, 1003 (7th Cir. 2000), viewing all of the facts, and drawing all reasonable inferences from those facts, in favor of the nonmoving party. Id. Summary judgment is proper if the record shows that "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Silk v. City of Chicago, 194 F.3d 788, 798 (7th Cir. 1999) (citing Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c)).

Title VII prohibits an employer from harassing an employee "because of [the employee's] sex."³ Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75, 78 (1998); 42 U.S.C. sec. 2000e-2(a)(1). Same-sex sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII "to the extent that it occurs 'because of' the plaintiff's sex." Shepherd v. Slater Steels Corp., 168 F.3d 998, 1007 (7th Cir. 1999). We have stated that "[t]he phrase in Title VII prohibiting discrimination based on sex" means that "it is unlawful to discriminate against women because they are women and against men because they are...