Trotter v. Board of Trustees of University of Alabama

• Decision Date: 20 August 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-6465,95-6465
• Citation: 91 F.3d 1449
• Parties: 71 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1175, 69 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,277, 111 Ed. Law Rep. 686 Pamela Y. TROTTER, Plaintiff, Rhonda Coleman; Sonia Floyd, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, a body corporate, for its division University of Alabama at Birmingham, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1449

91 F.3d 1449

71 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. (BNA) 1175,

69 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 44,277, 111 Ed. Law Rep. 686

Pamela Y. TROTTER, Plaintiff Rhonda Coleman; Sonia Floyd, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. The BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF the UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, a body corporate, for its division University of Alabama at Birmingham, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 95-6465.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

Aug. 20, 1996.

Hycall Brooks, III, Birmingham, AL, for Appellants.

Edward J. Kennedy, III, Univ. of AL System/OFC of Counsel, Birmingham, AL, for Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.

Before ANDERSON, Circuit Judge, and GODBOLD and RONEY, Senior Circuit Judges.

ANDERSON, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal, plaintiffs-appellants Rhonda Coleman and Sonia Floyd ("plaintiffs") contest the district court's order granting defendant-appellee Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama ("the Board") judgment as a matter of law on the plaintiffs' Title VII race discrimination claims. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.

I. STATEMENT OF THE CASE

A. Background Facts

Coleman and Floyd, both of whom are African-American, were unit secretaries employed at the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham ("the hospital"). Coleman was hired in early June of 1992 at a wage of $6.00 per hour, and Floyd was hired in late September of 1992 at a wage of $5.62 per hour. Around the middle of October 1992, Charles Russell, a caucasian, was hired by the hospital as a unit secretary at a wage of $6.50 per hour. All three were hired to work in the diabetes unit. There is no dispute that both Coleman and Floyd have more experience working in a hospital setting than Russell.

The head nurse of each unit at the hospital is responsible for hiring and supervising the unit secretaries. Nicky Ennis was the head nurse in the diabetes unit until November 1, 1992. However, by the time Russell was hired in October of that year, Ennis had been named head nurse of another unit, and she was actively engaged in interviewing job applicants and staffing that unit. Her administrative duties in the diabetes unit, including staffing and interviewing responsibilities, were performed by Debbie Dement, a shift manager. Dement interviewed Russell and, after consulting briefly with Ennis, made the decision to send him to personnel with the recommendation that he be hired.

Coleman testified that in May of 1993, she went to Dement and told her that Russell was making more money than she was, even though he had less experience. Dement immediately called Harry Shugerman, the Senior Personnel Relations Representative, who began an investigation into the alleged pay disparities among secretaries in the diabetes unit. As a result of his investigation, Shugerman concluded that Russell's salary was an error, and that he should not have been given a higher salary than Coleman or Floyd. He reported these findings to the hospital's Director of Compensation, Patricia Townsend. Shugerman testified that, at the time that the plaintiffs and Russell were hired, there was no system in place at the hospital by which the salary of a new hire would be adjusted to fit in appropriately with the salaries of those already hired, although that was to some extent the expectation within the human resources department. According to Shugerman, Townsend and Marilyn Gavin, the Associate Director of the hospital's human resources department, that expectation was not being met, and there were instances throughout the hospital of more senior employees receiving a lower salary than newer hires. ¹

Shortly after calling the matter to Dement's attention in May of 1993, Coleman and Floyd filed a complaint with the EEOC in June of 1993. Soon thereafter, the hospital acknowledged the error and offered to pay the plaintiffs the difference between their salaries and Russell's salary for the period during which he was employed at the hospital. ² Shugerman testified that the plaintiffs initially refused this offer. After the new Mercer compensation system was implemented, Coleman and Floyd were paid a lump sum equal to the difference between what they had been paid and what Russell had been paid during the time that he was employed by the hospital. ³

B. Procedural History

Coleman, Floyd and Pamela Trotter, who is not a party to this appeal, filed charges with the EEOC alleging discrimination in compensation based on race and sex. On February 14, 1994, Coleman, Floyd and Trotter filed suit against the Board in United States District Court, alleging sex and race discrimination in violation of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and the Equal Pay Act. The district court dismissed Trotter's claims in their entirety, dismissed Coleman's and Floyd's sex discrimination claims under Title VII and the Equal Pay Act with the consent of the plaintiffs' counsel, and granted the Board's motion for summary judgment on the plaintiffs' § 1981 claim. Coleman's and Floyd's Title VII race discrimination in compensation claims were tried before a jury. At the conclusion of the evidence, but before the case was given to the jury for deliberation, the district court granted the Board's motion for judgment as a matter of law, and denied a similar motion by the plaintiffs. In this appeal, the plaintiffs challenge only those rulings of the district court relating to their Title VII race discrimination claim, in which they alleged discrimination based on the disparity in compensation between themselves and Russell.

