Wells v. Sci Management, L.P.
| Decision Date | 01 December 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 06-1689.,06-1689. |
| Citation | 469 F.3d 697 |
| Parties | Diana F. WELLS, Appellant, v. SCI MANAGEMENT, L.P.; SCI Missouri Funeral Services, Inc., d/b/a Mount Moriah Funeral Home, Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
v.
SCI MANAGEMENT, L.P.; SCI Missouri Funeral Services, Inc., d/b/a Mount Moriah Funeral Home, Appellees.
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Mark Beam-Ward, argued, Overland Park, Kansas, for appellant.
Michael L. Blumental, argued, Kansas City, Missouri (Kimberly F. Seten, Kansas City, Missouri, on the brief), for appellee.
Before WOLLMAN, RILEY and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.
GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.
Diana F. Wells appeals an adverse grant of summary judgment on her claims of gender discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Missouri Human Rights Act. The district court1 held that Wells failed to establish a prima facie case for either claim. We affirm.
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I. BACKGROUND
SCI Missouri Funeral Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Service Corporation International,2 operates numerous funeral homes in Missouri. In 1981, Diana Wells began working as an apprentice funeral director and embalmer for an SCI subsidiary in Houston, Texas, and eventually advanced to the position of funeral director. In 1990, Wells began working as a funeral director in a Saint Louis SCI funeral home. She was promoted to Regional Vice President of Revenue Services in 1995. Two years later, Wells was assigned the same position for a different region, which necessitated a move to Kansas City. In 1999, Wells's position was eliminated, and she was given a position as funeral director at Mount Moriah, an SCI funeral home in Kansas City. Her immediate supervisor at Mount Moriah was Matt Roening.
Wells's employment at Mount Moriah was marked by complaints from both customers and co-workers. In 1999, a representative from the Kansas City Star contacted SCI and complained that Wells was rude and yelled at the newspaper staff in regards to the way the newspaper had planned to word a particular obituary. In 1999 and 2000, SCI received complaints about Wells from families who had funerals arranged by Mount Moriah. The McMillan family complained that Wells had been argumentative, untruthful and lacking in compassion. To investigate the complaint, two SCI Area Managers spoke with the McMillan family and then discussed their complaints, as well as the complaints of at least three other families, with Wells. Wells was issued a written warning about her conduct. Subsequently, the Miller and Edmond families, other Mount Moriah customers, also complained about Wells's behavior. The Dahl family also lodged a complaint against Wells, describing her conduct as "at best abrasive in tone and manner."
In 2001, three Mount Moriah employees complained to its General Manager, Jerry Griffin, that Wells was rude, unprofessional and disruptive. Griffin interviewed other employees to determine how pervasive the sentiment was and discovered three additional employees whose sentiments echoed the original complaints. Griffin reported the complaints of the employees, and those of the McMillan and Dahl families, to SCI's Regional Vice President, Mark McGilley, who suspended Wells for five days and warned her that future problems would result in her termination. Wells filed a complaint with the Missouri Human Rights Commission and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (collectively, "EEOC") alleging her suspension was based on her gender. The EEOC declined to take action, and Wells did not pursue the matter further.
In 2003, a co-worker complained to SCI's "CareLine," a toll-free ombudsman service, that Wells harassed and belittled him. During that same time, another family, the Boones, complained that Wells had been argumentative during their interaction with Wells in her capacity as funeral director.
SCI received customer complaints about other employees as well. Rodney Heinsohn, a primary arranger at Mount Moriah, received a complaint from a family alleging he was "abrupt, rude and pushy." Forrest Walker, a funeral director at Mount Moriah, received several complaints from customers, all of which were determined
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to be unsubstantiated. The record is unclear as to the identity of Heinsohn's and Walker's supervisor. Though not in response to a customer complaint, John Gattshall and George Salyer, whose supervisor was Michael Shannon, received written disciplinary notices for expressing contempt for management policies.
Wells also presented evidence that she endured sexist comments from coworkers. Leon Emas, a marketing employee at Mount Moriah, called Wells two sexually explicit and offensive names. Walker also told Wells that she "was not in the good old boys' club and [she] never would be" and expressed his belief that "women should be barefoot and pregnant."
In the fall of 2003, SCI determined that, in light of decreasing revenues and high operating expenses, it needed to restructure and that a reduction-in-force ("RIF") was necessary. McGilley's position as Regional Vice President was eliminated, and he accepted a position as Marketing Director for the Kansas City and Wichita areas, in which he was tasked with implementing the RIF. In this capacity, McGilley determined Mount Moriah was operating below expectations based on financial conditions such as low operating margins and high salary expenses. McGilley's analysis also persuaded him that SCI had five more funeral directors than it needed in the Kansas City area. As a result, he terminated the employment of five funeral directors, three men and two women. In selecting Wells as one of the five, McGilley considered her personnel record as well as the fact that she was the highest paid funeral director at Mount Moriah. In total, McGilley eliminated nine positions during the RIF, four men and five women.
After her position was eliminated, Wells filed another charge with the EEOC. After exhausting her administrative remedies, Wells filed a complaint in district court alleging gender discrimination and unlawful retaliation. SCI moved for and received summary judgment on both counts. The district court concluded that Wells's evidence was devoid...
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