Amedee v. Shell Chem. LP

384 F. Supp. 3d 613
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Louisiana
DecidedMay 31, 2019
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 18-00487-SDD-RLB
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 384 F. Supp. 3d 613 (Amedee v. Shell Chem. LP) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Amedee v. Shell Chem. LP, 384 F. Supp. 3d 613 (M.D. La. 2019).

Opinion

None of the documents, forms, or medical documents are authenticated and are, therefore, unreliable evidence on summary judgment. For the same reasons applicable to the analysis of Paragraph 2 of Plaintiff's statement of disputed facts, the Court will not consider Paragraph 4 of Plaintiff's statement of disputed facts.

Paragraph 19 of Plaintiff's Statement of Disputed Material Facts contains three *626parts.79 The first section of Paragraph 19 relies upon "Exhibit 25, Shell 798".80 Exhibit 25 is a one-page document reflecting two email messages in an email string. Plaintiff relies upon the top portion of the email attachment in Paragraph 19 of her statement of disputed facts, which has not been authenticated and contains hearsay.81 For the reasons applicable to the analysis of Paragraphs 2 and 4 of Plaintiff's statement, the first portion of Paragraph 19, as quoted by the Court herein, will not be considered on summary judgment.

The second portion of Paragraph 19 states, "Both he and Monica Hagar were identified by Chad Mason as being involved in the decision to terminate Amedee. Declaration of Chad Mason, Shell[']s MSJ Exhibit 2, ¶ 17."82 The record does not reflect that any party challenges the Declaration of Chad Mason, and the Court is not aware of any basis to disregard this portion of Paragraph 19 of Plaintiff's statement of disputed facts.83

The final sentence of Paragraph 19 relies upon "Exhibit 3, Deposition of Richard Guba ["Guba"], p. 61 ll. 1-6".84 The cited deposition testimony reads:

Q. Well, let me ask it this way: Did you have any communication in your recollection at all with Mr. Harlin Hart, the PTL supervisor, in the days prior to Ms. Amedee's termination?
A. Yes, sir. I don't remember the specifics, but yes, I did.85

Exhibit 3, quoted in its entirety above, only supports that Guba communicated with Hart in the "days prior" to Plaintiff's termination. The deposition testimony does not reflect that this communication occurred "on or about the time Harlan Hart wrote the email relied upon by Shell". Therefore, while Exhibit 3 is proper summary judgment evidence, the discrepancies between the statement and the cited evidence cannot be resolved by the Court on summary judgment. The Court will not resolve factual disputes on summary judgment.86 The Court will not disregard the last portion of Paragraph 19.

Paragraph 22 of Plaintiff's Statement of Disputed Material Facts relies solely upon "Plaintiff's Verified First Amended Complaint ¶ 27".87 Defendant challenges Plaintiff's *627reliance on the allegations in her Complaint as being inappropriate "evidence" for summary judgment purposes. The Court agrees. "In the context of a motion for summary judgment, it is well-settled that a plaintiff may not rest upon mere allegations or assertions contained in his Complaint in opposing a motion."88 Therefore, the Court will not consider Paragraph 22 of Plaintiff's statement of disputed facts.

2. Plaintiff's declaration

Defendant next challenges paragraphs of Plaintiff's declaration.89 First, Defendant challenges Paragraphs 22 and 35 of Plaintiff's declaration90 because the attestations are not within Plaintiff's own personal knowledge.91 " Rule 56(e) requires declarations offered in support of summary judgment to be based on personal knowledge."92 Rule 602 of the Federal Rules of Evidence further requires a submitting party to lay proper foundation that witnesses have personal knowledge of the matter about which they will testify. "[A] court may strike any affidavit that is not based on personal knowledge."93 To demonstrate personal knowledge, an affidavit "must include enough factual support to show that the affiant possesses that knowledge."94

Plaintiff attests at paragraph 22:

I have worked in training status on the Control Board. As long as an employee works twelve hours in a training status, it does not matter if you occasionally come in late. An employee in a training status is allowed to make up the time. In a training status an employee just trained and was not responsible for operations or making relief of another employee.95

After reviewing the declaration, the Court finds that Plaintiff attempted to lay the proper foundation to support her statements. She attests that she has worked in training status on the Control Board, *628which, presumably, provided her with the background to attest to the quoted matters. However, while the attestations appear to be based on personal knowledge (given Plaintiff's work history and experience), the statement invites the Court to make a credibility determination as to whether Plaintiff's opinions (i.e. , "it does not matter if you occasionally come in late"; "allowed to make up the time"; "was not responsible for operations or making relief of another employee") are well-founded and based in fact. As stated previously, it is not proper for a Court to make credibility determinations and make findings of fact on summary judgment. Therefore, the Court declines to consider Paragraph 22 of Plaintiff's declaration as a statement of undisputed fact.

Paragraph 35 of Plaintiff's declaration contains statements regarding Guba, a supervisor to Plaintiff's direct supervisor, and the scope of his duties as supervisor.96 After reviewing Paragraph 35 of the declaration, the Court finds that Plaintiff did not lay the proper foundation to evidence that this affiant possesses personal knowledge about this subject.97 The Court will not consider Paragraph 35 of the declaration.

Defendant challenges Paragraphs 12 and 29 of the declaration because these attestations contain argument rather than fact.98 On review of Paragraph 1299 and Paragraph 29,100 the Court agrees that these attestations contain unsupported argument and opinion and are not statements of fact.101 For the reasons set forth herein, these paragraphs will not be considered by the Court.

Defendant objects to Paragraph 28 of the declaration as it contradicts statements in Plaintiff's "disputed facts" or prior deposition testimony.102 Defendant specifically compares Paragraph 28 of the declaration to Paragraph 22 of Plaintiff's statement of disputed facts. Defendant does not direct the Court to deposition testimony that contradicts the declaration; therefore, the Court is not in a position to determine whether attestations and prior testimony are conflicting. Specifically, Defendant argues that Paragraph 28 of the declaration reflects a termination date of "April 8th" and "April 5th

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Bluebook (online)
384 F. Supp. 3d 613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amedee-v-shell-chem-lp-lamd-2019.