Valentine v. Standard & Poor's

• Decision Date: 24 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97 Civ. 0005(SS).,97 Civ. 0005(SS).
• Citation: 50 F.Supp.2d 262
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
• Parties: Paul VALENTINE, Plaintiff, v. STANDARD & POOR'S, Defendant.

Page 262

50 F.Supp.2d 262

Paul VALENTINE, Plaintiff, v. STANDARD & POOR'S, Defendant.

No. 97 Civ. 0005(SS).

United States District Court, S.D. New York.

June 24, 1999.

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Paul Valentine, Boston, MA, pro se.

Epstein Becker & Green, P.C., New York City, Ronald M. Green, Lawrence Peikes, for defendant.

OPINION & ORDER

SOTOMAYOR, Circuit Judge.¹

Plaintiff Paul Valentine, appearing pro se, brings this action alleging that defendant Standard & Poor's ("S & P"), his former employer, discriminated against him in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (the "ADA"), as codified, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq., and discharged him in retaliation for filing a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC"). Defendant moves for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For the reasons to be discussed, the Court grants the defendant's motion.

BACKGROUND

I. Statement of Facts

Unless otherwise indicated, the following facts are undisputed. Plaintiff graduated from Hobart College in 1976 with a B.A. in political science, and from Cornell Business School in 1980 with an M.B.A. in finance. (Plaintiff's Memorandum of Law in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Pl.'s Mem.") at 3; Plaintiff's Deposition² ("Pl.'s Dep.") at 143-44.) In the early 1980s, plaintiff was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder. (Pl.'s Mem. at 6; Valentine's Affidavit in Support of Plaintiff's Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment, Exhibit E ("Valentine Aff., Exh. E") at 1.) On March 29, 1982, plaintiff was hired as an Assistant Analyst by S & P, a subsidiary of the McGraw-Hill Companies that employs more than five hundred people. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 38; Pl.'s Mem. at 6; Plaintiff's Counter Statement Pursuant to Local Rule 3(g) ("Pl.'s 56.1") ¶ 1; Defendant's Local Rule 56.1 Statement ("Def.'s 56.1") ¶ 1.) Plaintiff was hired about forty-five days after being released from a mental hospital where he was treated upon suffering his second "nervous breakdown" in less than two years. (Plaintiff's First Amended Complaint ("1st Am.Compl.") ¶ 8 at 1.) Plaintiff alleges that although he continued to grapple with severe anxiety problems and suffered from recurring manic-depressive mood swings requiring medication, he prospered at S & P. (Pl.'s Mem. at 6.) By September 26, 1983, S & P promoted plaintiff to an Analyst position. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 38.) In the mid-1980s, plaintiff regularly received high marks for his analytical abilities from the editors of S & P's publications³ and was highly ranked in the editors' periodic rankings of analysts. (Pl.'s Mem. at 3, 6.) In April 1984, plaintiff was ranked sixth out of twenty analysts in his department and, by August 1984, he was ranked first out of eighteen analysts by all of the editors in his department. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 7, 38; Pl.'s Mem. at 3, 6.)

In September 1985, however, plaintiff abruptly quit his job in the midst of a manic mood swing. (Pl.'s Mem. at 6; Pl.'s Dep. at 429.) Convinced to return to S & P by Steve Sanborn, the Senior Vice President in charge of his department, plaintiff resumed work almost immediately and was promoted to Senior Analyst three months later. (Pl.'s Mem. at 6-7.) Upon his return, plaintiff assumed responsibility for the tracking and analysis of approximately forty electronic stocks and six or seven toy stocks. (Pl.'s Dep. at 314, 453-54; Affidavit of Robert Temme in Support of Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Temme Aff.") ¶ 2.) Plaintiff's duties included preparing written reports and analyses of these stocks for S & P publications distributed to brokers, investors and securities firms. (Temme Aff. ¶ 2.)

In November 1985, plaintiff was still ranked first out of eighteen analysts, (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 7.), however, his performance soon began to decline. (Pl.'s Mem. at 7.) Plaintiff was ranked sixth out of nineteen analysts in May 1986, and dropped to eleventh out of twenty analysts by November of that year. Rebounding slightly in 1987, plaintiff was ranked eighth out of nineteen analysts in May and eighth out of twenty analysts in November. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 7.) Plaintiff's ranking further plummeted between 1988 and 1990, following a string of personal tragedies which included the death of his mother, grandmother and sister. (Pl.'s Mem. at 7; Pl.'s Dep. at 432-34.) In June 1988, plaintiff was ranked twentieth out of twenty-two analysts and by July 1989, he had slipped to twenty-first. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 39.) Ranked eighteenth in July 1990, plaintiff felt that management had failed to sufficiently sympathize with his tragedies and instead used them as "excuses to give [him] viciously biased reviews." (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 39; Pl.'s Mem. at 7.) Plaintiff initially "began to suspect that [his] reviews were biased ... because word of [his] homosexual sex life had found its way into the office." (Pl.'s Mem. at 7.)

