Lu Ann Geldon v. South Milwaukee School District

414 F.3d 817, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 14095, 86 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,997, 96 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 109, 2005 WL 1631122
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 13, 2005
Docket04-2886
StatusPublished
Cited by87 cases

This text of 414 F.3d 817 (Lu Ann Geldon v. South Milwaukee School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lu Ann Geldon v. South Milwaukee School District, 414 F.3d 817, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 14095, 86 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,997, 96 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 109, 2005 WL 1631122 (7th Cir. 2005).

Opinions

TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judge.

After failing in three attempts to land custodial jobs with the South Milwaukee School District, Lu Ann Geldon sued, claiming the School District’s decision not to hire her was motivated, at least in part, by her gender. The district court (Magistrate Aaron E. Goodstein sitting- by consent) granted the School District’s motion for summary judgment on two of Geldon’s claims but allowed the third to proceed to trial, where a jury found for the School District. Geldon challenges the result of all three claims.

Geldon began working for the School District in .June 1998, performing light cleaning, duties as a building service helper. Three years later, she applied for the position of assistant painter/relief custodian. Although Geldon was one of seven applicants selected to interview for the job, she was not one of three called back for a second interview.

Around the same time, the School District began looking for a long-term substitute custodian. During interviews for the assistant painter/relief custodian- position, applicants were asked if they would be interested in the long-term substitute position. Geldon says she was asked about the substitute position during her interview but that interim operations manager Don Amundson cut her off before she could answer, saying that she would not be considered for the job. The School District ended up hiring one of the finalists for the assistant painter/relief custodian position to fill the long-term substitute position. After missing out on the two jobs, Geldon filed a sex discrimination complaint with the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

In the spring of the following year, Gel-don applied for a job as a permanent second-shift custodian but was not one of 11 applicants selected to interview for the job. She filed a second discrimination complaint with the Equal Rights Division, alleging that the decision to pass her over for the second-shift custodian -position was based on her gender and in retaliation for the discrimination claim she filed. The EEOC granted Geldon right-to-sue letters on both of her discrimination complaints, and Gel-don sued, alleging violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e et seq.

On the claim related to the position of substitute custodian, the district court [819]*819found that Geldon had not exhausted her administrative remedies before filing her complaint in the district court and granted the School District’s motion for summary judgment. The district court also granted the School District’s motion for summary judgment on the claims related to the second-shift custodian position, finding that Geldon failed to present sufficient evidence. But on-Geldon’s claim concerning the assistant painter/relief custodian job, the district court found enough evidence to send the case to a jury, pointing to the statements of Larry Barber, a member of the custodial bargaining unit who was on the interview committee for the job. According to affidavits submitted by Geldon, Barber told School District custodians, “What is the matter with you, we don’t want a woman working here,” and “Come on Tom, do you really want to work with a woman?”

After a 4-day trial, a jury found that the School District did not discriminate against Geldon. In her appeal, Geldon argues that the district court erred in granting the School District’s motion for summary judgment on the claim related to the substitute custodian position. She argues that the granting of that motion also led to the grant of summary judgment on claims related to the second-shift custodian position and that these decisions hurt her chances of success at the subsequent trial.

We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing all facts and drawing all reasonable inferences in a light most favorable to Geldon. Williams v. Waste Mgt. of Ill., 361 F.3d 1021, 1028 (7th Cir.2004). Summary judgment is appropriate where “the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, ■ together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R.Civ.P. 56(c).

Because all of her arguments on appeal arise out of the district court’s grant of summary judgment on.Geldon’s claim concerning the substitute custodian position, we begin there. The district court found that Geldon failed to include a complaint about the substitute custodian position in her filings with the Equal Rights Division and EEOC. Thus, it found, she failed to exhaust her administrative options. See Ester v. Principi, 250 F.3d 1068, 1071 (7th Cir.2001).1

A Title VII plaintiff may bring only those claims that ’ were included in her EEOC charge, or that are “like or reasonably related to the allegations of the charge and growing out of such allegations.” McKenzie v. Ill. Dep’t of Transp., 92 F.3d 473, 481 (7th Cir.1996) (quoting Jenkins v. Blue Cross Mut. Hosp. Ins., Inc., 538 F.2d 164, 167 (7th Cir.1976)); see also Ajayi v. Aramark Bus. Servs., Inc., 336 F.3d 520 (7th Cir.2003). The rule is meant both to give the EEOC arid employer an opportunity to settle the dispute and to give the employer fair notice of the conduct about which the employee is complaining. See Haugerud v. Amery School Dist., 259 F.3d 678, 689 (7th Cir.2001).

[820]*820This case is close because an EEOC investigation of Geldon’s complaint about the assistant painter/relief, custodian position might have turned up the fact that she' was also interested in, but ultimately not hired for, the substitute custodian position. Thus, in one sense, the complaint about the substitute custodian position was “like or reasonably related” to the complaint about the assistant painter/relief custodi■an — they involved similar positions offered around the same time, with decisions made by the same hiring officials.

Still, the district court was correct to grant the School District’s motion because her initial complaint did not put the agencies or the School District on notice that she also was complaining about the substitute custodian position. In' her initial charge, Geldon spelled out in great detdil the circumstances surrounding her application for the assistant painter/relief custodian position, concluding that “I feel that I was not considered for this position because of my sex even though I am qualified for the position.” Geldon would not have to have done a lot to put the EEOC and School District on notice that she also thought she was not considered for the substitute custodian. position because of her sex.

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414 F.3d 817, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 14095, 86 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 41,997, 96 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 109, 2005 WL 1631122, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lu-ann-geldon-v-south-milwaukee-school-district-ca7-2005.