Tomsic v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.

• Decision Date: 09 December 1994
• Docket Number: Civ. No. 93-C-470G.
• Citation: 870 F. Supp. 318
• Parties: Irene P. TOMSIC and Sheila Browning, Plaintiffs, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY and Norman Miller, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Utah

870 F. Supp. 318

Irene P. TOMSIC and Sheila Browning, Plaintiffs, v. STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY and Norman Miller, Defendants.

Civ. No. 93-C-470G.

United States District Court, D. Utah, Central Division.

December 9, 1994.

Ronald E. Nehring and Robert Wing, Prince, Yeates & Geldzahler, Salt Lake City, UT, for plaintiffs.

Glenn C. Hanni and David Nielson, Strong & Hanni, Salt Lake City, UT, for defendants State Farm and Norman Miller.

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

J. THOMAS GREENE, District Judge.

This matter came before the Court on October 12, 1994, for a hearing on defendants' State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company ("State Farm") and Norman Miller Motion for Summary Judgment. Defendants State Farm and Norman Miller were represented by Glenn C. Hanni and David Nielson of the law firm Strong & Hanni. Plaintiffs were represented by Ronald E. Nehring and Robert Wing of Prince, Yeates & Geldzahler.

Now being fully advised, and having considered the oral arguments of counsel and the memoranda and documentation on file, the Court renders its Memorandum Decision and Order.

FACTS

This is a Title VII action by plaintiffs Irene P. Tomsic ("Ms. Tomsic") and Sheila Browning ("Ms. Browning") for wrongful termination based upon gender discrimination. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a) (1988). Both plaintiffs are female. Plaintiffs also have alleged other claims sounding in both tort and contract.

While both parties have submitted extensive statements of material fact in their memoranda, the essential facts are not in dispute. State Farm hired plaintiffs as atwill employees in its agent training program. Both plaintiffs signed employment contracts which provided that either plaintiffs or State Farm could terminate their relationship upon written notice. Under those contracts, State Farm was obligated to assign to plaintiffs an agency manager to provide training and supervision. Upon successful completion of the training program, plaintiffs were to become independent contractors, working for their own benefit on a commission basis and no longer employees of State Farm.

During their first three months of employment, plaintiffs were placed under the tutelage of Dean Olsen, a State Farm agency manager and trainer. Toby Gonzalez, a male trainee hired at approximately the same time as plaintiffs, was trained by Norman Miller, also a State Farm agency manager and trainer. Plaintiffs received a good deal of instruction and enjoyed a high level of contact with their trainer Dean Olsen during this initial three-month period. Plaintiffs do not complain of the quality of instruction they received from Olsen, and Olsen appears to have been satisfied with the quality of plaintiffs' effort and work. Plaintiff's Opposing Memorandum at ¶ 15.

After the initial three-month period, Olsen was relieved from his duties as plaintiffs' supervisor and trainer, and Norman Miller was assigned in his place. State Farm asserts that a supervisor's involvement with trainees after the initial three-month period typically tapers off to approximately three hours per week. State Farm further asserts that all trainees, Ms. Tomsic, Ms. Browning, and Toby Gonzalez, received approximately three hours of training/supervision per week from Miller. Plaintiffs dispute this assertion, arguing that Mr. Miller spent more time with Toby than he did with them. However, the core of plaintiffs' gender discrimination claims arises out of two conversations between Norman Miller and Ms. Tomsic and Ms. Browning, respectively. These conversations occurred shortly after the plaintiffs were placed under the supervision of Miller in the context of an evaluation or review of plaintiffs' progress as trainees.

In his meeting with Ms. Tomsic, Miller expressed concern that Ms. Tomsic would not be a successful independent contractor because her husband already made a good deal of money, and therefore she lacked incentive. Miller also asked whether Ms. Tomsic's husband was supportive of her career. Noting that Ms. Tomsic was living in Salt Lake City, Utah part-time to attend school while her husband lived in Price, Utah, Miller warned Ms. Tomsic that the divorce rate among State Farm agents was very high and that she might become divorced if she continued as an agent.

