Chivers v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

641 F.3d 927, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 11688, 94 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,190, 112 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 673, 2011 WL 2225276
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJune 9, 2011
Docket10-2414
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 641 F.3d 927 (Chivers v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chivers v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 641 F.3d 927, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 11688, 94 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,190, 112 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 673, 2011 WL 2225276 (8th Cir. 2011).

Opinions

MELLOY, Circuit Judge.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (“Wal-Mart”) terminated Chestine Clay in September of 2006. Clay sued Wal-Mart under the Minnesota Human Rights Act (“MHRA”), alleging that Wal-Mart terminated her and took other adverse employment actions against her because she made complaints of discrimination. The district court1 granted summary judgment in favor of Wal-Mart. Clay appeals, and we affirm.

I. Background

Clay, an African-American woman, began working for Wal-Mart at a Mississippi store in 2002. She completed the company’s management training program and became an assistant manager at a Fridley, Minnesota store in 2003. In 2005, Clay became the manager of the Vision Center at a Bloomington, Minnesota store. As manager, Clay was responsible for handling the Vision Center’s budget, inventory, and personnel.

Shortly after becoming manager in 2005, Clay felt two other Wal-Mart employees had discriminated against her because of her race. Specifically, according to Clay, an employee named LaRae “yelled at” her for “retrieving documents from [a] printer” and another employee named Tina refused to process claims that Clay submitted regarding the Vision Center’s damaged goods. Clay believed these were instances of race-based discrimination and reported them to Curtis Knipp, the Bloomington store manager, and Becky Fritz, the district manager who was Clay’s immediate supervisor.

Knipp told Clay that he had spoken with LaRae and Tina regarding Clay’s complaints, but, according to Clay, “nothing seemed to change” in LaRae’s and Tina’s conduct. Thus, on August 31, 2005, Clay filed a formal complaint of race discrimination with Dennis Davis, a Wal-Mart district manager. After interviewing Clay and speaking with LaRae and Tina, Davis told Clay that he did not believe she had been the victim of race discrimination. Although Clay disagreed, she believed Davis’s investigation resulted in an improvement in LaRae’s and Tina’s conduct.

Later, however, Clay believed LaRae and Tina had “resumed their inappropriate and discriminatory conduct against” her. Additionally, Clay believed that Knipp had discriminated against her by failing to provide certain assistance that Clay requested, by excluding Clay from management meetings, and by generally treating Clay with a lack of courtesy, such as by failing to greet her and by offering her a piece of candy from his mouth. Thus, at some point prior to July of 2006, Clay reported LaRae’s, Tina’s, and Knipp’s allegedly discriminatory conduct to Fritz. Then, in July of 2006, Clay reported this conduct to Deb Thoennes, who had replaced Fritz as Clay’s supervisor. According to Clay, however, Thoennes “was not interested in hearing about” Clay’s discrimination complaints.

In August 2006, Thoennes investigated Clay’s performance as the manager of the Vision Center. Four Wal-Mart employees who either worked with Clay or worked under her supervision gave written statements that criticized Clay’s management [931]*931skills, attitude, and customer service. After Clay again contacted Thoennes on August 22 to discuss LaRae’s, Tina’s, and Knipp’s allegedly discriminatory conduct, Thoennes met with Clay around August 24 to discuss Clay’s complaints and to discuss the concerns that Wal-Mart employees had raised regarding Clay’s performance. On August 28, Thoennes disciplined Clay in writing for “Poor Customer/Member Service.”

Around this time, Charlene Munson, one of the employees who Clay supervised, asked Clay to “give her a call to let [Mun-son] know how [Clay] was doing.” On August 29, therefore, Clay called Munson at home during “nonworking hours.” During the roughly hour-and-a-half long phone call, Clay and Munson talked about some personal issues and some “work-related issues.” According to Munson, Clay said she was having a difficult time getting along with several of the employees in the Vision Center. Additionally, according to Munson, Clay was troubled by the fact that several of her co-workers had written statements criticizing her performance.2 It is unclear whether Clay knew during this phone call that Munson was one of the employees who had criticized Clay’s performance.

On August 31, Clay again reported acts of alleged discrimination by LaRae, Tina, and Knipp. Many of Clay’s allegations were similar to those she had previously made. Additionally, however, Clay claimed that Knipp had failed to timely replace light bulbs in the Vision Center and had failed to provide the Vision Center with storage space that Clay had requested. Clay discussed these allegedly discriminatory acts with Thoennes in a meeting that was held on August 31.

On September 4, Munson was having a conversation with Knipp in the Vision Center. During the course of the conversation, Munson mentioned the telephone conversation that she had with Clay on August 29. Upon hearing about the telephone conversation, Knipp informed Mun-son that she should be compensated for the time she spent talking on the phone with Clay. Thus, Munson wrote a statement regarding the nature of the August 29 phone call, submitted the statement to Knipp, and subsequently received compensation for her time.

On September 6, Thoennes met with Clay and discussed the August 29 phone call. Thoennes told Clay that the phone call had violated Wal-Mart’s “Working Off The Clock” policy, which prohibits “supervisor[s] or managers] [from] requesting] that Associates work off the clock.” Essentially, employees work off the clock when they perform work without receiving compensation for the time they work. Thoennes then told Clay that because of Clay’s policy violation, Thoennes was terminating her.

On August 29, 2008, Clay and a co-plaintiff sued Wal-Mart in Minnesota state court.3 Clay alleged that Wal-Mart had violated the MHRA by committing race and gender discrimination against her and by retaliating against her for making complaints of discrimination.4 On September [932]*93226, 2008, Wal-Mart removed the action to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. On February 1, 2010, WalMart moved for summary judgment. The district court granted Wal-Mart’s motion on May 19, 2010.

Clay appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Wal-Mart. Clay does not appeal the court’s disposition of her race- and gender-discrimination claims. Rather, Clay argues that the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of Wal-Mart on her retaliation claims.

II. Discussion

“We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, reading the record in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party and giving the non-moving party the benefit of all reasonable inferences drawn from the record.” Colenburg v. Starcon Int’l, Inc., 619 F.3d 986, 992 (8th Cir.2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). “We will affirm if no genuine issue of material fact exists and the [movant] is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Sandoval v. Am. Bldg. Maint. Indus., Inc., 578 F.3d 787, 792 (8th Cir.2009).

Clay argues that there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether Wal-Mart retaliated against her on several occasions for reporting alleged acts of discrimination.

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Chivers v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
641 F.3d 927 (Eighth Circuit, 2011)

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Bluebook (online)
641 F.3d 927, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 11688, 94 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 44,190, 112 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 673, 2011 WL 2225276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chivers-v-wal-mart-stores-inc-ca8-2011.