Davis v. Willis

38 F. Supp. 3d 1300, 2014 WL 3895345, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106927, 123 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1831
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedAugust 5, 2014
DocketCase No. CV-13-J-335-NW
StatusPublished

This text of 38 F. Supp. 3d 1300 (Davis v. Willis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Willis, 38 F. Supp. 3d 1300, 2014 WL 3895345, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106927, 123 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1831 (N.D. Ala. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

INGE PRYTZ JOHNSON, Senior District Judge.

Plaintiff Laurie Davis has worked for the Lauderdale County Sheriffs department since 1996, and is still so employed. Davis depo. at 6. In late April 2012 plaintiff and the other deputies on that shift with plaintiff all complained to their supervisor, Sergeant David Ray, because Ray would spend most of his shift sitting in a restaurant, or sitting in a car with someone from the County Commission office.1 [1302]*1302Davis depo. at 28-30, 231. In response, David Ray told the shift they could “kiss his ass.” Davis depo. at 32. Shortly thereafter, Sergeant Ray wrote a “to whom it may concern letter” on May 3, 2012, stating that “all members of the shift” brought to his attention on “several occasions” that plaintiff “could not have as much sick leave or annual leave as she was taking.”2 Exhibit 2 (doc. 45-6, p. 2). The same day, May 3, 2012, plaintiff was summoned to Sheriff Ronnie Willis’ office. Davis depo. at 36M0. She was informed Ray had conducted an investigation by comparing the dispatch schedule versus time cards versus the CAD schedule and found discrepancies of at least 40 hours for the quarter in her claimed and actual worked time.3 Id. Also on May 3, 2012, plaintiff was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation and ultimately required to work six days for which her pay was charged to her sick and annual leave accounts. Davis depo. at 54-55; exhibit 3 (doc. 45-6, p. 3). When asked why plaintiff thought this was discriminatory in favor of men, she responded

If you let a department run wild and you want to hone in on an officer for a— which can be a secretary’s mistake, my mistake, anyone’s mistake. You want to hone in on me, yet we’ve got a buck wild department, then there’s a problem. You know, there’s videos of—there’s people that have saw deputies up there with secretaries in the back doing things. There’s videos where they’ve went into the courtrooms having sex. So, yeah, I think that if you’re okay with deputies out here having sex and doing things while you’re working and you— because this could have been a clerical error....

Davis depo. at 240.

Based on these facts, plaintiff filed an action for violations of her rights under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Title YII.4 Pending is [1303]*1303the defendants’ motion for summary judgment and supporting brief and evidence (docs. 4(MH), to which the plaintiff submitted a response and further evidence (docs. áá-AS) and the defendants thereafter filed a reply (doc. 47).

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The dispute before the court is whether the plaintiff was singled out for the above described punishment based on her gender. The defendants argue the plaintiff cannot establish she was treated disparately, because she has failed to name any similarly situated deputy treated differently than she was. The plaintiff responds that defendants’ distinctions are ones without meaning, because all deputies are subject to the same rules and fulfill the same duties. Because the defendants’ representations as to the undisputed facts include many disputed facts, the court has carefully combed the evidence submitted.

Having reviewed all the evidence before the court, striking is the sheer volume of evidence produced by plaintiff demonstrating that the Lauderdale County Sheriffs Office time keeping system was in shambles. The system was based on the deputies themselves turning in “dailies” for each day they worked. Depo. of David Ray, at 22. There was no time clock or roll call, rather each deputy simply radioed “dispatch” to make his or her availability to take calls known. Affidavit of plaintiff (submitted as plaintiff exhibit 2 (doc. 45-15)), ¶ 14; depo. of Ray. at 24, 26. Because the “dailies” had to be turned into the courthouse, and because the deputies did not necessarily return to the courthouse at the end of every shift, the dailies were sometimes left at the courthouse at the start of a shift, or for a few days at a time prior to those shifts actually being worked. Plaintiff depo. at 58-61; Patrick Davis depo. at 19-20; Adkison depo. at 58. As explained by Cassandra Thompson, who was working in dispatch

—the timekeeping thing was just so unorganized, because we kept a schedule in dispatch. If a deputy called in, it was our job to report it to that shift supervisor and find somebody to cover the shift. But our schedule could say one thing. They kept a schedule in the sergeant’s office, and it could have something else on it. And then when we would log in— when we would log them in, whether it’s via the phone or on the radio, a lot of times some deputies didn’t get logged in either because we were busy at the time or—I can’t speak for other dispatchers, but if I knew somebody was scheduled to work and I didn’t hear from them, I made it my business to call them to see if they were working or not.

Thompson depo. at 29.

The problems with payroll records began when Nancy Sartain replaced Betty Hoods as office administrator over payroll in the 2011-2012 time frame.5 Davis depo. at 65; Sartain depo. at 11. Plaintiff began completing her dailies on a weekly basis, because Sartain repeatedly told the plaintiff she had lost them.6 Davis depo. at 65-[1304]*130466, 196. Missing and lost dailies were common. Sartain depo. at 34-35; Adkison depo. at 155.

Sartain told plaintiff she went by the dispatch schedule for payroll, not the dailies, because it was the most accurate. Davis depo. at 67-68. Plaintiff expected Sartain would double check the dailies against the master schedule to make sure she worked the hours reflected on the dailies, because Betty Hoods had done so. Davis depo. at 71. The master schedule was created by the sergeants for each of their shifts, and would be marked over with an “S” on top of the “E,” “M,” or “W” shift assignment if someone called in sick.7 Davis depo. at 472^473; see e.g. exhibit 45-8 (p. 3-10); affidavit of David Ray (defendant exhibit 5), ¶ 6.. If the actual hours a deputy worked were needed, that information would be based on dispatch records. Ray depo. at 23.

The plaintiff asserts mistakes on the schedule were commonplace, .the sergeant’s version of the schedule would show different leave taken from that reflected on the dispatch schedule, and that because the sergeant’s schedule was taped to the sergeant’s desk, anyone had access to it to make changes.8 Plaintiff depo. at 473, 483-485; Atkison depo. at 148, 150; Thompson depo. at 62-63. The evidence is in conflict as to whether the schedule maintained by dispatch or the schedule maintained by the sergeants was the “master schedule.”

At the start of each shift, each deputy that was working would call into dispatch and let dispatch know he or she was available to take calls. On occasion, dispatchers failed to enter the plaintiff as working into the computer system. Davis depo. at 486-491. The schedules had mistakes in them with the days mixed up, and missing dailies, where Sartain would then ask deputies to turn in dailies for prior weeks worked. Patrick Davis depo. at 27-28.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 F. Supp. 3d 1300, 2014 WL 3895345, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106927, 123 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-willis-alnd-2014.