Conclusions This matter came before the Department for entry of a Final Order upon submission of an Order Closing File by Jeff B. Clark, an Administrative Law Judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings, a copy of which is attached and incorporated by reference in this order. The Department hereby adopts the Order Closing File as its Final Order in this matter. Said Order Closing File was predicated upon Respondents Notice of Voluntary Dismissal. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED and ADJUDGED that Intervenor, Regal Pontiac, Inc. d/b/a Regal Chevrolet, be granted a license for the sale and service of the Chevrolet (CHEV) linemake at 925 Highway 98 South, Lakeland (Polk County), Florida 33801 upon compliance with all applicable requirements of Section 320.27, Florida Statutes, and all applicable Department rules. Filed June 30, 2010 8:00 AM Division of Administrative Hearings. DONE AND ORDERED this 28 “day of June, 2010, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. L A. FORD, Director Division of Motor Vehicles Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Neil Kirkman Building Tallahassee, Florida 32399 Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Motor Vehicles this AS# day of June, 2010. we Vinayak, Dealer ga Administrator NOTICE OF APPEAL RIGHTS Judicial review of this order may be had pursuant to section 120.68, Florida Statutes, in the District Court of Appeal for the First District, State of Florida, or in any other district court of appeal of this state in an appellate district where a party resides. In order to initiate such review, one copy of the notice of appeal must be filed with the Department and the other copy of the notice of appeal, together with the filing fee, must be filed with the court within thirty days of the filing date of this order as set out above, pursuant to Rules of Appellate Procedure. CAF: vig Copies furnished: J. Andrew Bertron, Esquire Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP 3600 Maclay Boulevard South, Suite 202 Tallahassee, Florida 32312 John W. Forehand, Esquire Kurkin Forehand Brandes, LLP 800 North Calhoun Street, Suite 1B Tallahassee, Florida 32303 Robert C. Byerts, Esquire Bass, Sox & Mercer 2822 Remington Green Circle Tallahassee, Florida 32308 Jeff B. Clark Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1550 Florida Administrative Law Reports Post Office Box 385 Gainesville, Florida 32602 Nalini Vinayak Dealer License Section
Conclusions This matter came before the Department for entry of a Final Order upon submission of an Order Relinquishing Jurisdiction and Closing File by William F. Quattlebaum, Administrative Law Judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings, a copy of which is attached and incorporated by reference in this order. The Department hereby adopts the Order Relinquishing Jurisdiction and Closing File as its Final Order in this matter. Said Order Closing File was predicated upon Respondent's notice of withdrawal. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED and ADJUDGED that Petitioner, Jealse Scooters, Inc., be granted a license for the sale of motorcycles manufactured by Zhejiang Taizhou Wangye Power Co. Ltd. (ZHEJ) at 572 East Osceola Parkway, Kissimmee, (Osceola County), Florida 34744, upon compliance with all applicable requirements of Section 320.27, Florida Statutes, and all applicable Department rules. Filed January 7, 2010 10:39 AM Division of Administrative Hearings. DONE AND ORDERED this ;(/day of January, 2010 in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. or Division of Motor Vehicles Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Neil Kirkman Building Tallahassee, Florida 32399 Filed with the Clerk of the Divis)On of Motor Vehicles this Jtf!1._ day of January, 2010. NOTICE OF APPEAL RIGHTS Judicial review of this order may be had pursuant to section 120.68, Florida Statutes, in the District Court of Appeal for the First District, State of Florida, or in any other district court of appeal of this state in an appellate district where a party resides. In order to initiate such review, one copy of the notice of appeal must be filed with the Department and the other copy of the notice of appeal, together with the filing fee, must be filed with the court within thirty days of the filing date of this order as set out above, pursuant to Rules of Appellate Procedure. CAF:vlg Copies furnished: Fabio Jealse Jealse Scooters, Inc. 572 East Osceola Parkway Kissimmee, Florida 34774 Beverly Fox Red Streak Scooters, LLC 427 Doughty Boulevard Inwood, New York 11096 Jeff Lampe Kissimmee Motorsports, Inc. 2881 North John Young Parkway Kissimmee, Florida 34741 William F. Quattlebaum Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1550 Michael J. Alderman, Esquire Assistant General Counsel Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Neil Kirkman Building, Rm. A-432-02 Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0504 Florida Administrative Law Reports Post Office Box 385 Gainesville, Florida 32602 Nalini Vinayak Dealer License Section
