Sybrandt v. Home Depot, U.S.A., Inc.

• Decision Date: 26 March 2009
• Docket Number: No. 08-5598.,08-5598.
• Parties: Sharon Turnbull SYBRANDT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOME DEPOT, U.S.A., INC., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

560 F.3d 553

Sharon Turnbull SYBRANDT, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. HOME DEPOT, U.S.A., INC., Defendant-Appellee.

No. 08-5598.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: March 10, 2009.

Decided and Filed: March 26, 2009.

ARGUED:

August C. Winter, Law Office, Brentwood, Tennessee, for Appellant. Elizabeth S. Washko, Ogletree Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.

ON BRIEF:

August C. Winter, Law Office, Brentwood, Tennessee, for Appellant. Keith D. Frazier, Wendy V. Miller, Ogletree Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee.

Before: BOGGS, Chief Judge; GILMAN and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

Sharon Turnbull Sybrandt sued her former employer, Home Depot, U.S.A., Inc. alleging that it had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and the Tennessee Human Rights Act (THRA) by terminating her employment because of her sex. Home Depot filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that it had a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for terminating Sybrandt based upon her violation of a company policy that prohibited the use of an employee's password-protected user-identification code to conduct personal transactions involving Home Depot merchandise. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Home Depot.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual background

Sybrandt began working in November 1991 at one of Home Depot's stores in Nashville, Tennessee. She was promoted to the position of Assistant Store Manager in May 2002. Six months later her official title was changed to Operations Assistant Manager. Home Depot terminated Sybrandt in February 2006 for allegedly violating the company's "no-self-service" policy. Sybrandt claims that she was replaced by a male employee, a fact that Home Depot does not dispute.

The policy that led to Sybrandt's discharge prohibits employees from using their own security codes to effectuate certain personal transactions. In particular, the Home Depot Code of Conduct forbids employees from

performing or authorizing a transaction for oneself, friend(s) or family including but not limited to the following: . . . [c]reating, modifying or completing Special Services . . . transactions including special orders, will calls, quotes, measures and installations.

Home Depot's Code of Conduct also states that a breach of this policy is considered a "Major Work Rule Violation[]" that "will normally result in termination for a first offense. . . ."

Sybrandt was aware of Home Depot's policy before she was terminated. During her deposition, Sybrandt explained that the key purpose of the policy is to deter theft and dishonesty by Home Depot employees. She elaborated that the policy prevents employees from, for example, purchasing merchandise and then using Home Depot's computers to show that they had "returned" the products for a "refund"—when in reality the employees have simply pocketed both the goods and the refund. Sybrandt acknowledged that another purpose of the policy is to prevent even the appearance of impropriety.

Home Depot terminated Sybrandt in February 2006 for allegedly breaching its "no-self-service" policy in two ways. First, on November 30, 2005, Sybrandt allowed a coworker to use the former's password-protected user ID to process a special-service order for Sybrandt. Next, on December 28, 2005, Sybrandt entered electronic "notes" on the computerized history of the same transaction, indicating that she wanted to cancel part of her order and receive a refund. Home Depot concluded that both actions violated the policy against allowing employees to service their own special-order transactions.

Before reaching this conclusion, however, Home Depot conducted an internal investigation. The investigation was handled by a district loss-prevention manager, Matt Bollinger, and a Human Resources supervisor, Johnna Atwill. Bollinger and Atwill interviewed Sybrandt in mid-January 2006 as part of the inquiry. They explained to Sybrandt that she was the subject of an investigation regarding her special order. Sybrandt recalls, however that Bollinger did not seem concerned about the notes that she had entered accompanying her transaction on December 28, 2005.

Bollinger and Atwill faxed information derived from their initial investigation to Ed Malowney, one of Home Depot's Employment Practices Managers. Malowney asked them to do more factfinding. The full results of the investigation included a written description of security-camera footage from the Home Depot store on November 30, 2005, which depicted a desk associate entering information into a computer workstation under Sybrandt's password-protected user ID while speaking to Sybrandt. Bollinger's and Atwill's investigation also included witness statements. After reviewing the results of the investigation, Malowney recommended to his superiors that Home Depot terminate Sybrandt's employment. This recommendation was ultimately approved.

