Trujillo v. University of Colorado Health Sciences Center

• Decision Date: 14 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-1129,97-1129
• Citation: 157 F.3d 1211
• Parties: 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,591, 98 CJ C.A.R. 5013 Eugene TRUJILLO, Plaintiff--Appellant, v. UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, Defendant--Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1211

157 F.3d 1211

74 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 45,591, 98 CJ C.A.R. 5013

Eugene TRUJILLO, Plaintiff--Appellant, v. UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, Defendant--Appellee.

No. 97-1129.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Sept. 14, 1998.

William S. Finger, Frank & Finger, P.C., Evergreen, CO, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Patrick T. O'Rourke, Montgomery, Little & McGrew, P.C., Englewood, CO (Kevin J. Kuhn, Montgomery, Little & McGrew, P.C.; Joanne M. McDevitt and Stephen Zweck Bronner, Special Assistant Attorneys General, University of Colorado, Denver, CO, with him on the brief), for Defendant-Appellee.

Before LUCERO, McKAY, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

McKAY, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiff Mr. Eugene Trujillo brought a discrimination claim pursuant to Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2000e-5, against Defendant University of Colorado Health Sciences Center [UCHSC] under theories of hostile work environment, disparate treatment, and retaliation. Plaintiff appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment on all claims. We review the court's decision de novo, drawing all reasonable inferences in favor of Plaintiff, the nonmoving party. See Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986); Bolden v. PRC, Inc., 43 F.3d 545, 548 (10th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 826, 116 S.Ct. 92, 133 L.Ed.2d 48 (1995). The district court's entry of summary judgment was appropriate if "there [was] no genuine issue as to any material fact and ... [Defendant was] entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c).

Plaintiff first claims that discrimination based on race created a hostile or abusive work environment that resulted in a violation of Title VII. The district court found the evidence insufficient to support the existence of a racially hostile work environment and, therefore, granted Defendant summary judgment on that claim.

Plaintiff, who is Hispanic, alleges that his hostile work environment began with Defendant's hiring of Dr. Mackie Faye Hill as Director of the Center for MultiCultural Enrichment [CFME], a unit of UCHSC within which Plaintiff was employed. Plaintiff alleges that he was the victim of a hostile work environment because Dr. Hill, who is black, "document[ed] improprieties in [his] job performance," Plaintiff-Appellant's Opening Br. at 32, criticized and checked on his work, and sent him memos requesting Leave Request and Approval forms for dates when he was absent from the office. He complains that he "was instructed by supervisors to cancel a request for leasing space in a building" to operate a program he supervised, R., Vol. II at 367; that UCHSC "refused to refurbish" the building that he found to operate his program, id.; that his request to attend a leadership program for Hispanics was not approved; and that he was not included as one of the UCHSC representatives to the Latin American Educational Fund Anniversary Dinner. He complains that when the combination to the lock on the office which contained the xerox machine was changed, Dr. Hill's administrative assistant forgot to give Plaintiff the combination. Plaintiff wrote Dr. Hill a memo and the problem was resolved the next day. See id., Vol. III at 1098. Plaintiff complains that in May 1991 he was required to bring a final budget for one of his programs to a meeting, and he further complains that a year later he was excluded from part of the budgeting process for one of his programs. Plaintiff also complains that Dr. Hill placed a corrective action in his personnel file that warned him that he needed to improve his attendance, instructed him that he should not offer employment positions without involving her in the process, and told him not to produce and distribute the Pre-Collegiate Program Newsletter without first presenting it to her for review and approval.

The record reflects that due to UCHSC's budgetary difficulties, each entity in UCHSC was instructed to prepare four adjusted budget plans. Each respective plan was to reduce its unit's operating budget by 0%, 3%, 7%, and 10%. Dr. Hill submitted her budget plans, noting that the reductions were an "impossible task" and would require CFME to "lay-off [sic] a staff member." Id. at 901-02. She expressed her concern about losing a staff position and requested an exemption from the budget cuts.

The Office of Academic Affairs recommended the elimination of Plaintiff's position. Dr. Hill was instructed to implement the plan proposed by the Office of Academic Affairs, and on May 15, 1991, she informed Plaintiff that his position was being eliminated. See id., Vol. I at 95; Vol. III at 909, 911. At the same time that UCHSC was implementing the system-wide budget reductions, Dr. Hill proposed the formulation of a new CFME position to be funded through a federal grant. This position was never created, however, because the Director of Personnel Services expressed concerns about creating a new position while simultaneously discharging Plaintiff. Plaintiff was not discharged, and his position was funded for the next year through a one-time $30,000 grant from the President's Office that was approved in October 1991. When the one-time grant ended a year later, Plaintiff was discharged due to lack of funds.

