Fernando J. Gaitan, Jr., United States District Judge
Currently pending before the Court is Defendant Opaa! Food Management, Inc. ("Opaa!'s") Motion for Summary Judgment (Doc. #27), and Plaintiff's Motion to Allow Time for Discovery Under Rule 56(d) (Doc.# 33).
Defendant Opaa! submitted a statement of uncontroverted facts in support of its Motion for Summary Judgment. In plaintiff's Memorandum in Support of Motion to Allow Time for Discovery and in Opposition to Opaa!'s Summary Judgment motion, plaintiff does not controvert any of the facts cited by Opaa!x or offer any additional facts. Accordingly, the Court will rely on the facts cited in Opaa!'s motion.
Plaintiff began employment with the St. Joseph School District in 1999. In 1999, plaintiff was a kitchen manager for an elementary school cafeteria. In this role, plaintiff managed the operations of the cafeteria and the staff. For most of plaintiff's tenure, her direct supervisor was the School District's Nutrition Department Supervisor. However, since the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, that position had been vacant. In late October 2013 and early November 2013, Opaa! entered into a contract with the School District to provide services related to the management of the District's cafeterias and food service operations. After Opaa! began working with the District, Tonya McCrea was appointed as Opaa!'s Director of Nutritional Services, and became plaintiff's direct supervisor. On September 23, 2013, the school principal sent an email to plaintiff regarding concerns she had about kitchen operations, including complaints made by parents and referencing prior complaints. On September 30, 2013, the principal sent another email to plaintiff regarding a complaint from a parent that a cafeteria worker had taken food away from her child. On December 6, 2013, the principal sent another email to plaintiff, copying Ms. McCrea, complaining about how dirty the lunchroom tables were. On February 24, 2014, Ms. McCrea emailed the principal regarding concerns related to plaintiff's attendance, the frequency of her leaving the building to go to her car and indicating that she intended to take written disciplinary action regarding these issues. On March 17, 2014, plaintiff left work for a doctor's appointment without requesting leave or reporting her need to leave, in violation of policy. On March 18, 2014, plaintiff was issued a written disciplinary notice due to her excessive absences. On August 18, 2014, Ms. McCrea emailed plaintiff a written follow up to a conversation that had occurred that morning regarding a number of concerns with plaintiff's kitchen. Some of the concerns related to fruit being served with stickers on it, employees not wearing hairnets, clothing violations and failure of a team member to attend a required meeting. On August 22, 2014, plaintiff was presented with and signed a Performance Improvement Plan. The plan indicated that plaintiff needed to improve her performance in managerial tasks, ability to manage her staff and her attendance. During the meeting, plaintiff informed Ms. McCrea that she would be absent on the next business day, August 25, 2014 for a doctor's visit that she had previously known about. Employees were required pursuant to Opaa! and District policy to provide seven days' notice for non-emergency medical appointments. On August 24, 2014, the principal and Ms.
Plaintiff in her resignation letter stated that she had been treated unfairly since Opaa! came to the District and that Ms. McCrea "had it out for her." The resignation letter did not mention age or allege that she had been treated badly because of her age. When questioned as to why Ms. McCrea had it out for her, plaintiff testified, "I don't know if it was my age, if she wanted younger people in there, if she wanted people to—I don't know exactly why. If she just didn't like me personally. I wasn't sure. I just felt that way, that she just didn't get along with me for some reason." Plaintiff testified that she believed that her replacement, was approximately thirty-six years of age. Plaintiff was forty-five years of age at the time of her resignation. Plaintiff alleged that there were five other employees who were demoted or terminated and replaced by younger employees. However, plaintiff did not know why any of the five women were demoted and that it was "just [her] opinion" that they were demoted because of their age. Plaintiff could only provide first and last names of two employees allegedly demoted and replaced by younger employees. Plaintiff provided only the first names and schools worked at for the other three employees.
