Woods v. Facilitysource LLC
| Decision Date | 20 January 2015 |
| Docket Number | Case No: 2:13-cv-621 |
| Parties | Gary W. Woods, et al., Plaintiffs, v. FacilitySource LLC, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio |
Opinion and Order
This employment discrimination action is before the court on defendants' motion for summary judgment. Plaintiff Gary Woods, who is an African American, alleges that he was subject to racial discrimination and a hostile work environment while he was employed as an account manager at defendant FacilitySource LLC in Columbus, Ohio. Plaintiff Nicolas Lorenzo, who is Caucasian and is employed as an account manager at FacilitySource, alleges that he was subject to discrimination and a hostile work environment based upon his association with Woods. Both plaintiffs allege that the discrimination took the form of them receiving lower wages than other account managers.
As will be discussed below, defendants have articulated legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for the pay differential between plaintiffs and other account managers, and plaintiffs have failed to produce evidence from which a jury could reasonably find that such non-discriminatory reasons were pretextual. Further, the alleged incidents of harassment do not rise to the level of a hostile work environment as a matter of law. Accordingly, the court grants defendants' motion for summary judgment.
FacilitySource provides facility maintenance services to a range of businesses, including department stores and quick service restaurants. Decl. of William Hayden, ¶ 2. Since 2005 FacilitySource has experienced "rapid growth, averaging 25-30% growth each year," and a private equity firm purchased a majority interest in the company in 2012. Id., ¶¶ 4, 5. Defendant William Hayden is the President and Chief Executive Officer of FacilitySource, and defendants Duane Smith and Jordan Wagner are management-level employees. Id., ¶ 6.
Plaintiff Woods began his employment with FacilitySource in September 2005 as a customer service representative and earned a starting salary of $10 per hour. See Woods Dep., Ex. 7. After several promotions, Woods was promoted to account manager in October 2009 with an annual salary of $40,000. See Woods Aff., ¶ 13; Doc. 71, Page ID 1158. He received raises in April 2010 and April 2011 that brought his salary to $41,200 and then $42,200. See Woods Dep., Ex. 7. Woods received generally positive work performance reviews. See id., Exs. 8-12. After this lawsuit was filed, FacilitySource terminated Woods on March 31, 2014 on the grounds that it discovered that he had made the following two misrepresentations on his employment application: (1) that he had earned a high school diploma and (2) that he left his former employer because of a reduction in work hours. See id.., Ex. 1; Woods. Aff., ¶¶ 21, 22.
Plaintiff Lorenzo began his employment with FacilitySource in October 2005 as a customer service representative and earned a starting salary of $11 per hour. See Lorenzo Dep., Ex. 20. After several promotions, Lorenzo was promoted to account manager in March 2008 with an annual salary of $36,000. See Id.; Lorenzo Aff., ¶ 12. He received several raises that has brought his salary to $42,700. See Lorenzo Dep., p. 91; Lorenzo Dep., Ex. 20. Lorenzo has received positive work performance reviews, see id., Exs. 21, 28-30, and he remains employed by FacilitySource.
Plaintiffs allege their situation at work changed for the worse after defendant Wagner was promoted to Director of Market-Retail in July 2009 and defendant Smith was hired as Vice President of Client Services in July 2010. See Doc. 68-7, Response to Interrogatory No. 3; Doc. 68-8, Response to Interrogatory No. 3. Woods alleges that the only promotions he received occurred prior to 2010 and that he did not receive a merit-based pay increase after 2011. Woods Aff., ¶ 9, 17. Lorenzo similarly alleges that he did not receive a promotion after 2009 and did not receive a merit-based pay increase after 2011. Lorenzo Aff., ¶ 8, 13.
