Adduci v. Federal Express Corporation, No. 2:2017cv02017 - Document 73 (W.D. Tenn. 2018)
Court Description: ORDER granting in part and denying in part 40 Motion for Summary Judgment. Signed by Judge Jon Phipps McCalla on 03/21/2018. (McCalla, Jon)
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uld have received more favorable benefits. Id. The record is devoid of any proof that another employee of similar ability or inability to work was given temporary reassignment work. Accordingly, Adduci has failed to provide proof supporting a prima facie case of disparate treatment pregnancy discrimination under either of her theories of injury. FedEx is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, and its motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to Adduci’s disparate treatment claim. FedEx’s motion for summary judgment is also GRANTED as to Adduci’s claim for punitive damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(1). The Supreme Court has interpreted that statute to apply “in only a subset of cases involving intentional discrimination.” Kolstad v. Am. Dental Ass’n, 572 U.S. 526, 534 (1999). Cases that rely only on a “disparate impact” theory of discrimination are not eligible for punitive damage awards under the statute. Id. (“The 1991 Act limits compensatory and punitive damage awards, however, to cases of ‘intentional discrimination’—that is, cases that do not rely on the ‘disparate impact’ theory of discrimination.”) Because FedEx’s motion for summary judgment has been granted as Adduci’s claim of “intentional discrimination” and only “disparate impact” theories remain, Page 15 Adduci is precluded from recovering compensatory damages. Therefore, FedEx’s motion for summary judgment as to punitive damages is MOOT. b. Disparate Impact Claim i. Legal Standards “In evaluating a disparate-impact claim, courts focus on the effects of an employment practice, determining whether they are unlawful irrespective of motivation or intent.” Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 135 S.Ct 1338, 1345 (2015) (emphasis in original). “To establish a prima facie case of discrimination under the disparate impact theory, ‘a plaintiff must: (1) identify a specific employment practice; and (2) present data indicating that the specific practice had an adverse impact on a protected group.’” Chandler v. Regions Bank, 573 Fed. Appx. 525, 528 (6th Cir. 2014) (quoting Davis v. Cintas Corp., 717 F.3d 476, 494 (6th Cir. 2013)) (discussing sex-based discrimination claims). ii. Application Adduci claims that FedEx’s policies “cause a disparate impact on pregnant women because the effect of requiring pregnant women to ask their doctors to remove the lifting requirement without determining whether the pregnant women can perform their jobs without requiring them to take unpaid leave falls more harshly on pregnant women than other employees[.]” (ECF No. 16, ¶ 33.) FedEx argues that “the record contains no statistical evidence showing that pregnant employees suffered an adverse impact as a result of a FedEx policy[.]” (ECF No. 40-1 at 169.) Adduci responds that the spreadsheet (ECF No. 52-4) of 261 part-time FedEx employees who were granted work reassignments or light duty in 2014 “indicates a causal link between FedEx’s pre-2015 policies and a ‘statistically significant . . . imbalance’ in the number of employees denied light-duty work because of pregnancy rather Page 16 than another condition.” (ECF No. 52-1 at 410.) Adduci further contends that FedEx’s temporary job re-assignment program “is not available to women who are pregnant [and who] have a lifting restriction. Thus, this policy has a disparate impact on women who are pregnant and have a lifting restriction.” (Id. at 411.) Adducci notes that under a 2014 policy of the FedEx Air Ground Freight services division, “part-time employees on a non-work related medical leave could not return to work on a temporary assignment.” (Id. at 412 (citing Fowler Decl., ECF No. 41-21, ¶ 7).) FedEx replies that Adduci’s statistical proof is insufficient because her spreadsheet does not identify which FedEx workers were similarly situated to Adduci. (ECF No. 55 at 498.) FedEx also argues that even if the spreadsheet indicated a disparate impact, Adduci has failed to show that FedEx’s policy caused it. (Id. at 499.) As discussed above, the record reflects a dispute of fact as to why FedEx denied Adduci temporary assignment work. If it was because no such work was available, Adduci’s injury was being denied temporary assignment work, but if it was because of the FedEx AFGS policy to exclude all part-time workers on non-work related medical leave from the TRW program, then Adduci’s injury was being excluded from the program. That fact was not material for the purposes of Adduci’s disparate treatment claim because she did not make a prima facie case of disparate treatment under either theory. For the purposes of Adduci’s disparate impact claim, however, the fact is material for two reasons. First, Adduci has only challenged the exclusionary policy under the disparate impact theory. Second, the record contains proof that the AFGS policy had a disproportionate impact on pregnant women. The AFGS policy excluded all part-time employees from seeking TRW placement to return from non-work related medical leave. Adduci’s pregnancy was considered non-work related medical leave, and, reading the record in the light most favorable Page 17 to the plaintiff, all other pregnancies would have been considered non-work related medical leave. Continuing to read the record in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, the policy was enforced, and 100% of TRW requests were denied when made because of pregnancies by Material Handlers who worked part-time in AFGS. 9 Adduci’s spreadsheet (ECF No. 52-4) contains a list of FedEx employees whose TRW requests were granted while the policy was in place. That list contains several Material Handlers who worked part-time in the Offload area. 10 The fact that those employees’ requests were granted means that less than 100% of TRW requests were denied when made by members outside of the protected class: pregnant women. Accordingly, Adduci has presented information, considered collectively in the form of data, “indicating that” the AFGS policy “had an adverse impact on a protected group[,]” Chandler, 573 Fed. Appx. at 528, and the record reflects that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Adduci suffered, as a member of a protected class, a disparate impact under that policy. 11 FedEx is therefore not entitled to judgment as a matter of law, and its motion for summary judgment is DENIED. 9 Other AFGS workers may also have been affected, but at least Material Handlers were, because they, like Adduci would have been subject to the 75 pound lifting requirement. 10 Fruahuf’s declaration states that Adduci was part of his a workgroup and that “AFGS” is a division. (ECF No. 41-15, ¶ 3.) To the extent that the record is unclear about their organizational relationship, the Court reads the record in the light most favorable to Adduci. Accordingly, for the purposes of interpreting the motion for summary judgment, all “Offload” employees are considered to be subject to the AFGS policy. 11 This is not a determination that Adduci has presented the “statistical evidence of a kind and degree sufficient to show that the practice in question has caused prohibited discrimination” required to make her prima facie case of disparate impact. Abbot v. Fed. Forge, Inc., 912 F.2d 867, 872 (6th Cir. 1990). Adduci has simply created a genuine issue as to the material fact of disparate impact. Page 18 IV. Conclusion For the foregoing reasons, FedEx’s motion for summary judgment is GRANTED as to Adduci’s claim for disparate treatment discrimination. As a result, FedEx’s motion for summary judgment is MOOT as to Adduci’s claim for punitive damages. FedEx’s motion for summary judgment is DENIED as to Adduci’s claim for disparate impact discrimination. The latter is the only claim remaining in this action. SO ORDERED, this 21st day of March, 2018. /s/ Jon P. McCalla JON P. McCALLA UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE Page 19
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