Plaintiff testified that at the time of her resignation, her working conditions were not intolerable. Plaintiff testified that she had no evidence, documents or statements or information of any sort that could support her belief that age was a factor in her demotion. Plaintiff testified that no district employee or Opaa! employee ever told her that she was demoted because of her age nor did anyone ever mention her age in any way.
A moving party is entitled to summary judgment on a claim only if there is a showing that "there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). "[T]he substantive law will identify which facts are material. Only disputes over facts that might affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law will properly preclude the
Plaintiff filed her Petition in the Circuit Court of Buchanan County on October 9, 2015. Defendants removed the case to federal court on November 16, 2015. On February 5, 2016, the parties conducted their Fed.R.Civ.P. 26 conference. On February 8, 2016, plaintiff served her first requests for discovery to Opaa! and the School District. On February 18 and 19, 2016, Opaa! and the School District served their initial Rule 26 disclosures. Plaintiff served her disclosures on February 22, 2016. On February 24, 2016, the School District served supplemental Rule 26 disclosures. The Court entered a Scheduling and Trial Order on February 25, 2016 setting December 16, 2016 as the date for the close of discovery. On March 30, 2016, Opaa! served responses to plaintiff's discovery requests. On April 8, 2016, the School District filed its responses to plaintiff's discovery requests. Plaintiff's deposition was taken on April 22, 2016. Opaa! filed its Motion for Summary Judgment on June 7, 2016. On June 30, 2016, plaintiff filed her Motion Seeking Additional Time for Discovery and Suggestions in Opposition to the Motion for Summary Judgment. In the motion, plaintiff acknowledges that the parties have engaged in written discovery, have mediated the case and defendants have deposed her. Plaintiff also states that shortly after the mediation, she reached a settlement with the School District.
However, plaintiff states that additional discovery is necessary on the following issues: 1) Plaintiff's employment relationship with Opaa!; 2) the relationship between Opaa! and the School District and whether Opaa! exercised oversight or control over her employment; 3) the names and salaries of all employees working in food service in St. Joseph schools between 2012 and 2015; 4) depositions of Tonya McCrea, Director of Nutrition Services; Linda Schaiffer, Assistant Director of Nutrition Services; Craig Cohen, Senior Vice-President of Operations for Opaa! and Dan Colgan, Superintendent of Schools for the District. Plaintiff states that this discovery is necessary to show Opaa!'s liability as a "joint" employer with the District and also to show that Opaa! engaged in a "pattern and practice of age discrimination." Attached to her Motion is an affidavit of plaintiff's attorney which states as follows: "1. Additional discovery as outlined in the Memorandum ... is necessary to afford Plaintiff the adequate opportunity to discover facts as outlined in the aforementioned Memorandum, to present her claim for damages. 2. It is affiant's belief that the information sought is in fact
Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(d) states "[i]f a nonmovant shows by affidavit or declaration that, for specified reasons, it cannot present facts essential to justify its opposition, the court may: (1) defer considering the motion or deny it; (2) allow time to obtain affidavits or declarations or to take discovery; or (3) issue any other appropriate order." Courts have noted that Rule 56(d) "should be applied with a spirit of liberality."
Opaa! raises numerous reasons why the Motion for a Continuance should be denied, such as failure to comply with the affidavit requirement by having counsel submit the affidavit instead of presenting her own affidavit, irrelevancy of the discovery to her claims and the assertion of novel theories which would be barred because they were not raised in her charge of discrimination. Additionally, Opaa! states that plaintiff has had ample opportunity to discover facts relating to her employment relationship and any other facts would be best known by her.
