Spees v. James Marine Inc
| Decision Date | 10 August 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 09-5839.,09-5839. |
| Citation | 617 F.3d 380 |
| Parties | Heather SPEES, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.JAMES MARINE, INC. and JamesBuilt, LLC, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
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ARGUED: D. Wes Sullenger, Sullenger Law Office, PLLC, Paducah, Kentucky, for Appellant. David L. Kelly, Denton & Keuler, LLP, Paducah, Kentucky, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: D. Wes Sullenger, Sullenger Law Office, PLLC, Paducah, Kentucky, for Appellant. David L. Kelly, Denton & Keuler, LLP, Paducah, Kentucky, for Appellees.
Before: CLAY and GILMAN, Circuit Judges; ZATKOFF, District Judge. *
GILMAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which CLAY, J., joined. ZATKOFF, D.J. (pp. 399-401), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Shortly after being employed as a welder for James Marine, Inc. (JMI), Heather Spees discovered that she was pregnant. At the direction of her foreman, Spees obtained a note from her physician restricting her to light-duty work, which resulted in JMI reassigning her to a position in the company's tool room. JMI terminated Spees two months later when a second doctor placed her on bedrest for the duration of her pregnancy. Spees then sued JMI and its subsidiary, JamesBuilt, LLC, seeking relief for (among other things) pregnancy and disability discrimination.
The district court granted summary judgment in favor of JMI and JamesBuilt on these claims, which Spees now challenges on appeal. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court with regard to Spees's pregnancy-discrimination claim and her disability-discrimination claim as they pertain to the termination of her employment, REVERSE the district court's grant of summary judgment on Spees's pregnancy-discrimination claim and disability-discrimination claim to the extent that they are based on her reassignment to the tool room, and REMAND the case for further proceedings on these latter two claims.
JMI owns and operates a construction and repair facility for inland waterway vessels on the banks of the Tennessee River near Calvert City, Kentucky. On May 11, 2007, Spees was hired to work at JMI's JamesBuilt facility, which focuses largely on constructing deck and tank barges, towboats, and dry-docks for the river-shipping industry. JamesBuilt, LLC is a subsidiary of JMI, and the two share the same Human Resources Department. (For convenience, JMI and JamesBuilt are hereinafter collectively referred to as JMI.)
Despite having no prior experience working in a manual-labor position, Spees was hired by JMI as a welder. Spees, like other newly hired welders without welding experience, was required by JMI to complete a 30-day in-house training course. She successfully completed the training program and was promoted to a welder-trainee position in early June 2007.
At this point in time, JMI's 935 nonoffice positions were overwhelmingly male, with only four of these positions filled by female employees. Spees was the only female assigned to the JamesBuilt facility.
Welding work at the JamesBuilt facility is physically demanding. It requires heavy lifting, climbing up ladders and stairs, maneuvering into barge tanks, and, occasionally, the overhead handling of equipment. The summer of 2007 was also particularly hot, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit or more on multiple occasions.
In addition, welders are exposed to fumes, dust, and organic vapors in the course of their work. To limit the inhalation of these substances, JMI provides welders with respirators to wear while on the job. Spees was fitted with a respirator during orientation, although she often opted not to wear it once she became a welder because she “didn't feel like [she] needed one.”
Tony Milam, Spees's foreman, described her as “a good employee” and “a good welder,” and he “ribbed” other male employees about “her coming in there and welding as good as what she done.” Spees enjoyed her work and believed that her supervisors saw her as “a good employee” and “a hardworking employee.”
Shortly after she started working at JMI, Spees became pregnant. This was Spees's third pregnancy; she had given birth to a daughter in 1999 and had suffered a miscarriage in 2005. Fearing that the pregnancy would cause her to lose her job, Spees was “hysterical” when she became aware of her condition. By this point, Spees was roughly five to six weeks' pregnant.
Spees's first course of action was to telephone her brother, Christopher Gunder, who was a JMI foreman. Gunder, in turn, recommended that she call Milam. While talking to Milam, Spees expressed her concern that she would be terminated from her position due to the pregnancy. Milam responded by noting that he “had concerns about her being around the chemicals, the welding smoke, [and] climbing around on some of the jobs” while pregnant, and he told her to see a doctor to “find out exactly what she did or didn't need to be doing or be around.”