Plaintiff alleges that S & P's discrimination against him because of his mental illness began in July 1990, after Fortune magazine published plaintiff's letter to the editor disclosing that he was "a lithium-maintained manic-depressive." (Plaintiff's Second Amended Complaint ("2d Am. Compl.") ¶ 8; Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 3.) Until that time, plaintiff had not disclosed to S & P's management that he had been diagnosed as manic-depressive. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 2; Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 2.) Although the record is unclear as to how S & P first became aware of the published letter, plaintiff claims that he "had the approval of Steve Sanborn to send the letter." (Pl.'s Dep. at 439.)⁴ Plaintiff contends that S & P's discrimination manifested itself in adverse measures taken against him soon after the public disclosure of his mental illness. (2d Am.Compl.¶ 8.) For instance, in October 1990, David Blitzer, plaintiff's manager, objected to plaintiff's attempts to appear on Wall Street Week, a top rated business program. (Pl.'s Mem. at 4, 8.) Plaintiff postulates that Blitzer objected to his appearance on the show because S & P did not want a manic-depressive to represent the company publicly. (Id.) S & P's alleged discriminatory conduct against plaintiff continued in the form of negative performance evaluations. (2d Am.Compl.¶ 8.) See discussion of plaintiff's allegations concerning his performance history at S & P, infra at pp. 269 - 276.

S & P's review process of each analyst's performance consisted of evaluations and compiled rankings by the editors of S & P's various publications. (Pl.'s Dep. at 430, 432; Affidavit of Robert Natale in Support of Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment ("Natale Aff.") ¶ 4.) In early 1991, plaintiff received a critical written evaluation which dropped his ranking at S & P. (Pl.'s Mem. at 8; Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 61-62.) He was also given a "verbal warning of disciplinary action". (Id.) Plaintiff believes that the review reflected a clear intent to discriminate against him because of his manic-depression and marked the beginning of efforts by S & P's management to terminate his employment on the basis of his disability. (Pl.'s Mem. at 8-9.) Plaintiff's next evaluation, in the summer of 1991, was again negative. (Id. at 9.) Robert Natale, plaintiff's new manager, reiterated the earlier verbal warning and advised plaintiff that his performance must improve or further disciplinary action could eventually lead to the termination of his employment. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 15.) Natale also told plaintiff that if his poor performance was a result of his illness, "perhaps a doctor would disable [him]". (Id. at 16) Plaintiff believes that Natale's comments illustrated S & P's initial attempt to place him involuntarily on disability. (2d Am. Compl. ¶ 8; Pl.'s Mem. at 9.)

In his review in the summer of 1992, plaintiff's ranking improved. Yet, although plaintiff was a widely quoted analyst (Pl.'s Dep. at 511; Valentine Aff., Exh. B), he was criticized for "impressions created outside the department". (Pl.'s Mem. at 9-10.) In September 1992, plaintiff filed a formal grievance with his union, the Newspaper Guild ("the Guild"), alleging that he had been subjected to discriminatory treatment on the basis of his sexual orientation. (Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 3.) Although he attributed the discriminatory conduct to his sexual orientation, plaintiff also alluded to Natale's comment, about going on disability, as discrimination on the basis of his mental illness. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 13.) After investigating plaintiff's grievance, Robert Temme, S & P's Director of Human Resources, concluded, in an inter-office memorandum dated January 15, 1993, that there was no merit to plaintiff's allegations. (Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 14-16; Temme's Aff. ¶¶ 5-9.)

In September 1994, plaintiff received another critical evaluation and verbal warning. (2d Am.Compl. ¶ 8; Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 5; Pl.'s Dep. at 648-49; Valentine Exh. 23.⁵) He subsequently filed several grievances with the Guild concerning his review and the perceived discrimination. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 5; Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 64-70, 79, 104-109; Valentine Exh. 23.) By inter-office memorandum dated December 22, 1994, Temme denied plaintiff's grievance of discrimination, determining that the evaluation and disciplinary action were justified by legitimate concerns relating to plaintiff's performance of his responsibilities. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 5; Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 5; Pl.'s Dep. at 692; Valentine Aff., Exh. E at 79.)

During Temme's investigation of plaintiff's grievance, plaintiff distributed an excerpt from a book he was writing to several colleagues in his department. (Pl.'s 56.1 ¶ 6; Def.'s 56.1 ¶ 6.) In the excerpt, plaintiff described incidents of alleged sexual harassment and homosexual advances by Natale. Plaintiff's stated objective in distributing the excerpt was to generate leverage in support of...