Trahanas v. Nw. Univ.
| Decision Date | 07 April 2023 |
| Docket Number | 21-3278 |
| Parties | Diane M. Trahanas, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Northwestern University and Steven J. Schwulst, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
ARGUED SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division. No. 1:15-cv-11192 - John J. Tharp, Jr., Judge.
Before EASTERBROOK, HAMILTON, and BRENNAN, Circuit Judges.
Diane Trahanas worked as a research technician in a medical lab. After almost three years, she took medical leave and eventually her employment was terminated. Based on statements made to her by her supervising doctor and coworkers, she sued her former university employer and the doctor. She claimed they created a hostile work environment in violation of Title VII and retaliated against her under the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Americans with Disability Act. She also alleged that, contrary to Illinois law, the defendants defamed her and intentionally caused her emotional distress. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, which we affirm.
In June 2012, Trahanas began working as a Research Technologist II in Dr. Steven Schwulst's laboratory at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She assisted Schwulst in studying traumatic brain injuries by conducting research experiments on mice. She also helped prepare and present research publications about those experiments.
At times, Trahanas "got along very nicely" with Schwulst. But starting in the fall of 2012, Trahanas claims Schwulst started making verbally abusive and demeaning remarks about her work ethic, mental health, and sexual orientation. In her deposition, Trahanas said Schwulst called her a "typical millennial" and "Princess Diana" to imply she was spoiled or entitled. He also made comments like "Diane is off her meds," "Diane needs psychiatric help," or "Diane is riding the struggle bus again."
Most frequently, Schwulst commented on what he perceived as Trahanas's sexual orientation. During a conversation about workout routines, Schwulst said women who exercise too much, like Trahanas, look "manly" and are "lesbians." Trahanas said Schwulst regularly referred to her as such or as a "softball player," which Trahanas took as a euphemism for a lesbian. He also stated he "hope[d his] baby girl will be a lesbian like Diane" because it would make life easier. Trahanas, a heterosexual woman, told Schwulst on multiple occasions that she was not a lesbian. Trahanas did not report Schwulst's remarks to Northwestern's human resources department or any other administrative employee at the medical school.
Trahanas also contends her lab coworkers made harassing comments to her. Schwulst shared lab space with another research scientist, Dr. Harris Perlman. Perlman's lab manager, Rana Saber, would tell Trahanas to "[s]top messing things up," blame her for "doing everything wrong," and implore her to "take [her] meds." According to Trahanas, Saber and another lab coworker intentionally sabotaged a six-month long research project by giving her an outdated "protocol" used for cell analysis. Trahanas mentioned the protocol incident to Schwulst, but she did not report her coworkers' conduct to HR.
Notwithstanding the lab environment, Trahanas consistently received positive performance reviews from Schwulst. After around two years in the lab, Trahanas spoke with Schwulst about receiving a pay raise and a promotion to Research Technologist III. Schwulst was receptive, and he reached out to the human resources department about that possibility. HR recommended not changing Trahanas's title because her responsibilities remained at the Tech-II level, but Trahanas did receive a 3% merit pay raise. Believing a mistake had been made about her promised promotion, Trahanas contacted HR. She also expressed her frustration to Schwulst, which prompted him to make additional requests for Trahanas to receive a greater increase in pay. Schwulst notified Trahanas that, to secure another raise, he needed to meet with her for a midyear performance review. Tensions escalated during that performance review meeting, and Trahanas cried. Despite the contentious meeting, Trahanas ultimately received a 15% pay raise.
Trahanas also aspired to attend medical school. Based on her strong work performance, Schwulst wrote a positive recommendation letter in support of her medical school applications in October 2014. She applied to 15 medical schools in the 2014-15 application cycle but was accepted to none. Six of those schools invited her to submit secondary materials, but she failed to do so by the schools' deadlines. Trahanas later applied to 11 medical schools in the 2017-18 cycle, including four from the 2014 cycle. Again, none of the medical schools accepted her.
Trahanas had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, depression, and anxiety in 2007. In the months leading up to February 2015, she reported worsening depressive symptoms. Among multiple stressors, her psychiatrist noted persistent, high, or increased job stress. Trahanas's symptoms mildly improved by the start of February 2015. But she told her psychiatrist she planned to take time off work because she felt "burnt out." She did not provide Schwulst or Northwestern with advance notice of her plans to take leave.
On February 16, 2015, Trahanas did not report to work. She emailed Schwulst a day later to inform him she was taking medical leave and would communicate only with the human resources department. After her psychiatrist submitted supporting paperwork a few days later, a Northwestern administrator approved Trahanas for twelve weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Schwulst wanted an update on the status of the lab's current mice experiments, so he asked an HR employee to reach out to Trahanas on his behalf. While awaiting a response, Schwulst went to find the mice and check the status himself. Believing that Trahanas had started a lab experiment but seeing no notations on any lab paperwork about its progress, he decided to euthanize the mice. That same day, February 19, Schwulst wrote a letter stating: He uploaded the letter to the American Medical College Application Service ("AMCAS"), where he had submitted his initial recommendation letter for Trahanas. The following day, Trahanas responded to the human resources department and indicated she had lost remote access to her work computer.
Trahanas's leave expired in May 2015. She requested Northwestern's leave administrator to close her leave claim in June, but she did not return to the lab. HR asked Trahanas if she intended to resign or extend her leave. If the latter, Northwestern needed additional documentation from her doctor. The university further informed Trahanas that failure to return to work or extend her leave would result in termination. Trahanas responded that her doctor was "not allowing [her] to return to work," but she did not extend leave or return to the lab. Accordingly, Northwestern terminated her employment. Trahanas applied for other jobs at Northwestern over the next several months. She received one interview but was not hired.
In 2015, Trahanas sued Northwestern and Schwulst. She brought a hostile work environment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., and a retaliation claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq., against Northwestern. She also brought a claim for retaliation under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA), 29 U.S.C. § 2601, et seq., against Northwestern and Schwulst. Trahanas additionally sued both defendants for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress under Illinois law.
In December 2020, the district court granted defendants summary judgment on all claims except the FMLA retaliation claim against Schwulst. The court concluded that Northwestern was not liable for creating a hostile work environment under Title VII for two reasons. First, Trahanas did not experience an adverse employment action. Second, she failed to report Schwulst's and her coworkers' conduct.
Trahanas had alleged that Northwestern retaliated against her for taking FMLA leave in violation of both the FMLA and ADA. Because she provided insufficient evidence, the court granted Northwestern summary judgment on both retaliation claims. Initially, summary judgment was denied for Schwulst on the FMLA retaliation claim because the court found that a reasonable jury could conclude that Schwulst was motivated to withdraw his recommendation letter in part by Trahanas's decision to take FMLA leave. The district court also ruled that neither Northwestern nor Schwulst defamed Trahanas because they published no false statements about her. On her claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress, the court did not deem the conduct at issue extreme or outrageous.
After Schwulst moved to reconsider, the district court granted him summary judgment on the FMLA retaliation claim in July 2021. The court reasoned that Trahanas had shown no injury and therefore lacked standing, or in the alternative she could not recover damages compensable under the FMLA. Trahanas appeals the district court's grants of summary judgment to Northwestern and Schwulst.[2]
"We review de novo a district court's grant of summary judgment, viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the non-moving party." Fin. Fiduciaries,...
To continue reading
Request your trial