Conatzer v. Medical Professional Building Services, Inc.

255 F. Supp. 2d 1259, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10479, 2003 WL 1790751
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 21, 2003
Docket4:02-cv-00326
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 255 F. Supp. 2d 1259 (Conatzer v. Medical Professional Building Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conatzer v. Medical Professional Building Services, Inc., 255 F. Supp. 2d 1259, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10479, 2003 WL 1790751 (N.D. Okla. 2003).

Opinion

ORDER

COOK, Senior District Judge.

Pending before the Court is a motion for summary judgment filed by defendant, Medical Professional Building Service, Inc. (“MPBS”) against plaintiff, Crystal C. Co-natzer (“Conatzer”), pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Defendant contends that there exists no genuine issue of material fact and that it is entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law. After careful consideration of the party’s pleadings, the summary judgment evidence, and the applicable law, the Court GRANTS summary judgment in favor of defendant on plaintiff Crystal C. Conat-zer’s federal law claims and, in its discretion, the Court dismisses her state law claims without prejudice.

Statement of Facts

For purposes of MPBS’s summary judgment motion, the following facts are either undisputed or reflect the record in the fight reasonably most favorable to plaintiff Conatzer, the non-moving party.

MPBS is in the business of providing security and cleaning services to medical office buildings located in the Warren Medical Buildings and other office buildings located in Tulsa and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. MPBS’s employee handbook prohibits sexual discrimination, stating that “MPBS subscribes to the principle of equal employment, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of ... sex[.]” MPBS’s employee handbook also sets forth a grievance procedure for addressing employees’ discrimination complaints. The handbook defines a grievance as:

a personal concern or dissatisfaction by a non-supervisory employee with regards to administration or policies, procedures or any other aspect of the employee’s working relations with MPBS. Coverage includes, but is not limited to ... environmental working conditions ... and allegations of bias or reprisal.

The handbook further directs aggrieved employees to take any complaints directly to management “[i]n the event the nature of the grievance is such that you feel discussion with your immediate supervisor would not serve your best interests ...”

Plaintiff Crystal C. Conatzer began working for MPBS as a security guard in July of 2001, under the supervision of Dale Woodruff, who was chief of security at that time. Plaintiff alleges that Woodruff made numerous sexually inappropriate comments to her, both before and during her employment with MPBS. Additionally, plaintiff alleges that Woodruff engaged in several unwanted physical contacts with her. For the most part, these physical contacts consisted of relatively innocuous *1264 pats on the back and arm. Two instances occurring in the fall of 2001, however, were of a decidedly more offensive character. On September 28, 2001, plaintiff was in the MPBS security office, discussing her shift duties with Lt. Wayne Carter (“Carter”), an MPBS supervisor. According to Carter, Woodruff entered the office “stepped up to her, kind of leaned in against her ..., and kind of rubbed against [the side of her chest] and backed away and left the office.” Carter describes plaintiffs reaction to Woodruffs conduct as one of “momentary annoyance.” On October 11 or 12, 2001, another more severe incident occurred in which Woodruff briefly placed plaintiff in a headlock with his knees. Jim Hamilton, an MPBS engineer, witnessed the incident and describes it in the following terms:

While waiting for an elevator in the basement I saw Dale W[oodruff] seated in his office and Cricket [Conatzer] standing close by. They looked to be talking in a joking manner. At this time Cricket [Conatzer] bent over to pick something up or to access a lower drawer for something and Dale [Woodruff] while she was bent over placed his hand on her head or neck and directed her head towards his lap and held her there for a second or two. He then let her go and was laughing she was sort of laughing too, but she was obviously embarrassed about the ordeal.

On October 15, 2001, plaintiff spoke to Ann Lewis (“Lewis”), an MPBS security supervisor, and registered a complaint about Woodruff. Lewis instructed plaintiff to put her complaint in writing and to take the written complaint directly to management, which she did. On October 16, 2001, Tim McNulty (“McNulty”), an MPBS vice-president, began an investigation into plaintiffs complaint. Over the next few days, McNulty interviewed several of plaintiffs coworkers and instructed Wood-ruff not to retaliate in any way against plaintiff. Sometime during this period Woodruff changed plaintiffs schedule to include some work on the weekends, though it is unclear whether Woodruff knew of plaintiffs sexual harassment complaint against him when he changed plaintiffs schedule. Though less desirable to plaintiff, this schedule change did not require her to work any additional hours and remained effective for approximately three weeks. MPBS suspended Woodruff with pay on October 22, 2001. At the conclusion of McNulty’s investigation, MPBS found that Woodruffs actions violated MPBS’s employment policies, and he was subsequently terminated and given a one-year severance package.

MPBS has also taken disciplinary action against plaintiff, though purportedly for reasons unrelated to her sexual harassment complaint. In the course of giving her deposition in this litigation, plaintiff admitted to allowing Woodruff to falsify certain aspects of her employment application to MBPS. Sometime later, MPBS issued a written reprimand to plaintiff and placed her on 90-day probation. The probationary sanction did not include any reduction in pay or hours but served as a warning that further misconduct during the probationary period could result in termination. MBPS has taken no other disciplinary action against plaintiff.

Two other incidents involving Woodruff and an employee of a physician housed in one of the buildings serviced by MPBS merit discussion here. The record is extremely sparse on these incidents but, according to Lewis’ deposition testimony, an employee of Dr. Floyd Miller named Nita Long (“Long”) complained to Lewis that Woodruff “had been making comments, making faces, making her very uncomfortable.” Lewis further testified that Long characterized Woodruffs behavior as “flirty” and “leering.” Lewis instructed *1265 Long to report Woodruffs conduct to McNulty, and within one or two days Long informed Lewis that she had done so. According to Lewis this incident occurred sometime between August and October of 2001, but before plaintiffs October 15, 2001 complaint. McNulty has not confirmed that he ever heard from Long about this incident.

Long informed Lewis of a second incident involving Woodruff sometime shortly after plaintiffs October 15, 2001 complaint. Again, the details of this incident are unclear, but Long informed Lewis that Woodruff had entered an office in which she and her sister were taking a lunchtime nap. When Long asked why he had entered the room, Woodruff claimed that he was looking for a phone. Long stated to Lewis that Woodruffs presence made her “uncomfortable.” Lewis again suggested that Long report the incident to McNulty. McNulty claims to have spoken with Long about this incident sometime immediately after plaintiffs October 15, 2001 complaint.

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Bluebook (online)
255 F. Supp. 2d 1259, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10479, 2003 WL 1790751, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conatzer-v-medical-professional-building-services-inc-oknd-2003.