In his conversation with Ms. Browning, Miller expressed concern over how Ms. Browning's husband would feel when several years down the road she was making more money than he. Ms. Browning's husband earlier had applied to be a State Farm agent, but his application had been denied. When asked at his deposition as to the purpose of his inquiry, Norman Miller responded as follows:

Another female trainee agent that I had had some difficulty sic — her husband had some real difficulty when it became evident that she was going to be making more money than he was. And he was to the point where he wanted her to quit because he didn't think he could deal with that, that his wife was making more money than he was. And since that had been recent and fresh on my mind, that conversation, I was concerned that the same might happen in Sheila and Michael Browning's relationship.

I know that Mr. Browning wanted to be a State Farm agent and felt that he should have been a State Farm agent. And the fact that he didn't hadn't received that opportunity and Sheila had, I perceived that there could have been a problem.

Deposition of Norman Miller at 72-73.

With respect to both plaintiffs, State Farm contends that Miller's remarks were made only to ascertain whether plaintiffs were able to make the commitment necessary to become successful State Farm agents. In support of this contention, State Farm proffers the affidavit of Dean Olsen, who avers:

Being a State Farm agent is a demanding job requiring long, irregular hours of work to be successful. If a new agent has not been used to working long hours, the agent and his or her family may undergo a period of adjustment.

State Farm is concerned about the well-being of its agents and recognizes that successful agents need to find a balance between their careers and their families. I have found that when an agent's family resents the time the agent is required to put in, the agent's productivity can sometimes suffer. Family support is an important aspect of an agent's success.

As an agency manager, I have often asked State Farm agents about their relationships with their families in order to determine how the agent is doing in terms of their professional and personal lives. I have also made similar inquiries of the agents' spouses to determine how they were handling their spouse's long, irregular hours.

Affidavit of Dean Olsen at ¶¶ 3-7.

Approximately nine months after plaintiffs began their employment at State Farm they were asked to resign their employment as trainee agents and offered a relocation allowance in exchange for their resignations. Norman Miller did not have authority to ask for plaintiffs' resignation, and neither did Miller's supervisor. However, Miller was a member of a three-person panel which had input into such decisions.

Ms. Tomsic accepted State Farm's offer, but Ms. Browning refused. Consequently, State Farm gave written notice to Ms. Browning that her employment was being terminated pursuant to the employment contract. After receiving the notice, Ms. Browning immediately tendered her resignation so that she could receive the relocation allowance offered by State Farm. Neither plaintiff was "terminated" in the ordinary sense of that word, but plaintiffs contend that State Farm's actions were tantamount to termination even though both plaintiffs resigned.

State Farm has asserted legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for asking for plaintiffs' resignations. In the case of Ms. Tomsic, State Farm alleges:

Poor performance, failure to implement company programs and sales methods, reluctance to receive and accept instruction, failure to recognize and accept sales responsibility for selling life insurance, inability to relate to the agent/manager relationship, and lack of desire to be part of the State Farm district team.

State Farm's Memorandum at ¶ 62. With reference to the request for Ms. Browning's resignation, State Farm alleges:

Lack of performance, unwillingness to receive instruction, insufficient hours spent prospecting, insufficient focus on family insurance check-up and financial need analysis, failure to recognize and take advantage of manager/agent relationship after being asked to do so, and inability to become part of the State Farm team.

State Farm's Memorandum at ¶ 61. State Farm's articulated reasons for asking for plaintiffs' resignation are supported by the three-month evaluation reports of both plaintiffs completed by State Farm. See State Farm's Memorandum at ¶¶ 46-47.

At the hearing on the pending motion, plaintiffs stipulated to dismissal of Norman Miller as a party to their Title VII discrimination claims based upon Sauers v. Salt Lake County, 1 F.3d 1122 (10th Cir.1993), in which case the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that only employers and not individual employees may be held liable under Title VII. Plaintiffs also voluntarily dismissed the following claims against both defendants: Second Claim for Relief (Religious Discrimination); Third Claim for Relief (Breach of Contract); Fourth Claim for Relief (Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing); and Sixth Claim for Relief (Intentional Interference With Contractual Relationship), leaving only plaintiffs' claims of gender discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Parties' Arguments

State Farm contends that plaintiffs have failed to establish the prima facie elements of a Title VII claim as set forth in Thompson v. Price Broadcasting, 817 F.Supp. 1538, 1542 (D.Utah 1993). Alternatively, State Farm argues that it has met its burden of production in providing nondiscriminatory reasons for plaintiffs' termination, and plain...