Thompson v. Exxon Mobil Corp.
| Decision Date | 25 October 2004 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 1:02-CV-693. |
| Citation | 344 F.Supp.2d 971 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas |
| Parties | Dennis E. THOMPSON, Brenda Baines, Robert W. Brown, Ace Clark, Jr., Lawrence Duke, Harvey J. George, Arthur R. Gordon, Stella Guidry, Tom C. Henry, Jr., Earnest Charles Jackson, Alex J. Johnson, Leroy Jones, N.T. Melonson, Sylvestor Plumbar, Jr., Gerald Roman, Leslie Siggers, Sylvia A. Thomas, Rufus Wells, and Ethel Wilson, Plaintiffs, v. EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION, Individually and d/b/a ExxonMobil Oil Corporation and d/b/a ExxonMobil Refining & Supply Company, Defendant. |
John Gerard Werner, Reaud, Morgan & Quinn, Beaumont, TX, for Plaintiffs.
Robert J. Hambright, Orgain, Bell & Tucker, Beaumont, TX, Tony P. Rosenstein, D'Andra Millsap Shu, Baker Botts, Houston, TX, for Defendants.
Pending before the court is Defendant ExxonMobil Corporation's ("ExxonMobil") Motion for Summary Judgment (# 34). ExxonMobil seeks summary judgment on Plaintiffs Harvey J. George ("George"), Earnest Charles Jackson ("Jackson"), and Leroy Jones's ("Jones") (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Plaintiffs") claims alleging racial discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2000h-6, and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 1981. Having reviewed the pending motion, the submissions of the parties, the pleadings, and the applicable law, the court is of the opinion that summary judgment is warranted.
George, Jackson, and Jones are all African-American males employed as crane riggers and operators in the Transportation Department of the ExxonMobil oil refinery in Beaumont, Texas. They have each worked at the Beaumont refinery for at least thirty years and are all considered "first-class riggers," the highest classification an ExxonMobil employee can achieve when operating and setting up cranes.
ExxonMobil requires crane operators to work the crane on firm, level ground or cribbing. Cribbing is material placed on the ground during a lift to distribute the weight of a crane's outriggers, which project out from the crane to provide support and stability. According to crane operating manuals available to ExxonMobil crane riggers, cribbing materials should be placed together in such a manner as to make one solid form. Outrigger mats, which consist of a solid plastic piece designed to be used under crane outriggers, have been in use at the Beaumont facility since 2000.
On February 11, 2002, Plaintiffs were operating a crane in order to remove relief/safety valves from the roof of a structure. This particular crane had four outriggers, and, during the operation to remove the valves, the boom of the crane was to be positioned over the left-front outrigger, such that the outrigger would carry most of the weight. In February 2002, the decision to use matting and cribbing was left to the discretion of the crane operators and riggers. Plaintiffs initially set up the crane with the left-front outrigger on wet, bare ground, using some lumber and sheet metal as cribbing. The first relief valve was lifted and moved without incident. During the first attempt to lift the second relief valve, the soil under the left-front outrigger began to give way. As a result, Plaintiffs repositioned the crane, placing the left-front outrigger on a concrete pad instead of on soil. Plaintiffs claim that the cribbing used on the initial lift (the lumber and sheet metal) was again placed under the left-front outrigger. George and Jones also claim that plastic mats were placed under the other three outriggers. Jackson, however, testified that no plastic mats were used, and ExxonMobil maintains that photographs from the accident show that no mats or cribbing of any kind was used on any of the outriggers. As Plaintiffs again attempted to lift the second relief valve, the left-front outrigger went through the cement surface, and the crane tipped forward, causing the boom to rest on the roof where the valves were located.
Ronald Clour ("Clour"), a manager in the Transportation Department, was part of an ExxonMobil team, comprised of several managers, that investigated the incident immediately after it occurred. Plaintiffs allege that Clour has a history of discriminatory employment practices. The ExxonMobil investigation team determined that inadequate cribbing was used on the first lift and no cribbing or mats were used on the second lift when the crane tipped. Accordingly, Clour, along with the rest of the team, concluded that the accident was due to human error. Thus, Clour directed Plaintiffs to take a drug and alcohol test, as required by ExxonMobil policy when human error is implicated. Plaintiffs were then sent home pending the results of the tests. They were suspended with pay for two to three days until the tests came back negative.
