Wingfield v. Goodwill Industries, 80-2098

• Decision Date: 14 December 1981
• Docket Number: No. 80-2098,80-2098
• Citation: 666 F.2d 1177
• Parties: 27 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1468, 27 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 32,294 Frankie E. WINGFIELD, Appellant, v. GOODWILL INDUSTRIES, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1177

666 F.2d 1177

27 Fair Empl.Prac.Cas. 1468,

27 Empl. Prac. Dec. P 32,294

Frankie E. WINGFIELD, Appellant, v. GOODWILL INDUSTRIES, Appellee.

No. 80-2098.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Sept. 17, 1981.

Decided Dec. 14, 1981.

Samuel I. McHenry, Kansas City, Mo., for appellant.

Gage & Tucker, George P. Coughlin, Kansas City, Mo., appellee.

Before STEPHENSON and McMILLIAN, Circuit Judges, and HANSON, ^* Senior District Judge.

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge.

Frankie Wingfield appeals from a judgment entered in the District Court ¹ for the Western District of Missouri denying recovery on her claims of discrimination filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. and 42 U.S.C. § 1981.

For reversal appellant argues that the district court erred in not finding that her employer's legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for not promoting appellant was a pretext and in not finding that the wrongful denial of promotion was the cause of her refusing to perform a job task which resulted in her termination. ² For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellant, a black female, was hired by the Goodwill Industries of Greater Kansas City, Inc. (Goodwill), on August 8, 1974. Goodwill is a non-profit corporation organized to help both disadvantaged and handicapped persons. Goodwill accepts donations of clothing and other items and then resells them in stores owned and operated by Goodwill. Appellant worked as an order taker in the communications department. Order takers handle telephone calls from prospective donors about donations. Upon receipt of such calls, the order taker relays the information given by the prospective donor to other Goodwill employees who coordinate the pick-up and transfer of the donation to the various Goodwill stores. Order takers also answer the phone in a courteous manner, transcribe the information needed to pick up the donations, and answer any pertinent questions a donor might have regarding the donation. Order takers were also trained to decode a code-a-phone which recorded telephone calls arriving before or after business hours. Although decoding the code-a-phone was not within the order taker's job classification, they were expected to perform the task in the supervisor's absence.

The order takers were directly supervised by the Communications Department Supervisor. The formal duties of the supervisor included supervising the order takers, decoding the code-a-phone, calling persons who were not available for the preceding day's pick-up, answering pick-up calls from donors and any trouble calls or complaints, making sure that truck routes had thirty pick-ups daily, routing the trucks, relieving the PBX operator during breaks and lunch, and otherwise establishing an effective communications department.

All of the employees in the communications department were under the supervision of the Director of Community Development. The Director was responsible for hiring and firing employees, determining which employees should be promoted, and periodically evaluating the work performance of the employees.

When appellant began her employment at Goodwill, Steve Wurtz was the Director of Community Development and Rosalie Fifer, a white female, was the Communications Supervisor. On October 22, 1974, Fifer left Goodwill and, shortly thereafter, Wurtz hired Donna Bush, a white female, to replace Fifer. On February 17, 1975, Bush left Goodwill. Nancy Moreno Davies, who had since replaced Wurtz as Director of Community Development, then hired Betty Simons, a white female, to replace Bush. Appellant had the most seniority in the communications department at the time both Bush and Simons were hired, but she did not file an application for, or otherwise indicate an interest in, either opening. Both Bush and Simons were hired from outside Goodwill's organization.

On February 27, 1975, appellant was directed to decode the code-a-phone because Betty Simons, the new Communications Supervisor, was absent from the department. Appellant refused to perform the task, stating that it was out of her job classification, and was terminated.