The Court notes that plaintiff did not file Reply Suggestions or respond to any of Opaa!'s arguments regarding the Motion for a Continuance. The Court does not find that this is a situation where plaintiff has had no opportunity to conduct discovery. Rather, as noted above, this case was removed in November 2015, and the parties conducted their Rule 26 conference and exchanged discovery requests in early February 2016. The Scheduling and Trial Order was entered on February 25, 2016, which gave the parties until December 16, 2016 to complete discovery. Thus, plaintiff had over four months from the time the parties conducted their Rule 26 conference until June 2016, when Opaa! filed its Motion for Summary Judgment. Plaintiff offers no explanation for why she could not have noticed the depositions of the employees of Opaa! and the School District during this time period or why she could have not submitted additional interrogatories or requests for production to defendants seeking the names and salaries of the other
Plaintiff states that further discovery is necessary on the issue of her employment relationship with Opaa!. Plaintiff states that Opaa! has alleged that she was not their employee and that further discovery is necessary regarding the business relationship between Opaa! and the School District because they could be considered a "joint employer." She states that she needs additional discovery to establish the amount of oversight and involvement Opaa! had as it related to her employment. Opaa! states that plaintiff herself would be the most knowledgeable regarding her employment and how much control and oversight Opaa! employees exercised over her. Plaintiff testified in her deposition that she did not consider herself to be an Opaa! employee. Opaa! states that plaintiff has had ample opportunity to provide further affidavit testimony should she wish to do so and has had the benefit of written discovery from Opaa! and the School District on this subject. Thus, the Court finds that plaintiff has failed to identify any specific facts that she could obtain through additional discovery which would demonstrate that Opaa! was her employer.
Plaintiff also argues that she believes that "discovery of the names and salaries of all employees working in food service schools that made up the St. Joseph, Missouri School District from 2012 through 2015 is necessary to assist in demonstrating the pattern and practice of the age discrimination that occurred." (Motion for Continuance, p. 4). Plaintiff makes this argument with regard to her claims for Age Discrimination under the ADEA, MHRA and her claim for Constructive Discharge. The Court finds that any discovery regarding the name and salaries of the food service workers would be irrelevant to plaintiff's claims for three reasons: 1) plaintiff has not raised a "pattern or practice" claim; 2) demoting or firing workers simply due to the fact that they were paid more is not illegal discrimination and 3) the information is not relevant to plaintiff's claims against Opaa!. First, as one commentator has noted, "[a] pattern or practice claim is one type of systemic disparate treatment claim in which the plaintiff alleges that an employer `regularly and purposefully' engaged in discrimination against a class of employees protected by Title VII....Moreover, private plaintiffs asserting a pattern or practice of discrimination under Title VII generally seek class-wide relief and, therefore, must seek certification under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23."
Finally, the Court also finds that such a continuance is not necessary because any evidence of the names and salaries of the other food service workers is not relevant to plaintiff's claims against Opaa!. Opaa! states that it has never been accused of having paid or set the salaries for any district employees. Opaa! did not even begin working in the District until late 2013. The Court agrees and finds that this information is not relevant to plaintiff's claims against Opaa!. Thus, because plaintiff has had ample time to conduct the requested discovery and has failed to offer any reasons why she could have obtain the requested information and also because the information requested is not relevant to plaintiff's claims against Opaa!, there is no basis on which to grant the Motion for a Continuance. Thus, the Court finds that Opaa!'s Motion for Summary Judgment is ripe for consideration and will proceed to consider it.
Opaa! argues that summary judgment should be granted in its favor because while it is an employer as that term is defined in by the ADEA and the MHRA, Opaa! was never plaintiff's employer. Plaintiff was hired by the School District in 1999, she was at all times paid by the district and Opaa! did not issue her tax documents or pay employment taxes for her. Opaa! also states that it lacked the authority to hire, fire, promote or demote plaintiff. Plaintiff also stated in her deposition that she did not consider herself to be an employee of Opaa!.
In
The ADEA makes it "unlawful for an employer ... to discharge any individual or otherwise discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's age." 29 U.S.C. § 623 (a)(1). Plaintiff can meet her burden of showing intentional discrimination through either direct or indirect evidence.