Plaintiffs contend that concrete pads, such as the one in question, were used successfully many times in the past as support for the crane, with or without additional cribbing or matting. They claim there was a cavity underneath the concrete, which was impossible to foresee. Therefore, according to Plaintiffs, there was no human error, and they should not have been subjected to drug testing or sent home. Plaintiffs assert that the only reason Clour required them to submit to drug testing was because of their race.
In order to upright the tipped crane, ExxonMobil brought in Maxim Crane ("Maxim"), a third-party contractor, after refinery personnel determined a substantially larger crane was needed, which ExxonMobil employees were not trained or qualified to operate. As part of the contract, Maxim was in charge of the operation and assumed responsibility for any damage to the crane during the procedure. Eli Denson ("Denson"), an African-American male, was the ExxonMobil shift superintendent in charge of the crane recovery lift. Clour was not present during this salvage effort. Joining Denson were five ExxonMobil employees who were on site to provide any needed support to Maxim. Three of these employees were African-American males and two were white males. In the effort to lift the crane, a nylon sling was attached to the boom of the fallen crane, but during the lift, the sling broke, and the crane fell again, causing substantial damage. Denson initially determined that the cause of this second accident was equipment failure and not human error. Therefore, Denson did not order drug and alcohol testing of the contractors, who were all Caucasian, or the ExxonMobil employees, both African-American and white, who were assisting the contractors. Further investigation by a team of ExxonMobil employees, however, revealed that Maxim should have used pads in conjunction with the nylon sling, which would have prevented the accident. The ExxonMobil employees who served as support personnel during the lift did not receive any discipline because "total control" of the lift had been delegated to Maxim.
In March 2002, George, Jackson, and Jones filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") alleging race discrimination. At the time, they had not been disciplined for their role in the initial crane accident. On April 11, 2002, Plaintiffs each received formal counseling, the least severe form of discipline possible for union employees, and reports confirming the counseling were placed in their personnel files. Plaintiffs' union, the Paper, Allied-Industrial, Chemical and Energy Workers International, filed a grievance on their behalf. In May 2002, at the conclusion of the grievance process, the discipline was reduced to oral coaching, and the counseling reports were removed from their personnel files. Plaintiffs then filed second charges with the EEOC, Jackson on July 23, 2002, and George and Jones on August 2, 2002, alleging that the counseling was in retaliation for their filing the EEOC charge in March 2002.
Rule 56(c) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provides that summary judgment "shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show 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." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). The party seeking summary judgment bears the initial burden of informing the court of the basis for its motion and identifying those portions of the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and affidavits, if any, which it believes demonstrate the absence of a genuine issue of material fact. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 323, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986); Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986); Martinez v. Schlumberger, Ltd., 338 F.3d 407, 411 (5th Cir.2003); Terrebonne Parish Sch. Bd. v. Mobil Oil Corp., 310 F.3d 870, 877 (5th Cir.2002); Colson v. Grohman, 174 F.3d 498, 506 (5th Cir.1999).
"A fact is `material' if it `might affect the outcome of the suit under governing law.'" Bazan v. Hidalgo County, 246 F.3d 481, 489 (5th Cir.2001) (emphasis in original) (quoting Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505); see Harken Exploration Co. v. Sphere Drake Ins. PLC, 261 F.3d 466, 471 (5th Cir.2001); Merritt-Campbell, Inc. v. RxP Prods., Inc., 164 F.3d 957, 961 (5th Cir.1999); Burgos v. Southwestern Bell Tel. Co., 20 F.3d 633, 635 (5th Cir.1994). "An issue is `genuine' if it is real and substantial, as opposed to merely formal, pretended, or a sham." Bazan, 246 F.3d at 489 (emphasis in original). Thus, a genuine issue of material fact exists "if the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505; accord Harken...
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