Conclusions This matter came before the Department for entry of a Final Order upon submission of an Order Closing File by June C. McKinney, Administrative Law Judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings, pursuant to Petitioner’s letter of withdrawal of protest of the establishment of AutoNation Dodge of Pembroke Pines, Inc., a copy of which is attached and incorporated by reference in this order. The Department hereby adopts the Order Closing File as its Final Order in this matter. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED and ADJUDGED that Respondent, AutoNation Dodge of Pembroke Pines, Inc. be granted a license for the sale and service of Chrysler passenger cars and light trucks (CHRY) 13601 Pines Boulevard, Pembroke Pines (Broward County), Florida 33027 upon Filed January 27, 2012 3:47 PM Division of Administrative Hearings compliance with all applicable requirements of section 320.27, Florida Statutes, and all applicable Department rules. DONE AND ORDERED this 2 q day of January, 2012, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. Michael D. Le Assistant Deputy Director Division of Motorist Services Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Neil Kirkman Building, Room A338 Tallahassee, Florida 32399 Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Motorist Services this _A\\__ day of January, 2012. Nalini Vinayak, Dealer Hicense Administrator NOTICE OF APPEAL RIGHTS Judicial review of this order may be had pursuant to section 120.68, Florida Statutes, in the District Court of Appeal for the First District, State of Florida, or in any other district court of appeal of this state in an appellate district where a party resides. In order to initiate such review, one copy of the notice of appeal must be filed with the Department and the other copy of the notice of appeal, together with the filing fee, must be filed with the court within thirty days of the filing date of this order as set out above, pursuant to Rules of Appellate Procedure. MDM/jde Copies furnished: Thomas H. Yardley, Esquire Law Office of Thomas H. Yardley 1970 Michigan Avenue, Building D Cocoa, Florida 32922 Phil Langley Chrysler Motors, LLC 10300 Boggy Creek Road Orlando, Florida 32824 R. Craig Spickard, Esquire Kurkin Forehand Brandes, LLP 800 North Calhoun Street, Suite 1B Tallahassee, Florida 32303 Dean Bunch, Esquire Nelson, Mullins, Riley and Scarborough LLP 3600 Maclay Boulevard South, Suite 202 Tallahassee, Florida 32312 June C. McKinney Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-1550 Nalini Vinayak Dealer License Administrator STATE OF FLORIDA DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS MASSEY-YARDLEY CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH, INC., Petitioner, vs. Case No. 11-6491 CHRYSLER GROUP CARCO, LLC, AND AUTONATION DODGE OF PEMBROKE PINES, INC., Respondents.
Conclusions This matter came before the Department for entry of a Final Order upon submission of an Order Closing File and Relinquishing Jurisdiction by William F. Quattlebaum, Administrative Law Judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings, pursuant to Petitioner’s Letter of Dismissal, a copy of which is attached, and incorporated by reference, in this order. The Department hereby adopts the Order Closing File and Relinquishing Jurisdiction as its Final Order in this matter. Accordingly, it is hereby ORDERED and ADJUDGED that Respondent, Larkin Motorworks, LLC d/b/a St. Pete Scooter, be granted a license to sell motorcycles manufactured by Guangdong Qingxin Liantong Industry Co. Ltd. (QNGX) at 3029 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North, St. Petersburg Filed November 28, 2012 4:25 PM Division of Administrative Hearings (Pinellas County), Florida 33704, upon compliance with all applicable requirements of Section 320.27, Florida Statutes, and all applicable Department rules. DONE AND ORDERED this Aq day of November, 2012, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. Bur€éau of Issuance Oversight Division of Motorist Services Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Neil Kirkman Building, Room A338 Tallahassee, Florida 32399 Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Motorist Services this a! I day of November, 2012. NOTICE OF APPEAL RIGHTS Judicial review of this order may be had pursuant to section 120.68, Florida Statutes, in the District Court of Appeal for the First District, State of Florida, or in any other district court of appeal of this state in an appellate district where a party resides. In order to initiate such review, one copy of the notice of appeal must be filed with the Department and the other copy of the notice of appeal, together with the filing fee, must be filed with the court within thirty days of the filing date of this order as set out above, pursuant to Rules of Appellate Procedure. JBijc Copies furnished: Ronald Larkin Larkin Motorworks, LLC 3029 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street North St. Petersburg, Florida 33704 Brett Moorer Parallel Intelligent Transportation, Inc. 6950 Central Highway Pennsauken, New Jersey 08109 Peter M. Spoto Worldwide Scooters, Inc. 457 Highland Avenue Dunedin, Florida 34698 William F. Quattlebaum Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399 Nalini Vinayak Dealer License Administrator
The Issue The issue in this case is whether Respondent, R.H. Motors, d/b/a Kia of Orange Park ("Kia"), discriminated against Petitioner, Lamar B. Waters ("Waters"), on the basis of age in derogation of the Florida Civil Rights Act of 1992.