To survive summary judgment, Plaintiff must show that "under the totality of the circumstances (1) the harassment was pervasive or severe enough to alter the terms, conditions, or privilege of employment, and (2) the harassment was racial or stemmed from racial animus." Bolden v. PRC Inc., 43 F.3d 545, 551 (10th Cir.1994) (citing Meritor Sav. Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 67, 106 S.Ct. 2399, 91 L.Ed.2d 49 (1986)). In evaluating the first prong of a hostile work environment claim, we look at all the circumstances including "the frequency of the discriminatory conduct; its severity; whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, or a mere offensive utterance; and whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance." Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 23, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993). As we previously stated in Bolden, a few isolated incidents of racial enmity are insufficient to survive summary judgment. See Bolden, 43 F.3d at 551.

Plaintiff falls short of making a showing of pervasive or severe harassment. See Bolden, 43 F.3d at 551. The record on appeal provides evidence of little more than a collection of unrelated incidents where Plaintiff and Dr. Hill were at odds. Plaintiff was not subjected to anything that was physically threatening or humiliating, nor was he subjected to any offensive utterances. See Harris, 510 U.S. at 23, 114 S.Ct. 367. Plaintiff's list of grievances includes none of the racial comments or ridicule that are hallmarks of hostile work environment claims. See Witt v. Roadway Express, 136 F.3d 1424, 1432-33 (10th Cir.1998); Smith v. Norwest Fin. Acceptance, Inc., 129 F.3d 1408, 1413-14 (10th Cir.1997); see also Vore v. Indiana Bell Tel. Co., 32 F.3d 1161, 1164 (7th Cir.1994) ("In the typical cases, the question is whether the quantity, frequency, and severity of the racial, ethnic, or sexist slurs create a work environment so hostile as to discriminate against the minority employee."). The hostile work environment that Plaintiff portrays is simply a work environment that exhibits the monitoring and job stress typical of life in the real world. Normal job stress does not constitute a hostile or abusive work environment. As the Seventh Circuit explained, federal law "does not guarantee a utopian workplace, or even a pleasant one.... [P]ersonality conflicts between employees are not the business of the federal courts." Vore, 32 F.3d at 1162. We cannot vilify every supervisor that implements a policy with which an employee disagrees or that monitors her employees' conduct. Plaintiff has not cited any cases that have found similar employer conduct to constitute a racially hostile work environment, and we decline to extend the contours of a "hostile work environment" to include Plaintiff's alleged job situation.

Had Plaintiff presented more persuasive evidence that his alleged harassment stemmed from racial animus, we may have disposed of his appeal differently. As we have mentioned, however, there is no evidence of racial harassment; there are no racial slurs or racially harassing comments in his work environment. Plaintiff's only hope for escaping summary judgment was to present sufficient evidence that the conduct he complains of stemmed from racial animus. Here is the evidence he presented: (1) He is Hispanic and Dr. Hill, his supervisor, is a black female; (2) there were two other blacks in his employment unit and, therefore, blacks constituted the majority in the unit; (3) the prior CFME director who Dr. Hill replaced was Hispanic and did not get along with one of the black CFME employees; (4) this black employee was friends with or related to a few black management-level employees in other UCHSC offices; and (5) when the former Hispanic CFME director discharged another black employee, he was accused of the same discriminatory conduct that Plaintiff is now accusing Dr. Hill of committing. Plaintiff also states that one time he saw Dr. Hill yell at a Hispanic nursing student; that Plaintiff offered to counsel and represent the student regarding the incident; and that, although Dr. Hill allegedly would not allow Plaintiff to represent the Hispanic student, Plaintiff did discuss the incident with the Chancellor's Affirmative Action Advisory Committee. Plaintiff's evidence is insufficient to create a jury question that his stressful working conditions were inflicted upon him because of racial animus. We note that, although Plaintiff alleges that his hostile work environment began when Dr. Hill was hired as CFME director, much of his evidence of Dr. Hill's alleged racial animus occurred before Dr. Hill was associated with the CFME office. ...