In the instant case, Opaa! argues that plaintiff has no direct evidence of discrimination, so the Court must determine whether plaintiff has asserted a prima facie claim of age discrimination. The parties do not contest that plaintiff is over the age of forty and is thus a member of the protected age group. Opaa! argues however that plaintiff cannot show that she was meeting the legitimate expectations of her position or that she was replaced by a significantly younger person.
As discussed above, beginning in the fall of 2013, the principal sent emails to plaintiff complaining about issues related to the lunch service and how students were being served. Beginning in December 2013, the principal began copying Tonya McCrea regarding the complaints. In February, Tonya notified the principal that she is going to give plaintiff a written warning. On March 18, 2014, plaintiff was issued a written disciplinary notice due to her excessive absences. In April 2014, plaintiff failed to call in before she left work for a doctor's appointment. Issues with plaintiff's performance continued into the following school year. On August 18, 2014, Tonya McCrea emailed plaintiff noting several concerns regarding service of the food, failure of kitchen staff to wear hairnets and not wearing appropriate clothing and failing to ensure that a staff member attended a meeting. On August 22, 2014, plaintiff was placed on a Performance Improvement Plan. The plan stated that plaintiff needed to improve her performance in managerial tasks, ability to manage staff and her attendance. During the meeting on August 22, 2014, plaintiff informed Ms. McCrea and her assistant, that she would be absent on August 25, 2014 for a doctor's appointment. Plaintiff had known about the appointment in advance and was in violation of District policy for failing to provide seven days' prior notice of the appointment. On August 25, 2014, the principal and Ms. McCrea spoke to plaintiff about missing money that had been sent in for a child's lunch account. On August 25, 2014, plaintiff was issued a written warning for violation of the District and Opaa!'s policies regarding the missing money. On September 12, 2014, an employee in plaintiff's kitchen, complained about plaintiff's treatment of her. On September 17, 2014, plaintiff failed to properly complete her food inventory, which resulted in a written disciplinary documentation. On September 18, 2014, plaintiff was demoted from her position as a kitchen manager to a line staff employee and her pay was decreased. Plaintiff was also transferred to a different school. Opaa! argues that plaintiff has failed to produce any evidence to suggest that she was meeting the legitimate expectations of her position at the time of her demotion. The Court agrees and finds that plaintiff has not met the second element of her prima facie claim.
With regard to the third element, Opaa! argues that plaintiff cannot establish that she was replaced by a significantly younger employee. Plaintiff stated in her deposition that she was replaced by Heather Taylor, who plaintiff believed to be thirty-six years of age. At the time that plaintiff was demoted, she was forty-five years of age. Opaa! argues that a nine year age difference has been found not to be enough to infer age discrimination. In
When asked in her deposition to explain why she felt that she was not treated fairly or justly by her supervisors, plaintiff responded: "I just felt that they, Ms. McCrea seemed to have it out for me." When asked why she believed this, plaintiff responded: "I don't know if it was my age, if she wanted younger people in there, if she wanted people to—I don't know exactly why. If she just didn't like me personally. I wasn't sure. I just felt that way, that she just didn't get along with me for some reason." When asked besides the fact that her replacement was younger, what else led her to believe that age had anything to do with Ms. McCrea's treatment, plaintiff responded, "I'm not sure." (Plaintiff's Depo. Ex. 2, pp. 104-105). When asked why she believed that age played a role in the defendant's actions, plaintiff responded: "I think they were trying to cut costs by getting rid of older employees that made more money than the younger ones did." When asked besides this belief, if she had any other evidence in documents, statements or information of any sort that supported that belief, plaintiff responded, "No." (Ex. 2, p. 136). When plaintiff was asked if anyone at Opaa! or the School District ever said anything to her about her age or that she was demoted because of her age, plaintiff replied "No." When asked if any superior ever said anything to her about her age, plaintiff replied "No." (Ex. 2, pp. 198-199). In
Accordingly, for the reasons stated above, the Court hereby