Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc. v. Martinez

296 S.W.3d 634, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 1141, 2009 WL 416472
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 19, 2009
Docket08-06-00265-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 296 S.W.3d 634 (Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc. v. Martinez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Janssen Pharmaceutica, Inc. v. Martinez, 296 S.W.3d 634, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 1141, 2009 WL 416472 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

OPINION

ANN CRAWFORD McCLURE, Justice.

Janssen Pharmeceutica, Inc. appeals a jury verdict in favor of Melissa M. Martinez on employment discrimination claims. Because the evidence at trial was not legally sufficient to support Martinez’s claims, we reverse and render judgment in favor of Janssen.

FACTUAL SUMMARY

Martinez was employed by Janssen as a pharmaceutical sales representative for certain medications aimed at the central nervous system. She was hired in May 2002, after interviewing with Jim Ball, Janssen’s District Manager for the South Central Region, and Rob Kraner, Jans-sen’s Business Director for the South Central region. Ball reported to Kraner.

Martinez was to call on physicians, to sell the products she was promoting, and to enter calls into Janssen’s computer system, known as Siebel. Janssen’s policy required that sales representatives enter a summary of sales calls to physicians into the Siebel system immediately following the call. Calls are classified as reportable or nonreportable. Reportable calls require face-to-face interaction with the customer about the product. Janssen expected that eight reportable sales calls would be made each work day. Janssen’s sales representatives were provided with a company car and company fuel card. Each time gas was purchased, a representative was required to enter the odometer reading of the company car. Mileage must also be entered in expense reports.

When Martinez began working for Jans-sen, Jim Ball was her supervisor. Her territory included El Paso and portions of West Texas. After a realignment of sales districts in December 2002, Martinez began reporting to Shannon Groppenbacher, a District Manager based in Phoenix, who in turn reported to Rob Kraner until December 2004. After the realignment, Martinez’s territory covered El Paso and southern New Mexico, including the cities of Las Cruces, Alamogordo, Carlsbad, Hobbs, and Roswell. Of all the employees whom Groppenbacher supervised, Martinez was the only Hispanic.

In December 2002, Groppenbacher invited Martinez to Arizona so they could become acquainted and so that Martinez could meet the other sales representatives in the new district. Groppenbacher also traveled to El Paso in January 2003 to *637 meet with Martinez and to coach her on her sales performance. Groppenbacher had positive comments about the job Martinez was doing.

Martinez learned she was pregnant in January 2003 and she informed Groppen-bacher in February. Due to complications, Martinez took a two-week leave of absence and Groppenbacher helped her obtain leave. In April, Groppenbacher received a complaint from Dr. Fizbein, a physician in Las Cruces, that he was not receiving good service from Martinez and that it was difficult for him to obtain samples. Groppenbacher also received calls from other physicians in southern New Mexico who were seeking a representative. These complaints prompted Groppenbacher to report the matter to Kraner. Grop-penbacher was instructed to investigate, either by Kraner or Grayce Hubbard, an employee in Janssen’s human resources department. Groppenbacher and Kraner obtained fuel log reports for Martinez, the log of her call entries into the Siebel system, her expense reports, and mileage information from MapQuest.com. Upon comparing the dates that Martinez made reportable calls, the dates and locations that she refueled her car using the company fuel card, and the mileage required to travel from El Paso for the calls, Groppen-bacher and Kraner concluded that Martinez could not have made all of the sales calls that she reported. Groppenbacher noticed that the call entries made on January 30, 2003 were for visits in Alamogordo, Roswell, Carlsbad, and Las Cruces. Grop-penbacher determined that the drive from El Paso to visit these cities was approximately 470 miles. Martinez’s fuel reports indicated that she had refueled in New Mexico on the afternoon of January 30. Although Groppenbacher conceded that it might have been possible to travel 470 miles on one tank of gas, she discovered that Martinez had not used the fuel card again until February 24. But Martinez had entered calls into the system for office visits in the El Paso and Las Cruces area on January 31, February 4, February 5, and February 7. Groppenbacher decided that it would have been impossible for Martinez to travel to all of the reported locations and only refuel the vehicle once. Groppenbacher also noticed a January 30 call report to Dr. Pezzarossi in Roswell, New Mexico. When she called the office, Groppenbacher was told by the receptionist that Dr. Pezzarossi had moved to Albuquerque and had not practiced in Roswell since the summer of 2002. Martinez also entered a call for Pezzarossi in Roswell on March 24. Martinez reported a call to the office of Dr. Gervais on the same date and later admitted to Groppenbacher that she had not made the call. Martinez had refueled her company vehicle on March 20, and reported calls on March 21 in El Paso and Las Cruces. Martinez next reported calls for March 24 (including calls to Dr. Pezza-rossi and Dr. Gervais) for locations in Alamogordo and Roswell. Groppenbacher determined that the approximate round trip mileage was 460 miles. Martinez reported additional calls in El Paso and Las Cruces on March 25. According to the fuel reports, Martinez did not refuel her vehicle until March 25 at 9:10 p.m.

Groppenbacher also contacted physicians in the area. She called the office of Dr. Danckzk about Martinez’s reported visit on February 28. The nurse told Groppenbacher that she had worked in the office Monday through Friday each day for the preceding seven months and did not recall seeing a representative during that time. Another nurse who had worked there for a longer period of time, did not recall seeing a representative either.

Groppenbacher also found that the calls that Martinez had reported for February 28 would have included Hobbs and Carlsbad. Groppenbacher calculated that the *638 round-trip mileage to these cities from El Paso was approximately 460 miles. Martinez refueled her vehicle on February 24, but did not refuel again until March 4. She had reported calls for March 3 and 4 in El Paso and Las Cruces. Again Groppen-bacher concluded it would not have been, possible for Martinez to make all of these visits on a single tank of gas.

Information concerning the date a call report was entered into the Siebel computer system was available from Janssen’s home office, but the data could not be viewed by sales representatives. Grop-penbacher obtained that information and determined that Martinez had input certain call reports weeks after the date of the call. Groppenbacher and Kraner concluded that Martinez had falsely entered calls for doctors that she had not seen.

Janssen had a four-step disciplinary procedure in place. The first step was a verbal warning. The next step consisted of a written statement describing the incident and warning the employee that he or she needed improvement. The third step was a final written warning. The last step, known as a Group I violation, was termination. Groppenbacher communicated her findings to Janssen’s human resources department, which suggested that Martinez had committed Group I violations by entering calls that she had not made.

Groppenbacher then asked Martinez to fly to Phoenix on April 30, 2003, for a meeting to discuss territory management issues.

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296 S.W.3d 634, 2009 Tex. App. LEXIS 1141, 2009 WL 416472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/janssen-pharmaceutica-inc-v-martinez-texapp-2009.