Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Prospect Airport Services, Inc.

621 F.3d 991, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18447, 110 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 271
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 3, 2010
Docket07-17221
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 621 F.3d 991 (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Prospect Airport Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Prospect Airport Services, Inc., 621 F.3d 991, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18447, 110 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 271 (9th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

This is a sexual harassment case in which a male employee was the victim of a female co-worker.

I. Facts.

The district court granted summary judgment against the plaintiff, so we recite the facts in accord with the cognizable evidence presented by the plaintiff, to determine whether, if a jury accepted his account, he could recover. 1 We review summary judgment de novo. 2

The plaintiff, Rudolpho Lamas, and the alleged harasser, Sylvia Munoz, worked for Prospect Airport Services, Inc. They worked at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas helping passengers who needed wheelchairs. Lamas was promoted from “passenger service assistant” to “lead passenger service assistant.” His wife died September 17, 2001, so at the times relevant to this case he was a recent widower. He started working for Prospect the next spring, in April 2002.

That fall, a married co-worker, Sylvia Munoz, began a series of rejected sexual overtures. Although Lamas had never asked her out or otherwise made overtures to her, she handed him love notes and made remarks to him that “hurt” him and were “embarrassing.” “And she was insistent and it bothered me.” When he asked her why she thought he was interested, she said she had heard from another coworker that he missed coming home to a family. The context had been that he was still in mourning about his wife, but Munoz thought it meant he was looking for female companionship. In his deposition, he cried as he recounted this. She said that he had once mentioned as they passed in a Jetway that he was single, she had asked her husband if that meant he was flirting with her, and her husband said that it did. She subsequently wrote and hand-delivered a note to him that he interpreted as a “flirta *994 tious come-on.” It was the first of three or four notes.

The first note, which Munoz handed to Lamas around mid-to-late November, said she was “turned on” and wanted to “go out.” Lamas interpreted it as a “basic flirtatious come-on” and an “unwanted flirtatious advance” and told her he was not interested. She asked “why not?” and he replied that he just was not interested.

Lamas was bothered by the note, so he informed their boss, Assistant General Manager Patrick O’Neill. O’Neill advised Lamas to tell Munoz that the romantic interest was not mutual and that Lamas should let Prospect’s managers know if she kept it up, so that they could take care of it. Lamas did not want to make a complaint against Munoz, he just wanted the overtures to stop.

Taking O’Neill’s advice, Lamas told Munoz:

I’m not interested. You’re married. And I don’t want to get involved in something like that. And, you know, I’m just not looking for any kind of thing like that right now. So I wouldn’t be interested in it. But, you know, I read the note.... I read it. But I’m not interested.

Lamas did not feel his work environment had become abusive at that point, he just did not want to have a relationship with her.

But she did not stop. A few days later, Munoz handed Lamas a second note saying she was serious and he should give her a chance. He still did not feel his work environment had become abusive, he just did not want a relationship with her and wanted her to stop. He read and discarded the note.

But she did not stop. Munoz approached Lamas in the parking lot and handed him a picture of herself, “a head and shoulders-type shot with a pressing together of the breasts .... no clothing on that portion .... the cleavage of the breasts sort of together.” He gave the picture back to her, and was “irritated. She was bothering me, pestering me.” He told her “I’ve told you already, I’m not interested.” Lamas told a friend that Munoz’s advances were “weight on my shoulders,” and “just terrible.”

Lamas then went to his immediate boss, Ronda Thompson, about the problem. He “wanted her to follow the company procedure to put a stop to it.” He told his boss that Munoz “was making these unwanted advances,” things were “out of hand,” and the harassment was hurtful. Thompson told him that she would talk to Munoz and would inform Prospect’s general manager, Dennis Mitchell, of the problem. But Ronda Thompson did not do either, and Munoz kept it up.

Munoz gave Lamas a third note, and at this point he felt his work environment had become abusive. This time Munoz wrote Lamas that she was having “crazy dreams about us in the bathtub” and boasted that she gave a “very good bath wash and body massage.” Lest there be any doubt, Munoz said “I do want you sexually and romantically”:

Dear R.,
I guess this is the only form off [sic] communication we have. I try to call you one night about three weeks ago when I was thinking of you. They said that you moved! I’ve been thinking of you a lot lately. I’ve been having crazy dreams about us in the bath tub yeah in the bath tub. Must be my Aunt’s cooking. (Ha, Ha). I’ve been wanting to ask you, but you have been under a lot of stress with southwest and work. It is time to unwind and be stress free. I give out very good bath wash and body massage. It sounds a little crazy but *995 everyone has a little craziness in them! I would love to see you on and off. Yes, I’ve been thinking about you more ways then [sic] one. It seems to me I cannot get you off my mind no matter how hard I try! I hope you will consider? I’ll take care of you, you take care of me! Please let me know soon not later! Seriously, I do want you sexually and romantically!

Con amor (with love), S.

In January or February, after several months of Munoz’s pressure and after he had received the third note, Lamas talked to the supervisor next up the chain, Dennis Mitchell. By now Munoz had recruited coworkers who were telling Lamas that Munoz loved him and wanted him, and he was telling the messengers that the interest was not mutual. “[C]o-workers were now saying things, and I was starting to become embarrassed.” He suspected (correctly) that his boss, Ronda Thompson, had not talked to Munoz despite telling him that she would, so Lamas called Prospect’s manager at the airport, Dennis Mitchell. Lamas gave Mitchell the note and asked him to tell Munoz to stop sending letters and “making advances.” In response, Mitchell told Lamas that he “did not want to get involved in personal matters.” Lamas did not file a written complaint against Munoz (the company’s sexual harassment policy did not require a written complaint), but asked that Munoz be made to stop.

Mitchell agreed to speak to Munoz as “a favor.” He acknowledged that Munoz’s “sloppy love letter” was a violation of Prospect’s sexual harassment policy. A few days later Mitchell ran into Munoz and met with her and Ronda Thompson. He told Munoz that he knew she was “pursuing a coworker ... and the [ ] coworker wanted these advances to stop.” Munoz nodded. He told her that “if I hear any more — -if this is brought up again and I hear that[ ] it is continuing, I would have to take action.” This was in late January or early February of 2003.

But Munoz did not stop.

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621 F.3d 991, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18447, 110 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equal-employment-opportunity-commission-v-prospect-airport-services-inc-ca9-2010.