Stross v. Michigan Dept. of Corrections
| Decision Date | 30 January 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 99-2501,99-2501 |
| Parties | (6th Cir. 2001) Susan Strouss, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Michigan Department of Corrections, a state agency and body politic; Marie Fletcher; Gerald DeVoss, in their individual capacities, Defendants-Appellees. Submitted: |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan at Detroit. No. 98-72658, Gerald E. Rosen, District Judge. [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Thomas L. Kent, Christine A. Green, GREEN, GREEN, ADAMS & PALMER, Ann Arbor, Michigan, for Appellant.
Katherine C. Galvin, Michael E. Moody, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, Lansing, Michigan, for Appellees.
Before: JONES and COLE, Circuit Judges; NUGENT, District Judge*.
Plaintiff-Appellant, Susan Strouss ("Strouss") appeals from the district court's grant of defendants' motion for summary judgment. The district court dismissed Strouss' Title VII claim alleging constructive discharge in retaliation for opposing sexual harassment. The district court also dismissed Strouss' Section 1983 claims brought against the two individual defendants alleging violations of her due process and First Amendment rights. For the reasons provided below, we AFFIRM the district court's decision.
Susan Strouss is a former nurse for the defendant, the Michigan Department of Corrections ("MDOC"). Strouss began working for the MDOC in 1992 as a staff nurse on the 3-East Unit of the Duane Waters Hospital on the premises of the State Prison of Southern Michigan. She was subsequently promoted to an RN 12 Nurse-Manager position. While working on 3-East, Strouss worked the first shift (5:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.).
In late 1993, one of Strouss' subordinates complained to her of sexual harassment by Wardell Brown, who was Strouss' immediate supervisor. Strouss claims that after complaining of Brown's sexual harassment, Brown began to accuse her of not doing her work. Strouss filed two EEOC charges in March 1994 and August 1994 relating to her complaints about Brown's harassment. In those EEOC charges, Strouss alleged that she was retaliated against "for having been a witness in the investigation of the sex harassment charge" (3/18/94 EEOC charge) and "subjected to continuous harassment and different terms, conditions and privileges of employment in retaliation for filing a previous charge of discrimination . . . ." (8/18/94 EEOC charge). J.A. at 211-212.
Eventually, in April 1994, Strouss was transferred out of Brown's 3-East unit to the 3-West (Chronic Care) Unit where she remained until July 1997. During this entire period, Strouss worked the first shift, i.e., the same shift she worked while on 3-East. On June 4, 1997, Strouss was charged with violation of Department Work Rules1. Strouss was notified of the charges against her by Defendants Gerald DeVoss and Marie Fletcher and was suspended without pay as of June 4, 1997, pending an investigation into the charges. Strouss was found guilty of the rules violations and was given a five-day unpaid suspension.
On July 9, 1997, while the investigation into the charges of rules violations was still in progress, Strouss was informed that she was being transferred to the Central Complex facility, effective July 14, 1997, due to operational needs. Although not entailing any changes in salary or status, this transfer was to the second shift (2:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m.). Strouss complained that the change to the second shift would conflict with her taking classes that she needed to complete her degree at Ferris State University. She further complained that certain prisoners housed in the Central Complex facility had made threats against her. Strouss took her complaints to Jackie Jackson, Regional Director of Nursing for Outpatient Care (also known as "Ambulatory Care"). In response to Strouss' concerns, Jackson placed Strouss on the day shift as a staff nurse in Ambulatory Care at the Cotton Facility without any decrease in her pay.
Jackie Jackson stated in her deposition that Strouss was told at the time of her assignment to the Cotton Facility that the assignment was only temporary and that they were in the process of interviewing for permanent day shift positions. She encouraged Strouss to interview for these positions because once they were filled, Strouss would have to return to her RN 12 Manager position in the Central Complex. Strouss, on the other hand, alleges that she was told by Jackson that her transfer to the day shift in Ambulatory Care was to be permanent. She did not have to interview for the positions, but rather, only had to give Jackson her social security number so her name could be placed on the "register" for the open positions. Strouss claims that she did give Jackson her social security number. With respect to Strouss' concern about placement in Central Complex because of threats allegedly made by prisoners who were housed there, Jackson testified that she told Strouss to give her the names and prisoner numbers of these alleged prisoner enemies, but Strouss never did. Strouss claims that she gave this information to Jackson verbally.