On June 19, 2007, the day following her telephone conversation with Milam, Spees saw Dr. Jorge Cardenas, an obstetrician in Paducah, Kentucky. Dr. Cardenas had been Spees's physician for a number of years, including when she had suffered her miscarriage two years earlier. During her appointment with Dr. Cardenas, Spees discussed her past miscarriage and described her job duties as a welder. Dr. Cardenas replied that “there was no problem” with Spees resuming her work as a welder while pregnant. Although Dr. Cardenas did not know of any health problems that welding fumes could pose for a fetus, he recommended that Spees wear a respirator while working. At the end of her appointment, Spees received a “Certificate to Return to Work” from Dr. Cardenas that did not list any restrictions on her ability to weld.
Spees left her appointment with the intent of returning to work that same day. On her way back to JMI, she called Milam to inform him that she had received clearance from Dr. Cardenas to resume welding. Milam, in the meantime, had discussed with his supervisor Kenneth Colbert the possibility of moving Spees to a nonwelding “light-duty” position. He therefore asked Spees to read him Dr. Cardenas's Certificate to Return to Work. Despite Dr. Cardenas's having cleared Spees to work, Milam believed, based on “common sense,” that “there was some questions about her being pregnant and being able to safely perform the job that she was required to do.” Milam's concerns were also in part driven by the fact that Spees “had complications with other pregnancies before.”
Spees testified that, upon hearing her read Dr. Cardenas's note, Milam told Spees that she “needed something more descriptive or else they were going to get rid” of her. According to Spees, Milam requested that she obtain a second note from Dr. Cardenas mentioning “toxic fumes” and limiting her to “light duty.” Milam told Spees that such a note would help her get a transfer to a position in the tool room, thereby allowing her to retain her employment with JMI during her pregnancy.
At Milam's direction, Spees returned to Dr. Cardenas that same day to ask for a second note that limited her to light duty. Dr. Cardenas, complying with her request, wrote her a work order that read “patient requires light duty & avoid [sic] toxic fumes.” He testified that although there was no medical reason to limit Spees's job duties, he wrote the note “to allay some of [Spees]'s concerns” and “for the purpose of reducing her anxiety.” According to Dr. Cardenas, Spees did not inform him that her superiors at JMI had requested that the note be written.
Spees returned to JMI and showed Milam the second note from Dr. Cardenas that limited her to light duty. Milam informed Spees that he had consulted further with Colbert and that they had already decided that Spees could no longer weld. He did, however, tell Spees that she could work in the tool room, noting that “for right now, we don't know what to do with you.” Milam believed that the transfer would be temporary and that Spees could resume welding after the pregnancy. Despite voicing her desire to continue welding, Spees accepted the change.
Gunder also participated in the decision to reassign Spees to the tool room. He testified that, while JMI was deliberating where Spees should be working, he and Milam “went to [Colbert], and we just decided that it wouldn't be a good idea for her to [weld].” Gunder added that he was motivated by concern for the health of his sister's unborn child, and he believed that the job duties of a welder-the “constant[ ] dragging [and] pulling” as well as inhaling the welding fumes-should not be performed by Spees while pregnant.
Spees began working in the tool room on June 20, 2007, the day after she visited Dr. Cardenas. Her primary duties in that capacity were to dispense tools to other employees and to ensure that none of the equipment was lost or stolen. Spees found the job to be as physically demanding as welding, with the working conditions being “just as hot,” and her having to lift the same tools and materials as she did when welding. The main difference was that she did not have to perform any overhead work while in the tool room. Spees received the same salary for her work in the tool room as she did when welding.
Shortly after she began working in the tool room, Spees encountered Tom Freeman, the head of JMI's Safety Department, to whom she had never before spoken. According to Spees, Freeman told her that working at JMI “was not women's work” and that she needed to go back to her doctor to ask for a “descriptive note.” He added that the descriptive note should specify “everything you can and cannot do,” including whether Spees could climb ladders, lift heavy objects, and work in the heat. Freeman then told Spees that “I am your boss,” and “I am requesting...
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