According to plaintiffs, the result of FacilitySource's failure to promote them or grant them pay increases is that they earned lower salaries than did other account managers. Plaintiffs state that at the time of Woods's termination, their salaries were the lowest and second lowest among account managers even though they had more seniority than all other account managers. See Woods Aff., ¶ 25; Lorenzo Aff., ¶ 15. Woods contends that he earned less than other account managers because of racial discrimination, and Lorenzo contends that he earned less than other account managers because of his association with Woods. Plaintiffs allege that their advancement was impeded by a lack of support from Smith and Wagner, see Woods Dep. pp. 124-25; Lorenzo Dep., pp. 10-13, 50-51, and that Smith discouraged Woods from applying for advancement, see Woods Aff., ¶ 55.
FacilitySource responds that when plaintiffs became account managers in 2008 and 2009, a college degree was not required for the position. See Woods Dep., pp. 291-92. In 2010, FacilitySource implemented minimum qualifications that included a two-year degree or prior account management experience in the facility maintenance field. See id., Ex. 13. According to William Hayden, Hayden Decl., ¶ 8. FacilitySource concedes that account managers hired from 2010 to 2012 were, on average, paid more those hired between 2005 and 2009. Id., ¶ 9.
Plaintiffs contend that Smith and Wagner discouraged other employees from associating with Woods. See Woods Dep., p. 176; Woods Aff., ¶ 26 (); Lorenzo Aff., ¶ 17. They further contend that management was more demanding of Woods than they were of other employees. See Woods Aff., ¶ 26 ().
Plaintiffs also claim that Smith and Wagner made negative racial remarks to Woods. Smith told Woods that "you people are cheeky" and "you people are dramatic" and said something suggesting that Woods liked fried chicken and Kool-Aid. See Woods Aff., ¶¶ 30, 58. Smith also commented to Woods that he looked like Dizzy Gillespie, had "nappy" hair, and was a "dark cloud." See Woods Dep., pp. 218-20, 224-28. Smith once placed his leg on Woods's desk in a sexually suggestive manner. See Woods Aff., ¶ 57. Wagner used the phrase "you people" once when talking to Woods, see Woods Dep., p. 212-13, and attempted to stop Woods from going to parts of the building where other employees could go, see Woods Aff., ¶ 34.
According to plaintiffs, they were singled out for exclusion from a company golf outing in September 2012. Hayden, Smith and Wagner participated and other account managers were invited to attend, along with many clients of FacilitySource. Doc. 71, Page ID 1160-61. One of those clients, Family Christian, was an account to which Woods was assigned. Woods Dep., p. 162. Woods and Lorenzo had expressed interest to Brent Myers, director of human resources, about attending the golf outing but they were not invited. Id., pp. 165-66.
Plaintiffs filed this suit in June 2013. The complaint asserts claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, see 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., and under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 for racialdiscrimination, race-based association discrimination and a hostile work environment, as well as parallel claims under state law.
During discovery, FacilitySource obtained information it believes shows that Woods made material misrepresentations in his job application materials. In a deposition in February 2014, Woods testified that he graduated from Asheville High School in North Carolina. See Woods Dep., p. 12-13. In March 2014, FacilitySource obtained a statement from the Registrar at Asheville High School stating that Woods did not earn enough credits to graduate and obtained a document from Woods's former employer indicating that he was terminated because of a misstatement on his application. See Hayden Decl., Ex. 1. Defendants were granted leave to file a counterclaim for fraudulent inducement. The counterclaim alleges that Woods submitted two applications in which he falsely stated that he had received a high school diploma and that his reason for leaving his previous employment was a reduction in work hours. According to the counterclaim, FacilitySource gave Woods an opportunity to rebut the records it had obtained, but he did not respond. FacilitySource terminated Woods on March 31, 2014. Woods does not challenge his termination in this lawsuit.
Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, summary judgment is proper if the evidentiary materials in the record show that there is "no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a); see Longaberger Co. v. Kolt, 586 F.3d 459, 465 (6th Cir. 2009). The moving party bears the burden of proving the absence of genuine issues of material fact and its entitlement to judgment as a matter of law, which may be accomplished by demonstrating that the nonmoving party lacks evidence to support an essential element of its case on which it would bear the burden of proof at trial. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 322-23 (1986); Walton v. Ford Motor Co., 424 F.3d 481, 485 (6th Cir. 2005).
The "mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact." Anderson...
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