Thakkar v. STATION OPERATORS INC.

• Decision Date: 08 March 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08 C 3344.,08 C 3344.
• Citation: 697 F. Supp.2d 908
• Parties: Vasant THAKKAR and Prafulla Thakkar, Plaintiffs, v. STATION OPERATORS INC., d/b/a Exxonmobile Cors, Exxonmobile Oil Corp., and Kelly Bissias, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois

697 F. Supp.2d 908

Vasant THAKKAR and Prafulla Thakkar, Plaintiffs, v. STATION OPERATORS INC., d/b/a Exxonmobile Cors, Exxonmobile Oil Corp., and Kelly Bissias, Defendants.

No. 08 C 3344.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

March 8, 2010.

Jeffery P. Gray, Law Office of Jeffery P. Gray, Warrenville, IL, for Plaintiffs.

Robert Patrick Casey, Tracey Lynne Truesdale, Matthew S. Levine, Michael H. Cramer, Thomas Elliott Deer, Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., Chicago, IL, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

REBECCA R. PALLMEYER, District Judge.

Until February 2007, Plaintiffs Vasant and Prafulla Thakkar, husband and wife, were employed by Defendant Station Operators, Inc. ("SOI"), a subsidiary of Defendant ExxonMobil Oil Corp. ("Exxon") that staffs and operates Exxon's gas stations. The Thakkars are of Indian descent, are Hindu, identify their race as East Asian, and were born in 1951. Plaintiffs were terminated from their jobs after an incident in which they admitted to transferring five cases of windshield wiper fluid between the two stations where they worked, in violation of SOI's internal policies. Defendant Kelly Bissias was Vasant's direct supervisor at the time of his termination. Plaintiffs claim Bissias authorized the transfer and then lied about it to her superiors, resulting in both Plaintiffs being discharged. In an amended complaint filed in October 2008, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants discriminated against them on the basis of age, race, national origin, and religion in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (29 U.S.C. § 623 et seq.), 42 U.S.C. § 1981 ("Section 1981"), and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. ("ADEA"). Plaintiffs also advance state law claims of common-law retaliatory discharge against Defendants and tortious interference against Bissias.

Defendants have filed a motion for summary judgment on all claims. For the reasons set forth below, Defendants' motion is granted in part and denied in part. The court also addresses Plaintiffs' motion to supplement the record based on newly discovered evidence; that motion is granted in part and denied in part.

BACKGROUND

Vasant Thakkar began his employment with SOI as a sales associate in November 2000, and was promoted to assistant store manager in August 2001. (Pl.'s 56.1 Resp. ¶ ¶ 19, 21.) Prafulla Thakkar, Vasant's wife, joined SOI in May 2002, and she too was promoted to assistant store manager in April 2004. (Id. at ¶ ¶ 19, 21.) During the relevant period, Vasant worked at the Exxon station in Aurora, Illinois, and Prafulla worked at the station in the neighboring town of Naperville, Illinois. (Id. at 22.)¹ Though Vasant worked under a number of managers during his tenure at SOI, Defendant Kelly Bissias—who is Caucasian, 31 years old, and of Irish descent-was his store manager and direct supervisor during the period between September 2005 and February 2007. (Id. at ¶ 24.) At all relevant times, William Szenda was Prafulla's store manager and direct supervisor. (Id. at ¶ 23.) Plaintiffs' claims arise chiefly out of the series of events that culminated in their terminations. Unless otherwise indicated, the facts set forth here are undisputed. Where the parties disagree, the court views the facts and draws all reasonable inferences that flow from them in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs, as the nonmoving party. Ziliak v. AstraZeneca LP, 324 F.3d 518, 520 (7th Cir.2003).

I. Plaintiffs' Discharge

A. Vasant's Complaints Against Bissias

In October 2006, Vasant filed a complaint with SOI Territory Manager Brad Marcinkiewicz against Bissias, alleging that Bissias was violating company security procedures at the Aurora station. (Id. at ¶ 25.; V. Thakkar Dep. Ex. No. 3.) Marcinkiewicz was responsible for overseeing the area that included the Aurora and Naperville stations and, in that capacity, he was Bissias's superior in the SOI hierarchy. Marcinkiewicz met Vasant at a Burger King restaurant near the Aurora station to discuss the complaint, and Vasant subsequently memorialized their discussion in a letter to Marcinkiewicz, a copy of which is in the record. (V. Thakkar Dep. at 67-68; V. Thakkar Dep. Ex. No 3.) At that meeting, Vasant reported that Bissias had repeatedly left the key to the Aurora store's safe in insecure places and had counted money from the cash register in the open, contrary to company policy. (Id.) He also accused Bissias of sharing her computer log-in password with other store employees, allowing employees to sign her name to company reports, and purchasing lottery tickets while wearing her store uniform-all in violation of company policy. (Id.; Pl.'s 56.1 Resp. ¶ 25.) "All the breaches of policy as well as security," Vasant wrote, "threaten the safety as well as proper running of the store ..." (V. Thakkar Dep. Ex. No. 3.)

