Amelie Simmons v. William B. Henghold, M.D., P.A.

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided February 27, 2020·No. 18-12389·Unpublished

Opinion

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

No. 18-12389

D.C. Docket No. 3:17-cv-00165-MCR-EMT

AMELIE SIMMONS, Plaintiff - Appellant,

versus

WILLIAM B. HENGHOLD, M.D., P.A., WILLIAM B. HENGHOLD, and MICHELLE K. HENGHOLD,

Defendants - Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida

(February 27, 2020)

Before MARTIN, ROSENBAUM, and BOGGS,* Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff Amelie Simmons sued her former employers, William B. Henghold M.D., P.A. (“Henghold P.A.”), Dr. William Henghold, and Mrs. Michelle Henghold, for alleged violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), 29 U.S.C. §§ 2601–2654, as well as for alleged violations of state law. The district court granted the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on Simmons’s FMLA claims and remanded her state-law claims to Florida state court. This appeal followed. For the reasons we discuss below, we vacate the district court’s judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.

I. Factual Background1 A. Simmons’s Tenure as Director of Nursing Defendant Henghold P.A. is a dermatology practice that is headquartered in Pensacola, Florida. Its facilities include an Ambulatory Surgical Center, a Medical Office Building, and another building located in Gulf Breeze, Florida. Defendant

*

Honorable Danny J. Boggs, United States Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, sitting by designation.

1 This summary is derived primarily from depositions that were taken during discovery.

We offer no commentary on the veracity or plausibility of these facts. That task is for the fact finder on remand. See Cottrell v. Caldwell, 85 F.3d 1480, 1486 (11th Cir. 1996) (“[W]hat is considered to be the ‘facts’ at the summary judgment stage may not turn out to be the actual facts if the case goes to trial, but those are the facts at this stage of the proceeding for summary judgment purposes.”) (citations omitted).

Dr. Henghold is the practice’s owner and founder, and his wife, Defendant Mrs. Henghold, is the practice’s Chief Financial Officer.

Henghold P.A. hired Simmons in April 2009 as a registered nurse. Simmons worked at Henghold P.A. until March 2017, though her position and responsibilities changed during her employment. Simmons was initially responsible for surgical work, such as preparing patients for surgery, taking vital signs and entering medical history, scheduling surgery, and discharging patients.

Henghold P.A. expanded during Simmons’s tenure. Dr. Henghold was the only physician when Simmons started. The practice added several medical providers in 2015 and 2016, and in May 2015, Simmons was promoted to Director of Nursing. Simmons retained her surgical nursing duties, but as the Director of Nursing, she also held numerous administrative responsibilities. According to Simmons, these included (i) hiring and managing Henghold P.A.’s nursing staff, Simmons v. William B. Henghold M.D., P.A., et al., Case No. 3:17-cv-00165-MCR-EMT (N.D. Fla.), ECF No.2 27-1 at 45, 66; (ii) creating educational materials for Henghold P.A.’s physicians and staff, id. at 66–67; (iii) managing inventory and supplies, id. at 69; and (iv) ensuring that Henghold P.A. complied with certain federal regulations, id. at 48, 66.

2 Citations to “ECF No.” in this opinion are citations to the electronic case-filing numbers listed in the docket sheet of Simmons v. William B. Henghold M.D., P.A., et al., Case No. 3:17-cv- 00165-MCR-EMT (N.D. Fla.) (May 14, 2018).

Simmons asked Henghold P.A. for a raise in the fall of 2016. The practice gave it to her. The memo accompanying that raise, dated September 1, 2016, listed Simmons’s professional responsibilities, which included “managing all medical (non-physician & midlevel) personnel for both the [Ambulatory Surgical Center] and the Professional Association . . . .[including] hiring, firing, scheduling and managing all medical staff, assuring both entities are compliant for OSHA regulations and assuring providers meet all PQRS/Meaningful Use guidelines. [Simmons’s] duties for the [Ambulatory Surgical Center] include[d] all managerial duties and assuring continued accreditation of the [Ambulatory Surgical Center].”3 ECF No. 27-5 at 31.

Simmons’s performance review three months later suggests that her supervisors thought that her raise was well-earned. Henghold P.A.’s Chief Executive Officer, Cynthia Huss, wrote that Simmons had “exceeded expectations,” notwithstanding “all the responsibilities given to” her. ECF No. 27-5 at 6. And out of 62 categories, Huss scored Simmons with 55 “tens” (out of ten); the scores for the other seven categories were six “nines” and one “eight.” Id. at 6–10.

At some point in the fall of 2016, Dr. Henghold and Huss purportedly discussed bringing on a full-time administrator. Henghold P.A. had grown

3 Cynthia Huss testified that the “professional association” referred to all of Henghold P.A.’s facilities aside from the Ambulatory Surgical Center. ECF No. 27-4 at 72.

significantly, and management was concerned that Simmons would be unable to handle additional administrative work and her nursing responsibilities. Dr. Henghold testified at his deposition that he was worried that “things were starting to slip a bit from an administrative standpoint” on Simmons’s watch. ECF No. 27-6 at 33. This is at odds with Simmons’s recollection: she testified at her deposition that she could complete her Director-of-Nursing responsibilities in less than 40 hours a week, though her nursing responsibilities meant that she worked about 60 hours each week over four days. In any event, Simmons was unaware in the fall of 2016 that Dr. Henghold and Huss had considered bringing on additional administrative support.

B. Simmons’s Leave of Absence At some point during her employment at Henghold P.A., Simmons and Dr.

Henghold began an extramarital affair that lasted for about three years. Simmons learned in January 2017 that Dr. Henghold was simultaneously having an affair with another staff member.

Simmons’s relationship with Dr. Henghold quickly fell apart after that revelation, though Dr. Henghold did assure Simmons that her job was “secure.” Huss spoke with Simmons several times during the week of January 15, 2017, after the affair was revealed, about Simmons’s future at the practice. There is some disagreement in their respective accounts that is relevant to Simmons’s state-law

claims—for example, Simmons and Huss discussed Simmons’s release of Henghold P.A. from liability in exchange for a payout, but the parties dispute whether an agreement was ever reached—but what is relevant to our review is that Simmons and Huss agreed that Simmons would take a leave of absence.

The record suggests that Huss did not believe that Simmons would want to return to the practice. According to Simmons, Huss told her that Simmons would not “want to go back [to Henghold P.A.] . . . . You don’t need to be in that type of environment.” ECF No. 27-2 at 26. And Huss testified that Simmons told her that Simmons “didn’t want anything to do with the Henghold practice anymore.” ECF No. 27-4 at 24.

C. Henghold P.A. Hires a New Director of Nursing On January 16, 2017, shortly after Huss first reached out to Simmons, Huss directed Henghold P.A.’s Human Resources and Marketing Coordinator to post openings for a new Director of Nursing. Huss separately reached out to a former colleague, Tracey Soule, about joining Henghold P.A. Soule interviewed for the job towards the end of January 2017 and was offered the position of “Director of the [Ambulatory Surgical Center] & Nursing.” She started on March 6, 2017.

The record contains some inconsistencies about why Soule was hired. Dr.

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