Ingram v. Brinks Incorporated

414 F.3d 222, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 14327, 86 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,004, 96 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 161, 2005 WL 1655200
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJuly 15, 2005
Docket04-2343
StatusPublished
Cited by86 cases

This text of 414 F.3d 222 (Ingram v. Brinks Incorporated) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ingram v. Brinks Incorporated, 414 F.3d 222, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 14327, 86 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,004, 96 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 161, 2005 WL 1655200 (1st Cir. 2005).

Opinion

*224 GERTNER, U.S. District Judge.

This is an employment discrimination action in which appellant Kathleen Ingram (“Ingram”) brought state and federal claims against her former employer, appel-lee Brink’s, Incorporated (“Brink’s”), pursuant to M.G.L. ch. 151B §§ 4(1) and (16A), and the Equal Pay Act, 29 U.S.C. § 206(d). The district court granted summary judgment for Brink’s on both the failure-to-promote and unequal pay claims. Ingram now appeals. Finding no error, we affirm the district court’s entry of summary judgment.

I. Background

Brink’s is a nationwide corporation whose core business is providing secure, armored transportation of valuables. Brink’s operates from local, largely autonomous branches that vary widely in size from five to hundreds of employees. Branches are administered by a branch manager with the assistance of an assistant branch manager.

Ingram worked at Brink’s for nearly three years. She was hired in September 1998 and resigned in May 2001. Although her work was exemplary, she claims that she was passed over for a number of promotions between 1998 and early 2001. The fatal problem for Ingram’s discrimination claims, however, is her failure to file suit until August 2001, by which time her earlier grievances were time barred. The only relevant hiring decision during the applicable limitations period was the decision to fill the Lawrence assistant branch manager position, but that decision was favorable to Ingram as she was offered the job. But she rejected it for a better paying one outside the company. Although Ingram goes to great lengths to describe a pattern of sex-based discrimination during her first two years with the company, without a showing of an adverse employment action within the limitations period, Ingram cannot make out even the minimal prima facie case of discrimination.

With respect to the Equal Pay Act claim, Ingram alleges that there were two male employees in the Lawrence branch and several male employees throughout the company who were paid more than she was paid for performing comparable work. But the only two employees that Ingram names — David Hardy and Jeffrey Hos-feld — were assistant branch managers. Ingram never formally held that position; she turned it down when it was offered to her. Nor did she effectively perform the same duties while she was in other positions. Without more, her pay discrimination claim cannot prevail.

A. Ingram’s Employment from September 1998 through December 2000

Ingram took her first position at Brink’s in September 1998 as Chief Office Employee of its Lawrence, Massachusetts branch at an hourly wage of $11.50. The job was largely administrative and clerical. By November 1998, according to the branch manager, Ingram had become “a great asset” to the Lawrence branch, and was reclassified from an hourly employee to a salaried employee earning $28,000 per year. Her new job title was “branch supervisor,” a rare, non-managerial position with flexible duties depending on the needs of the individual branch. 1

At the time that Ingram was hired, the Lawrence branch had no assistant branch manager. In December 1998, two months after she began working at Brink’s, the assistant manager position was posted. *225 Ingram applied, although she conceded in her application that a co-worker deserved-the promotion because of his longer tenure with the company. Neither was hired; the assistant branch manager position was not filled, and the company stopped recruiting applicants until 2000 when the vacancy was posted again.

In March 1999 Ingram became pregnant. She claims no adverse employment consequence attributable to her pregnancy except for a dispute about the painting of the Lawrence branch. 2 While on maternity leave, in January 2000, the assistant branch manager position in Lawrence was posted once again. For the first time, the posting stated that the assistant branch manager will be required “to learn every run and make recommendations for route restructuring.” And it included a new requirement for on-call availability seven days per week, which Ingram, as a new mother, found to be virtually impossible. She nevertheless expressed an interest in the position to David Weinstock, the Lawrence branch manager at the time. He responded that she needed “more armored experience.”

While it is true that Ingram had never worked in the armored vehicle industry before her employment with Brink’s, and had no experience working on the armored trucks even within Brink’s, Weinstock had never before mentioned the need for her to gain “armored experience.” Indeed, notwithstanding this supposed deficiency, Weinstock rated her as “outstanding” in seventeen out of twenty categories on her February 2000 performance review. And in the section assessing areas in which Ingram needed to improve, Weinstock made no mention of the need for armored experience. In any event, when Ingram returned from maternity leave in March 2000 she set out to obtain armored experience by accompanying drivers and messengers on runs.

■ On April 15, 2000, Brink’s appointed Jeffrey Hosfeld to the assistant branch manager position that had then been vacant for over two years. Hosfeld was a former corrections officer and had previously served as a Brink’s branch supervisor in another branch, the same title that Ingram had, where he earned $4,000 more per year than Ingram despite what Ingram describes as comparable experience and job responsibilities. 3 In support of her challenge to Hosfeld being promoted instead of her, Ingram also claims- — contradicting herself — that Hosfeld had no experience in the administrative side of business operations prior to his appointment as assistant branch .manager. In any case, Hosfeld apparently had.extensive experience in the field working on armored trucks, as required by the assistant branch manager job posting. 4

In May 2000, Weinstock was promoted to regional management, leaving the Lawrence branch without a branch manager. Brink’s posted the branch manager position, specifying that it required a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. Ingram expressed an •-interest in the position. Weinstock recommended her to his supervisor, Thomas Szczepanski. Szczepanski *226 disagreed and chose a male, Mark Al-bright, on the ground that Albright was more qualified because he had a bachelor’s degree and Ingram did not. However, Szczepanski offered Ingram a branch manager position at a smaller branch in Rochester, New York, although he acknowledged that she probably was not interested in moving in light of her recent maternity. Ingram did not pursue the Rochester position. In June 2000, Al-bright was appointed to the branch manager position, replacing Weinstock.

In September 2000, Ingram was promoted to the position of “Operations Manager.” Her salary was raised to $37,000 per year from $28,000 per year. 5

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414 F.3d 222, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 14327, 86 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,004, 96 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 161, 2005 WL 1655200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ingram-v-brinks-incorporated-ca1-2005.