Dunegan v. City of Council Grove

189 F.R.D. 649, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18580, 1999 WL 1100436
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedNovember 5, 1999
DocketNo. 97-4039-RDR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 189 F.R.D. 649 (Dunegan v. City of Council Grove) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunegan v. City of Council Grove, 189 F.R.D. 649, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18580, 1999 WL 1100436 (D. Kan. 1999).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

ROGERS, District Judge.

This matter is presently before the court upon plaintiffs motion for determination of admissibility pursuant to Fed.R.Evid. 412. Having carefully reviewed the arguments of the parties, the court is now prepared to rule.

This is essentially a sexual harassment case. Plaintiff has asserted a plethora of claims, but all of the claims arise out of her allegations that she was sexually harassed while she was employed by the City of Council Grove in their water department. The instant motion was filed by the plaintiff after the defendants filed motions for summary judgment. In order to understand the motion, the court must set forth the context in which in it arose.

Plaintiff initially filed her complaint on February 19, 1997. She filed an amended complaint on October 7,1997. In the amended complaint, she asserted a variety of claims. Initially, she alleged the following:

During the course of plaintiffs employment and as a result of her sex, female, plaintiff was subjected to unwelcomed sexual contacts and remarks, sexual assault and battery, verbal and physical threats, harassing, hostile, humiliating and retaliatory actions and abusive language.

The complaint proceeds to provide details concerning two incidents that occurred on or about September 4, 1995 and on or about June 10, 1996. With regard to the first incident, plaintiff alleges that she was subjected to a “sexual assault and battery” by her supervisor, Jim Masters, while they were working at the water department. Concerning the second incident, she asserts that Richard Swisher, a new water department employee, subjected her to “unwelcome sexual harassment/sexual assault and battery” while they were installing water meters.

On March 2, 1998, defendant Masters filed a motion for summary judgment. In the motion, Masters provided a lengthy statement of uncontroverted facts. The statements pertinent to the instant motion were as follows:

5. Plaintiff admits that she voluntarily participated in and welcomed sexual joking, language, and horseplay during her employment with the City of Council Grove including flirting with other city employees, hanging a PlayghT poster or calendar at work, sunbathing on the roof of the Water Department in the nude while on duty, telling jokes at work with sexual connotations, talking about her sex life at work including how horny she was and how long it had been since she had sex, pinching male employees on their buttocks, having sex at the water plant with a co-employee while he was on duty, feigning fellatio with a candy bar in front of other city employees and the Schwan’s delivery [651]*651man, and crocheting a cover for a male coworker’s penis after he talked about having a tick on his penis.
6. With regard to the nude sunbathing incident, plaintiff told Danny Matthews that she had sunbathed on the roof at the water plant while she was working and that she had to hurry up and get dressed because Mike [a co-worker] came walking in one day.
7. Plaintiff frequently pinched male coworkers on their buttocks. Plaintiff indicated to Dr. Moeller, a psychologist who completed an independent medical examination of plaintiff, that butt pinching was one of her bad habits.
8. Plaintiff discussed her sex life at work including how horny she was, how long it had been since she had sex, and that she had sex with someone in the fire truck at the water plant and on Jim Masters’ desk.
9. Plaintiff admitted to having sex at the water plant with a co-worker while he was on duty.
10. Plaintiff admitted to physical contact with other male employees including buttock pinching and an incident involving Danny Matthews where she went up behind him and touched his head and ears trying to tickle him.
11. Plaintiff further admitted that she ate a candy bar at work in front of at least one co-employee and the Schwan’s delivery man in a manner that could be reasonably interpreted as a sexual act.
12. Plaintiff also discussed sexually explicit videotapes with Danny Matthews, a co-employee, and told Mr. Matthews that she gave a copy of the videotape to Mr. Masters.
13'. Finally, after co-employee Harvey Hawkinson got a tick on the end of his penis and told a story about it at work, plaintiff crocheted a cover for Mr. Hawkinson’s penis and gave it to Mr. Hawkinson at work.
21. Plaintiff could not positively rule out whether she ever behaved in ways that might have encouraged Mr. Masters or suggested she would be open to his advances.
22. Masters did not believe that his conduct would be unwelcome due to previous actions by plaintiff and a previous sexual encounter initiated by plaintiff at work.

On March 11,1998, defendant City filed its motion for summary judgment. Its statement of controverted facts also contained some matters that plaintiff found objectionable. These statements were as follows:

3. Plaintiff had participated in sexual joking, language and horseplay occurring in the City’s water department and, in fact, enjoyed the friendship and camaraderie with co-employees that she perceives was 5 promoted by this conduct.
60. Plaintiff told Swisher that Masters had sexually assaulted her.

All of the aforementioned material was revealed during discovery. Plaintiff made no efforts during discovery to seek a protective order concerning any of the aforementioned conduct and activities. Plaintiffs counsel actually elicited information on many of these matters during discovery.

Plaintiff, after seeking several extensions in which to file responses to the motions for summary judgment, filed a motion for sanctions. In this motion, plaintiff sought sanctions under Fed.R.Civ.P. 11, contending that the defendants had failed to follow the procedures outlined in Fed.R.Evid. 412(c). Plaintiff asserted that the defendants had set forth facts in their motions for summary judgment that were “designed to prove the alleged sexual behavior and predisposition of plaintiff.” Plaintiff suggested that the defendants should have produced the aforementioned facts under seal pursuant to Rule 412. Plaintiff requested an in camera hearing to address the admissibility of these facts. On July 15, 1998, the court denied plaintiffs motion based upon her failure to comply with the procedural requirements of Rule 11. The court further determined that an in camera hearing under Rule 412(c)(2) was neither necessary nor appropriate at this time. The court directed plaintiff to respond to the defendants’ motions for summary judgment.

[652]*652On August 5, 1998, plaintiff filed a consolidated response to the motions for summary judgment. She also filed the instant motion at that time. She submitted an additional memorandum on the aforementioned facts to the court under seal. She did not serve this memorandum on the defendants.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
189 F.R.D. 649, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18580, 1999 WL 1100436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunegan-v-city-of-council-grove-ksd-1999.