II. ISSUES ON APPEAL

On appeal, plaintiffs-appellants challenge three of the district court's decisions: (1) the district court's ruling that there was no direct evidence of discrimination on the part of the person who made the salary decision at issue in this case, (2) the court's ruling that the Board did satisfy its burden of producing evidence which would permit the finder of fact to conclude that the challenged salary decision had not been motivated by racial animus, and (3) the court's direction of a verdict against the plaintiffs after the close of the evidence.

III. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of review

We review the district court's grant of judgment as a matter of law de novo, applying the same standard that the district court applied in its ruling granting the motion. Hessen v. Jaguar Cars, 915 F.2d 641, 644 (11th Cir.1990). When evaluating the grant of judgment as a matter of law, the court

should consider all of the evidence--not just that evidence which supports the non-mover's case--but in the light and with all reasonable inferences most favorable to the party opposed to the motion. If the facts and inferences point so strongly and overwhelmingly in favor of one party that the [c]ourt believes that reasonable men could not arrive at a contrary verdict, granting of the motions is proper. On the other hand, if there is substantial evidence opposed to the motions, that is, evidence of such quality and weight that reasonable and fairminded men in the exercise of impartial judgment might reach different conclusions, the motions should be denied, and the case submitted to the jury.

Boeing Co. v. Shipman, 411 F.2d 365, 374 (5th Cir.1969). ⁴

B. Direct evidence of discrimination

The plaintiffs argue that head nurse Nicky Ennis decided to pay Russell more than they were paid because Russell is white and they are African-Americans. They offered at trial the testimony of Juanita Lamb as proof of Ennis' discriminatory intent. Lamb is also a secretary in the diabetes unit. Lamb testified that she overheard Ennis explain to a doctor that the reason she left the emergency room in 1982, where she had worked as a nurse, was that she did not like taking orders from an African-American person. Lamb also described an incident that allegedly occurred when Ennis was on duty in the diabetes unit. According to Lamb, a white nurse whose name she could not recall dropped a pill on the floor in front of an African-American patient, and then tried to administer that same pill to the patient, who refused to take it. Lamb stated that Ennis tried to get the patient discharged because the patient was causing problems for one of her white employees. ⁵

Statements indicating racial bias on the part of a decisionmaker in an employment setting can constitute direct evidence of racial discrimination in Title VII cases. See Haynes v. W.C. Caye and Co., Inc., 52 F.3d 928, 931 (11th Cir.1995) ("Indeed, a statement that members of a racial minority in general ... are simply not competent enough to do a particular job would seem to be a classic example of direct evidence."); Bell v. Birmingham Linen Service, 715 F.2d 1552, 1556 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1204, 104 S.Ct. 2385, 81 L.Ed.2d 344 (1984) (finding statement by decisionmaker that he would not let female plaintiff work in the washroom because then all women would want to work there "highly probative evidence of illegal discrimination.")

When there is direct evidence that discrimination was a motivating factor in the challenged employment decision, the appropriate analysis is different from that employed in a case where only circumstantial evidence is available. Bell, 715 F.2d at 1556 (where plaintiff provides direct evidence of a discriminatory motive, "the ultimate issue of discrimination is proved"); Haynes, 52 F.3d at 931 (citing Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 244-45, 109 S.Ct. 1775, 1787-88, 104 L.Ed.2d 268 (1989)) (once the plaintiff presents direct evidence of discriminatory motive, it is then left to the defendant to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the same employment decision would have been reached even absent discriminatory intent).

We can assume arguendo, without deciding, that the evidence of bias on the part of Ennis might otherwise rise to the level of direct evidence. However, in this case Ennis was not involved in the challenged salary decision. For statements of...