Findings Of Fact Waters is a 71-year-old Caucasian male who resides in Green Cove Springs, Florida. At all times pertinent hereto, Waters was employed by Kia at its automobile dealership in Orange Park, Florida. By all accounts, Waters was extremely well liked at the dealership. He had a jovial personality and got along well with his co-workers. He was generally seen as a nice, retired man with ample financial wherewithal to enjoy life. Waters himself says that he is financially comfortable, but does not consider himself rich. He lives in a nice house that is valued at around $900,000 (or was at the time he purchased it). He owns a nice boat that some fellow employees have used for parties and gatherings. Waters is a college football fan and enjoys spending time watching and attending games, especially for his favorite team, the Georgia Bulldogs. In 2013, Waters filed for bankruptcy, but for the purpose of working out a deal on his home mortgage, not--apparently--due to significant financial problems. Waters often said that he was financially sound and was working “only to get away from his wife,” but that may have been in jest rather than serious. Kia is a dealership which sells both new and used automobiles. It has been in existence since August 2008. It is owned by R.H. Motors, a Florida corporation. The vice president of operations for R.H. Motors is Robert Hogan. The dealership, including the car lot, offices, and service department, is located on a large tract of land in Orange Park. The new car section of the dealership is located on a large lot which includes the office building and service area. Across from the new car section there is a smaller lot which was initially used for selling used cars. There is a mobile home or modular building on the used car lot which is used as an office. Waters joined the U.S. Navy at age 17; he later entered flight school with the U.S. Army. He served time in Vietnam during the conflict with that country. Waters was honorably discharged from the service in 1975. He took a job flying airplanes for AFLAC (or its predecessor company) and later became a general manager for the company. Waters retired from AFLAC in 2004 and then went to work for a Volkswagen dealership in Orange Park, Florida. He worked as a floor salesman for the Volkswagen dealership. In November 2009, when Waters was 66 years old, he was offered a job at Kia. He accepted and started work on December 1, 2009, as a floor salesman, selling new and used cars. Waters had been hired by Joe Esposito, the general manager for Kia at that time. Waters was compensated at minimum wage plus commission on cars he sold. While he was a salesman, Waters would take off from work either Tuesday or Thursday of each week and every Sunday. In June 2010--or thereabouts--Waters was offered a different position at Kia. Waters described the position as the “wholesale manager” for the dealership. He said his duties included buying and selling cars at auctions. He also managed the used car lot, did appraisals for cars being traded in, and continued to sell cars. In April 2013, general manager Esposito placed Waters on indefinite leave due to “internal issues” at the dealership. In May 2013, Esposito asked Waters to attend a class on managing customers. The class was to be held at Kia’s primary headquarters in South Carolina. Waters and another employee traveled to South Carolina, but there was no training provided. An employee at headquarters talked with the two men briefly, but there were no classes or training. Waters had understood the reason he was sent to South Carolina was so that he could be assigned a new job as some kind of customer manager. There was obviously some disconnect between what Waters was told and what he understood to have been said. When Waters returned from South Carolina, he found that Esposito had been fired as the general manager at Kia. Waters somehow met with Robert Hogan (described by Waters as "the owner") when Hogan came to visit the dealership even though Waters was supposedly on indefinite leave at that time. When Hogan found out Waters had been placed on leave by Esposito, he immediately reinstated Waters and made sure he was paid back-pay for the time he was out of work. At that time, Hogan also asked Waters to manage the used car side of the dealership. Waters remembers that he was hired as the Used Car Manager. Hogan says he was hired as the Budget Car Manager, i.e., that Waters was only to be responsible for selling the least attractive used cars. Those cars generally came onto the lot as trade-ins by persons purchasing new vehicles. Waters said that as part of this new job, he was tasked with going to auctions for the purpose of obtaining additional used cars for the Kia dealership. Hogan said Waters was never authorized to purchase cars for the dealership, and that the dealership already had too many used cars. No additional testimony was provided to rectify this disparity. Either one of the witnesses was not telling the truth or Waters was mistaken about his duties. A brief explanation of the dealership is warranted: Kia sells both new and used cars. Used cars come from various sources, including trade-ins by customers buying new cars, purchases from rental car fleets, and purchases from auctions. The used cars were for a time sold from a lot adjacent to the main Kia lot. Later, Kia moved all used cars over to the same lot with the new cars. The used car lot was then used as a place to store new car inventory. When Waters was reinstated to his job and began working with used cars, a new general manager--Mr. Record--had been hired. Record was instrumental in the change that moved all used