On March 3, 1975, appellant filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), alleging that Goodwill had discriminated against her on the basis of race by failing to promote her to the position of Communications Supervisor and instead hiring two inexperienced white females, and by terminating her for refusing to perform a task outside her job classification. The EEOC processed this charge and found reasonable cause to believe that appellant's allegations were true, and on July 6, 1977, issued a right-to-sue letter. Appellant commenced this proceeding on October 28, 1977, complaining that Goodwill had discriminatorily failed to promote her and terminated her on the basis of race, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and of 42 U.S.C. § 1981. ³

II. FAILURE TO PROMOTE

At trial appellant argued that Goodwill had an automatic promotion procedure based on seniority by which the employee with the most seniority in a department would be automatically promoted to an available supervisory position. Mable Talie, a former Goodwill employee, ⁴ also testified as to the existence of an automatic promotion procedure, and stated that Goodwill employees did not have to file applications for available supervisory positions.

Appellant also testified that she had performed almost all the duties of a communications supervisor. Specifically appellant stated that Wurtz had requested her to perform the supervisor's duties during the period between Fifer's termination and Bush's hiring, and further that she actually performed the supervisor's duties during the period between Bush's termination and Simons' hiring.

Wurtz, the Director of Community Development during most of appellant's employment, testified that he was responsible for rating and reviewing the progress of all employees working in the communications department. Wurtz stated that because he did not directly supervise the order takers, he relied on their supervisor's evaluations, along with his own personal observations, in rating the order takers.

According to the rating form used to evaluate appellant's progress and performance from July 1, 1974, through December 3, 1974 (Defendant's Ex. 1), Wurtz rated appellant's performance in both the "quantity' and "quality' of work as "Significantly Below Average Standards for Industry." Wurtz testified that appellant was not promoted to the position of supervisor because she could not deal effectively with the public or other employees. Wurtz stated that appellant was not diplomatic or well organized, and that he had received complaints concerning her performance. Wurtz testified that appellant's race was not a factor in the determination not to promote her to the supervisory position. Wurtz denied that there was any automatic promotion procedure based on seniority at Goodwill.

With respect to the hiring of Bush, Wurtz testified that when a supervisory position became open at Goodwill, the usual procedure was first to determine whether any of the employees within that particular department were qualified for the position. Wurtz stated that he did this and determined that none of the employees was qualified. According to Wurtz, the personnel department at Goodwill then screened outside applications for the position and presented them to Wurtz. Wurtz testified that after interviewing Bush, he determined that she was best qualified for the position of Communications Supervisor.

Davies, Wurtz's successor as Director of Community Development, testified that before she hired Simons to replace Bush, she reviewed the personnel files of all the employees in the communications department and determined that none of the employees was qualified for the supervisory position. Davies denied that employees were automatically promoted based on seniority. Davies testified that she was looking for someone to fill the supervisory position who was organized, efficient, could work with people, speak to the public, and coordinate activities.

Davies stated that she had received complaints that appellant was surly, bothering dispatchers, and generally "creating havoc." Davies also testified that other than decoding the code-a-phone, she did not recall appellant performing any of the duties of the communications supervisor during the two-week period between Bush's termination and Simons' hiring. Davies stated that the supervisor's duties were performed by Earl Wills, a Goodwill employee, Davies' secretary and Davies herself during that period.

Four documents (Defendant's Ex. 2) containing complaints about appellant's conduct and work performance were also admitted into evidence. The first document was an undated letter from Bush to Wurtz which complained that appellant "has been leaving her work station after being told not to," that appellant "is ... clearing with Earl Wills and not me after she had been told not to on Jan. 2, 1975," that appellant "left the building saying it was too cold," that "we are still having the problem of (appellant) chewing gum and popping it and our room is small and this (is) bothering other people," that appellant "was ask(ed) not to go to the dispatcher to check address(es) but she still does," and that "I have had a few (not too many) complaints about (appellant's) attitude not only towards the people she works with but also customers."

The second document, entitled "COMPLAINTS REGARDING FRANKIE WINGFIELD COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT ORDER TAKER," dated January 2, 1975, states:

Ms. Wingfield left the building without permission to leave. She left because the heat was off on the first floor and she said she was cold. Diane Wiard, Public Relations Assistant, went down to the order desk with coats to help the ladies...