Sybrandt received a discharge notice from Home Depot in February 2006 that explained her termination in the following words:

On November 30, 2005, and December 28, 2005, Sharon made entries to her personal order # 189775, therefore violating company policy regarding special orders.

Per company policy as stated in the Manager's Code of Conduct—

Failure to Act with Integrity and Honesty:

Creating, modifying or completing Special Services . . . transactions including special orders . . . .

Sharon was in direct violation of company policy when she performed transactions in her own special order. Failure to act with integrity and honesty is considered a major work rule violation and is subject to termination. Based upon Sharon's actions the company has made the decision to end the business relationship effective immediately.

In explaining his recommendation to terminate Sybrandt, Malowney stated in his deposition that Sybrandt had breached Home Depot's policy irrespective of whether she actually intended to commit any wrongdoing. Malowney also said that Sybrandt breached company policy by allowing another employee to use Sybrandt's user ID to make entries on the special order on November 30, 2005. As for the notes that Sybrandt entered on her own transaction on December 28, 2005, Malowney viewed this to be a policy violation because

the whole point of that policy is that you don't do anything [in] a transaction that you are personally involved in. You need to disqualify yourself, go to another [employee], and have another [employee] use their [user ID] to go into that system.

In light of his interpretation of company policy, Malowney acknowledged that any time an employee has made "any kind of entry whatsoever into his or her own Special Services Order," he has recommended terminating the employee in question. Indeed, Malowney has recommended discharging 18 Home Depot employees for this reason over the three-year period preceding his deposition for this case. Malowney nevertheless conceded that the Home Depot's Code of Conduct does not expressly discuss the circumstances under which writing a "note" about one's own transaction would be a violation of Home Depot's policy.

B. Procedural background

Sybrandt sued Home Depot in early January 2007, alleging unlawful employment discrimination based on sex, in violation of both Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) and the THRA § 4-21-101 et seq. Her original complaint also included allegations of wage discrimination, but she voluntarily dismissed that claim. Home Depot filed a motion for summary judgment in November 2007 as to Sybrandt's remaining claims of sex discrimination brought under Title VII and the THRA. The district court granted the motion in April 2008. This timely appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of review

We review de novo the district court's grant of summary judgment. See Allen v. Highlands Hosp. Corp., 545 F.3d 387, 393 (6th Cir.2008). Summary judgment is proper where no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c). In considering a motion for summary judgment, the district court must construe all reasonable inferences in favor of the nonmoving party. Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986). The central issue is "whether the evidence presents a sufficient disagreement to require submission to a jury or whether it is so one-sided that one party must prevail as a matter of law." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 251-52, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986).

B. Disparate-treatment claim

1. Framework for disparate-treatment claims brought under Title VII

Employers are prohibited from, among other things, discharging an employee because of that individual's sex. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1). Both this court and the state courts in Tennessee have evaluated claims brought under the THRA in the same manner as Title VII claims. Madden v. Chattanooga City Wide Serv. Dep't, 549 F.3d 666, 673 (6th Cir.2008); Graves v. Circuit City Stores, Inc., No. 03A01-9501-CH-00012, 1995 WL 371659, at *2 (Tenn. Ct.App. June 21, 1995) ("Our Courts have looked to federal case law applying the provisions of the federal anti-discrimination statutes as the baseline for interpreting and applying the Tennessee Act.") The parties on appeal have articulated their arguments exclusively in terms of Title VII jurisprudence. Our disposition of Sybrandt's Title VII claim will therefore apply with equal force to her THRA-based claim.

Direct or circumstantial evidence may be used to establish an employee's claim of discrimination. Circumstantial evidence of discrimination is "analyzed under the burden-shifting framework set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973), and later modified...