At their October 2006 meeting, Vasant showed Marcinkiewicz security-camera photographs that corroborated his accusations. Marcinkiewicz thanked Vasant for reporting his concerns and undertook an investigation that confirmed that Bissias had, in fact, left the safe keys unsecured, allowed other employees to use her computer password, and purchased lottery tickets while wearing her uniform. (V. Thakkar Dep. at 68; Pl.'s 56.1 Resp. ¶ 26.) In a letter dated November 6, 2006, Marcinkiewicz wrote to Vasant:

I have taken into account the security concerns that you had stated to me on October 28, 2006. Upon completion of a full investigation, I believe that any and all concerns have been addressed and the proper corrective actions have been taken .... I am confident that the steps taken ... will eliminate any concerns or violations .... I wanted to personally thank you for bringing your concerns to me, and strongly encourage you to do so in the future should you ever have further questions or concerns in your work environment ...

(V. Thakkar Dep. Ex 4.) Despite his professed gratitude, however, Marcinkiewicz still placed a "counseling letter" into Vasant's employment file. Unauthorized removal of company documents from a store site is against SOI's company policies, and Marcinkiewicz reprimanded Vasant for removing the security-camera photographs from the store site for the purpose of the meeting. (Marcinkiewicz Dep. at 157.) Vasant had never received a reprimand of any kind before. Marcinkiewicz also "counseled" Bissias about the security issues Vasant raised and placed a letter of reprimand in her employment file. (Pl.'s 56.1 Resp. ¶ 27; Bissias Dep. at 60-62.)² When Bissias learned of Vasant's complaint some time between November 2006 and January 2007, she was upset. "He never came to me with any of this so I felt it was disrespectful," Bissias testified. (Bissias Dep. at 65.)

There is no evidence that Vasant was aware that Bissias had been reprimanded as a result of his initial complaint. On January 17, 2007, he lodged a second complaint against her, this time in a letter directed to Marcinkiewicz's superior, SOI Operations Manager Kim Kemper. (Pl.'s 56.1 Resp. at ¶ 28.) Vasant explained that he felt compelled to send the complaint directly to Kemper because he believed Bissias and Marcinkiewicz to be "good friends." (V. Thakkar Dep. Ex 6.) Defendants deny that Bissias and Marcinkiewicz "have any sort of current social relationship," but they concede that on at least five occasions Bissias and Marcinkiewicz did participate in social outings outside of work. (Def. 56.1 Resp. at ¶ 5.)³ As a result of this perceived relationship and the earlier reprimand that he had received, Vasant suggested to Kemper that he doubted that Marcinkiewicz would handle the second complaint fairly. (V. Thakkar Dep. Ex 6.) Vasant wrote Kemper that, in the time since his earlier complaint, "not only have many of the security breaches continued, but alarmingly, there is substantial evidence demonstrating Ms. Bissias' hostility towards me as a result of my alerting higher authorities ..." (Id.) Vasant's letter detailed the following behavior: Bissias began referring to Vasant as "you" at employee meetings; she frequently gave other employees permission to leave work early during Vasant's shift without advising him; she directed Vasant to empty money from the car wash after dark and to make nighttime bank deposits on New Year's Eve; she reduced Vasant's average weekly hours from 38 hours to 36 hours per week; on one occasion, she required Vasant to work 10 consecutive days Including Christmas and overnight on New Year's Eve;⁴ and she falsely accused Vasant of misplacing company records. (Id.; Pl's 56.1 Resp. at ¶ 29.) Though Vasant did not indicate at that time that he believed these actions were the result of discriminatory animus-in fact, he speculated that Bissias was retaliating "as a result of Vasant's alerting higher authorities" he did state that he believed Bissias's behavior violated provisions of the company's Workplace Harassment and Equal Employment Opportunity policies. (Pl's 56.1 Resp. at ¶ 29.)⁵ Plaintiffs now contend that requiring Vasant to work more than seven consecutive days was an act of unlawful discrimination.

Kemper opened a formal inquiry into Vasant's complaint on January 25, 2007, and assigned the investigation to Mary Ann Kause, a paralegal in Exxon's legal department. (Def.'s 56.1 Resp. at ¶ 13, Pl's 56.1 Resp. at ¶ 31.) After conducting her investigation, Kause concluded that Vasant's claims could not be credited and closed the investigation on February 20, 2007. (Id. at ¶ 32.)⁶ Roughly one month later, on March 26, 2007, SOI Human Resources Advisor Erik VanDuivendyk sent Vasant a letter stating, "we have completed the investigation into the claim you submitted to SOI Human Resources. Based on the findings of the investigation, the proper response has been taken and the case is now closed." (VanDuivendyk Dep. at 67-68.) By the time this letter was issued, the Thakkars had been...