Farrington v. Nielsen

297 F. Supp. 3d 52
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMarch 1, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 13–1582 (RDM)
StatusPublished

This text of 297 F. Supp. 3d 52 (Farrington v. Nielsen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farrington v. Nielsen, 297 F. Supp. 3d 52 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

RANDOLPH D. MOSS, United States District Judge *54This is yet the latest chapter in a discrimination and retaliation case dating back to at least May 2005, when Plaintiff Sylvia Farrington was released from her position as a Branch Chief in the Orlando office of the Federal Emergency Management Agency ("FEMA"). Farrington filed an administrative complaint, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") ultimately found in her favor. Among other relief, the EEOC awarded Farrington back pay. That, however, was far from the end of the dispute. FEMA filed an unsuccessful administrative appeal and a request for reconsideration or clarification, and Farrington filed an EEOC petition for enforcement of the Commission's order. Notwithstanding that additional administrative litigation, and notwithstanding FEMA's payment to Farrington of an "estimated amount" of $410,000 for back pay, the parties remained at loggerheads. Farrington then brought suit in this Court, seeking an order compelling FEMA to comply with the EEOC's order, which directed that FEMA: (1) "conduct a supplemental investigation" of how "it calculated the backpay it estimated" it owed Farrington, and (2) "provide additional payments" to Farrington "as necessary." Farrington v. Napolitano , EEOC DOC 0420130004, 2013 WL 3865033, at *3 (July 17, 2013). In an earlier opinion, the Court denied FEMA's motion for summary judgment, concluding that there was a "dearth of competent, detailed evidence [regarding] how FEMA calculated the $410,000 figure" and about whether FEMA had, as it asserted, already discharged its obligations under the EEOC order. Farrington v. Johnson , 206 F.Supp.3d 634, 644 (D.D.C. 2016).

The case is now back before the Court on FEMA's renewed motion for summary judgment and Farrington's cross-motion for summary judgment. In addition, after the Court denied FEMA's initial motion, FEMA filed a counterclaim against Farrington seeking reimbursement of a substantial portion of the $410,000, which FEMA now says that it overpaid Farrington. Farrington, in turn, has moved to dismiss that counterclaim on the ground that FEMA previously conceded that it owed at least the $410,000 that it paid her. The difficulty with all of this is that the only claim before the Court is an Administrative Procedure Act ("APA"), 5 U.S.C. § 706(1), claim seeking to compel FEMA to comply with the EEOC's order, and that claim has engendered a genuine dispute of material fact. Because the authority of the Court to resolve factual disputes in the context of an APA action to enforce an administrative order is limited, and because the EEOC, in any event, is better suited to resolve any factual dispute relating to the claims that it has already adjudicated, the Court will deny the pending motions without prejudice and will stay this action to permit Farrington to return to the EEOC (and FEMA, if necessary) to resolve the remaining factual disputes.

I. BACKGROUND

The factual and procedural background of this case is recounted at length in the Court's prior opinion. Farrington , 206 F.Supp.3d at 636-41. For present purposes, the Court will briefly recount only the relevant history.

*55A. Farrington's Employment

Sylvia Farrington began working for FEMA as a Disaster Assistance Employee ("DAE") in 1996. Although DAEs are hired to work on an intermittent basis in response to particular disasters, Dkt. 16-3 at 2; Dkt. 16 at 4-5, Farrington "had a consistent work history of being deployed over eight years with FEMA in senior[-]level management positions for catastrophic events" preceding the events at issue in her discrimination and retaliation complaint. Dkt. 16-1 at 7. "At the time of the events at issue, [Farrington] was serving as a Branch Chief of Community Education and Outreach in FEMA's Orlando, Florida office." Dkt. 16-2 at 2. In that role, she was responsible for "deployment of 400-500 employees," as well as "managing mitigation, planning, and responding to catastrophic events." Dkt. 16-1 at 9.

FEMA "released" Farrington from her position in the Orlando office in May 2005 and, at that time, told her that she would be allowed to return to an "available managerial position[ ]" after completing "a training course" and working with "a mentor on a project." Id. at 33. Consistent with that undertaking, she was later offered a managerial position in FEMA Region 6 as the Hazard Management Community Education Outreach Group Supervisor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dkt. 16 at 5. FEMA rescinded that offer, however, because Farrington had "not completed [the] mentoring assignment." Dkt. 16-1 at 35.

B. Administrative Actions

On October 10, 2005, Farrington filed an administrative complaint alleging that she was discriminated against based on her race and sex and was retaliated against for complaining about workplace race discrimination. Dkt. 16-1 at 6. On September 26, 2008, an EEOC Administrative Judge ("AJ") found in Farrington's favor, concluding that she "was discriminated against on the basis of race (African-American) [and] sex (female), and" in retaliation for her "prior EEO activity." Id. at 47-48. Among other things, the AJ found that Farrington was discriminated and retaliated against when she was discharged from her Orlando Branch Chief position and when she was denied the Region 6 managerial position. Dkt. 16-1 at 47-48, 55-57. The AJ ordered that FEMA immediately place Farrington in a managerial position comparable to her former position and award her the following damages: $60,000 in non-pecuniary damages for emotional and reputational injury, $114,842.48 in attorneys' fees, and-as relevant to this case-back pay. Id. at 64-65.

For purposes of the present suit, the AJ's finding of discrimination is not disputed. Instead, the crux of the case is whether FEMA has complied with the AJ's order that it provide Farrington with back pay, calculated as follows:

(1) Had it not been for the discrimination, [Farrington] would have continued to work in Orlando, Florida, in her Branch Chief position until she was offered the position in Region 6. Thus, she is entitled to back pay for the duration of time that the Branch Chief position in Orlando was filled by anybody up to the point of time that she was offered the position in Region 6 referenced below in paragraph (2). Her back pay shall be calculated at her base salary (at $80,000 per year for any regular hours worked) plus overtime hours worked[,] paid at the overtime rate of pay minus any interim earnings. The amount of any overtime hours worked by her replacement(s) (up to the point of time that she was offered the position in Region 6) shall be determined[,] and this amount of hours shall then be paid to the Complainant in overtime pay.
*56

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297 F. Supp. 3d 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farrington-v-nielsen-cadc-2018.