Lee-Crespo v. Schering-Plough Del Caribe Inc.

354 F.3d 34, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 26449, 93 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 47, 2003 WL 23095261
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedDecember 31, 2003
Docket03-1033
StatusPublished
Cited by127 cases

This text of 354 F.3d 34 (Lee-Crespo v. Schering-Plough Del Caribe Inc.) 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
Lee-Crespo v. Schering-Plough Del Caribe Inc., 354 F.3d 34, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 26449, 93 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 47, 2003 WL 23095261 (1st Cir. 2003).

Opinion

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

This is a same-sex employment discrimination case in which plaintiff Alice Mercedes Lee-Crespo seeks to hold her employer vicariously liable primarily for the actions of her supervisor. The appeal is from the grant of summary judgment to Schering-Plough Del Caribe, Inc., the employer. Lee-Crespo claims that she was subjected to a hostile work environment and constructively discharged as a result of sexual harassment by her immediate supervisor, a female, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq., and Puerto Rico law. The district court held that the undisputed material facts permitted the conclusion that the conduct of the supervisor was boorish and unprofessional, but that the incidents were not severe or pervasive enough to alter the terms and conditions of Lee-Crespo’s employment, and that Lee-Crespo was not constructively discharged. Crespo v. Schering Plough Del Caribe, Inc., 231 F.Supp.2d 420, 429, 433 (D.P.R.2002).

A jury could easily find that Lee-Crespo was subjected to incivility. But Title VII is neither a civility code nor a general anti-harassment code. Title VII requires, rather, that the level of incivility or harassment must amount to either a tangible or a constructive employment action. Furthermore, the alleged harassment and the employment action must be causally related. The discrimination must be based on gender or some other prohibited category. Here, Lee-Crespo complains of a general atmosphere of harassment by her supervisor that she argues was so bad it drove her out of her job and was a constructive discharge. She fails to *38 show that the harassment she suffered amounted to a constructive discharge. She also complains that her failure to get a transfer to Florida and her reassignment to a new sales territory in Puerto Rico were tangible employment actions. But those decisions were not made by her supervisor, but by her supervisor’s superiors, none of whom participated in any harassment. Indeed, as to the reassignment, these upper level supervisors were being responsive to Lee-Crespo’s statements that she did not want to work with her supervisor. There is nothing showing a causal link between any alleged harassment and the motivation of the non-harassing managers in these decisions. As a result, we affirm.

I.

On appeal from the entry of summary judgment, this court views the facts in the light most favorable to Lee-Crespo and draws all reasonable inferences in her favor. Rivera v. P.R. Aqueduct & Sewers Auth., 331 F.3d 183, 185 (1st Cir.2003).

Lee-Crespo provided the following account in her deposition. On April 28,1999, she began training with Schering-Plough (Schering), a pharmaceutical company, and on May 19, she began working as an entry level medical salesperson. She had no pri- or experience in the medical sales field. Lee-Crespo was initially assigned to visit doctors in the Hato Rey area of San Juan, Puerto Rico, but nothing in her employment offer guaranteed her a specific sales area. Hato Rey has a high concentration of physicians.

Mayra González was promoted from being a sales representative to the position of district manager in June 1999 and became Lee-Crespo’s immediate supervisor in July 1999. Thus, a neophyte manager, González, came to supervise a neophyte sales representative, Lee-Crespo. About thirteen other employees also worked under González’s supervision. On July 4, 1999, González told Lee-Crespo: “[Y]ou know that now I’m your supervisor and now you have to do what I tell you to do.” González also told Lee-Crespo that she should never go to González’s boss, Anita Bursian, with a problem. The same day, González made comments to Lee-Crespo regarding the private lives and sexual preferences of other Schering employees. González said that she did not get along with her ex-boss, whom she said was a lesbian and treated her badly, and she discussed a Schering employee who, although unmarried, had lived with and had a child with a doctor. Lee-Crespo’s testimony was that González had many “stories” about co-workers.

González repeatedly questioned Lee-Crespo about how she, as a “rookie,” had come to be assigned to the Hato Rey territory. At one point, González told Lee-Crespo that the reason she was assigned there was that Schering’s general manager, Roberto Mercade, was “crazy about [her] looks.” González advised Lee-Crespo that she should become González’s best friend in the company and should tell her everything that happened at Schering. After Lee-Crespo earned a large commission, González told Lee-Crespo to invite her to lunch because Lee-Crespo earned more money than she did. Lee-Crespo declined and González never asked her again.

González also bothered Lee-Crespo with meddlesome and prying questions about her personal life and made comments about her appearance and behavior. Gon-zález asked Lee-Crespo for the names of -the stores where she bought her clothes and accessories. González also asked for Lee-Crespo’s opinion about the doctors she visited and inquired whether she ever dated doctors. González once told Lee- *39 Crespo that she had always wanted to be tall and blonde like her and commented that Lee-Crespo was “enviably thin.”

The relationship had its ups and downs. At times friendly, Gonzalez was also critical of Lee-Crespo. González accused Lee-Crespo of being very disorganized and said that her disorganization probably explained why she did not have a husband. González also told her that she was a mediocre sales representative and stated that she was using her physical attributes, not her technical knowledge, to sell Scher-ing’s products. Lee-Crespo said that Gon-zález often looked at her “in a very intimidating way.” At one point, González said ‘You have never married because maybe you’re strange, ‘rara’?” 1 González commented that Lee-Crespo and Maria Mon-talvo, one of Lee-Crespo’s co-workers, would be able to have lunch together frequently and that she had heard that Lee-Crespo and Montalvo got along very well. More than once, González told Lee-Crespo that she did not appreciate the fact that she had a job as a sales representative for Schering.

In August 1999, while González and Lee-Crespo were at a hotel during a Schering convention, Anita Bursian complained about having a migraine headache. When Lee-Crespo offered to get some medication from her hotel room, González asked Lee-Crespo for her bedroom keys and said that she would get the medication from Lee-Crespo’s room. Lee-Crespo refused to hand over her keys, and that was that.

On several occasions, Lee-Crespo complained about González to Anita Bursian, Gonzalez’s boss. She first went to Bursian sometime between October and November 1999 and “told her everything.” But Lee-Crespo never explained on the record what this “everything” was. Lee-Crespo also occasionally spoke critically to other fellow employees about González and about individual incidents.

One day in October 1999, González told Lee-Crespo’s co-workers that she had heard that Lee-Crespo was “crawling drunk” at a wedding. The accusation was untrue. When Lee-Crespo said that Gon-zález was wrong and asked her to stop making the false statement, González backed off and told Lee-Crespo that she could not take a joke.

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354 F.3d 34, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 26449, 93 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 47, 2003 WL 23095261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-crespo-v-schering-plough-del-caribe-inc-ca1-2003.