cars over to the new car lot. He was also very harsh and unfriendly with employees at the dealership, so Hogan eventually fired him as general manager as well. He was replaced by Jeff Norman. Norman continued the practice of keeping all the cars, new and used, on one lot--except, it appears, for the cars deemed "budget" cars. Norman also took over some of Waters’ tasks and responsibilities, e.g., Norman began doing the appraisals of used automobiles. Norman also took over the acquisition of used cars, although Waters would sometimes disagree with the choices Norman made. Norman told Waters a new policy of Kia was to get rid of the budget cars as quickly as possible rather than trying to repair them for higher re-sale. At some point in time after Waters had been reinstated to his job, Hogan began to have concerns about the number of hours the used car lot office was being manned. He expected that office to be open whenever the main lot office was open, i.e., from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. Hogan had called and/or gone by the used car lot on numerous occasions around 5:30 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. in the evening and found it closed. Hogan raised his concerns about Waters’ work schedule with the new GM, Norman, and asked him to talk to Waters, get him back on track, and tell him what was expected of him as an employee of Kia. Norman called Waters into his office on October 16 or October 17 (the date is in dispute) to discuss the matter. Norman told Waters that things were changing at Kia. He said the dealership would be trying to sell 250 cars a month. To do that, employees were going to be expected to work long, 12-hour days, six or even seven days a week. Norman allegedly asked Waters how old he was, and then said Waters was about the same age as Norman’s father. Norman allegedly told Waters that the dealership did not want to put him under that kind of stress. Waters told Norman he would not like the proposed new work schedule and hours. Norman allegedly told Waters that he (Norman) was worried that a man Waters’ age could not stand the stress of working those hours.1/ Waters took Norman’s words to mean, in essence, that Waters was being terminated from employment. He replied to Norman only, "I appreciate it," and walked toward the door. As he was exiting, Norman said that he would check with the sister Kia dealership in the Southside area of Jacksonville to see if they had any sales positions open. Waters apparently did not accept that offer. After the meeting with Norman, Waters went to his desk and gathered his personal belongings. He went back into the dealership and said goodbye to Hutchinson, the young office manager who had been friendly to Waters during his tenure at Kia. Waters hugged Hutchinson, said "I’m out of here," and indicated that he did not want to work on weekends. He then left the premises.2/ On the 17th day of October, Hutchinson was instructed to fill out a Separation Notice to reflect Waters’ cessation of employment at Kia. The reason given on the form for Waters’ leaving was "Voluntary [sic] Quit." Waters’ term of employment was listed as December 1, 2009 through October 17, 2013. Waters’ work schedule was listed as 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m., seven days a week. Hutchinson said that is simply a statement of when the store is open; each person works the hours necessary to get their job done. In the description of Waters in the Separation Notice, Hutchinson wrote, "Great company guy. None better." There is not dispute that Waters was a well-liked person at the dealership. Waters did not see the Separation Notice until it was sent to his attorney in preparation for final hearing. Waters disagrees with the date of the notice, the work hours listed, and that he voluntarily quit his job. On October 1, 2013, just two weeks before leaving Kia, Waters had been given a raise from $1,500.00 per month, plus 5% of profits generated by the used car department, to $4,000.00 per month plus 5% of the profits. Waters did not contact Hogan to inquire as to whether something could be worked out concerning his continued employment. Hogan had been exceptionally nice to Waters in the past, but Waters did not pursue relief with him. Hogan remembers trying to contact Waters once via telephone but never talked to him about the matter. As far as Hogan is concerned, Waters voluntarily terminated his employment with Kia because he did not want to work the hours needed. Hogan had hired Waters at age 66 and did not have any objection to Waters working for as long as he felt healthy enough to do so. After he left his employment with Kia, Waters has sought but been unable to locate another management job. He has no interest in going back into a sales position. No testimony or evidence was presented at final hearing as to whether Waters’ position with Kia was filled or, if so, whether a younger person was hired to replace him.
Recommendation Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, it is RECOMMENDED that a final order be entered by the Florida Commission on Human Relations, upholding its determination that no cause exists for a finding of discrimination against Petitioner, Lamar B. Waters, by Respondent, R.H. Motors, d/b/a Kia of Orange Park. DONE AND ENTERED this 30th day of October, 2014, in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida. S R. BRUCE MCKIBBEN Administrative Law Judge Division of Administrative Hearings The DeSoto Building 1230 Apalachee Parkway Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060 (850) 488-9675 Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 30th day of October, 2014.