On October 2, 1997, Strouss told her immediate supervisor, Nancy Lange, about some inappropriate sexual comments made by Dr. Donovan Givens, one of her contract doctors at the Cotton Facility. Strouss did not want to file a formal complaint of sexual harassment against Dr.Givens. Nonetheless, Nancy Lange reported the incident to the sexual harassment counselor at the facility and also informed Dr. Gregory Naylor, Dr. Given's supervisor, and Gerald DeVoss, the Regional Health Care Administrator, about the matter. A few days later, Dr. Givens was transferred out of Ambulatory Care.
On October 20, 1997, Strouss was informed by Jackie Jackson that she was being transferred back to the Central Complex facility to work the second shift as originally scheduled. Ms. Jackson's October 20 Memorandum to Strouss stated:
Effective November 20, 1997, it will be necessary for you to report to SMI/JMF (Central Complex) on the afternoon shift 2:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.
You have expressed to me that you have concerns regarding certain "prisoners" locking in this area. If this is still so, you must supply me with the names and numbers by October 23, 1997.
As mutually discussed and agreed upon, you were temporarily assigned to JCF (Cotton Facility) on the day shift to allow you to orient to ambulatory care and to interview for anticipated 6:00 am to 2:30 positions here in Jackson. These positions have been filled and the JCF (Cotton Facility) staff is up to complement.
Strouss claims that on October 21, 1997, she again gave Jackson the names of the prisoners housed in Central Complex who had threatened her and that Jackson said she would "see what she could do about it." Strouss testified in her deposition, J.A. at 429. Strouss had two weeks of sick leave time so she took the next two weeks off and on November 4, 1997, quit her job.
On November 20, 1997, Strouss filed an EEOC complaint charging the Michigan Department of Corrections with retaliation. Unlike her previous charge in August of 1994, Strouss did not indicate that this was a "continuing action," but rather indicated only that the date on which the alleged wrongful retaliation took place was "10/20/97," i.e., the date on which Strouss was notified that she was being transferred from the Cotton Facility to the second shift in the Central Complex. In her charge, Strouss only mentioned the alleged harassment by Dr. Givens as a basis for the complaint. On March 26, 1998, the EEOC issued its Notification of the Right to Sue notifying plaintiff that she had 90 days from receipt thereof to institute a judicial action. On June 24, 1998, Strouss initiated the instant action against MDOC and individual Defendants Marie Fletcher and Gerald DeVoss.
In Count I of her two-count Complaint, Strouss alleges that defendants began a course of retaliating against her in 1994 because she opposed and complained of sexual harassment by Wardell Brown and that the course of conduct continued throughout her years of employment with the MDOC until the date she was forced to resign. Strouss further states that the proposed transfer of her in the Fall of 1997 to the Central Complex second shift was also in retaliation for her having complained of sexual harassment by Wardell Brown in 1994 and in retaliation for having complained of offensive sexual comments by Dr. Givens at the Cotton Facility.
In Count II of her complaint, Strouss alleges that in retaliation for complaining of sexual harassment by Wardell Brown and in violation of her right to due process and equal protection, she was unfairly disciplined in June 1997 for not following through with a doctor's orders regarding a prisoner's impending surgery and of entering a patient's room alone. Specifically, Strouss alleges that Defendants Fletcher and DeVoss instituted disciplinary proceedings against her in June 1997 and attempted to transfer her to the second shift in Central Complex because she complained of sexual harassment. This, she contends, amounts to different standards of treatment from that afforded to "other departmental employees who did not complain of sexual harassment." J.A. at 23.
The district court held that Strouss' Title VII retaliation claim is limited to the scope of her November 20, 1997 EEOC charge. The court found that Strouss' allegations of being retaliated against by her employer for having opposed sexual harassment by Wardell Brown in 1994 cannot reasonably be expected to grow out of the EEOC charge of retaliation for complaining about "unwelcome sexual comments" by a doctor with whom she was working in 1997. In addition, the district court held...
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