Martires v. State of Connecticut Dept. of Transportation

596 F. Supp. 2d 425, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4275
CourtDistrict Court, D. Connecticut
DecidedJanuary 22, 2009
DocketNo. 3:05-cv-1371 (CFD)
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 596 F. Supp. 2d 425 (Martires v. State of Connecticut Dept. of Transportation) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martires v. State of Connecticut Dept. of Transportation, 596 F. Supp. 2d 425, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4275 (D. Conn. 2009).

Opinion

RULING ON MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

CHRISTOPHER F. DRONEY, District Judge.

Celeste Mártires brought this action against her employer, the Connecticut De[432]*432partment of Transportation (“DOT”), for alleged violations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq. (Count One) and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Count Two), as well as for negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress (Counts Three and Four) and negligent supervision (Count Five). The DOT has submitted a motion for summary judgment, which the Court grants for the following reasons.

I. Background1

Mártires, a black woman of Hispanic origin, began working for the DOT in 1989. In June of 2003, the DOT experienced a staff reduction of 77 percent as the result of an Early Retirement Incentive Program (“ERIP”). Mártires claims that the period that followed was marked by disorganization and dysfunction within the DOT.

A. Martires’s position during the relevant time period

As part of the reorganization following the ERIP, Mártires was assigned to split her time between her old position — working as a Processing Technician in the Fiscal Unit — and the Regulatory and Compliance Unit of the DOT. In the Regulatory and Compliance Unit, Mártires worked as License and Applications Analyst (LAA).

The LAA position required a greater level of skill than the Processing Technician position, and had a correspondingly higher “service class” and pay level. Mar-tires’s employment history record for this period indicates “temporary service in a higher class.” Mártires eventually began working as an LAA full-time and her employment history indicates that her “temporary service in a higher class” was made permanent on November 28, 2003. In the fall of 2003, Mártires filed a reclassification grievance. On February 11, 2004, Mar-tires’s reclassification grievance was granted, but she was not reclassified until April 14, 2004, after final approval was obtained from the Office of Management and Policy. Mártires’ pay was adjusted retroactively at this point.

Mártires had a number of different supervisors in rapid succession in her position as an LAA. In August 2003, Martires’s first supervisor, Kenneth Gambardella, was removed because of complaints from other employees.

1. Conflict between Laila Mandour and Mártires

In September 2003, Laila Mandour, a white female, was assigned to supervise Mártires. Although Mandour may have facilitated Mártires’ reclassification as an LAA by (for example) discussing the reclassification with a personnel representative on December 4, 2003, conflict between Mandour and Mártires quickly developed. Among other things, Mandour and Mártires had disagreements regarding Martires’s request to change her work schedule to accommodate her childcare responsibilities, and changes Mandour made to Martires’s time slips. Mártires also did not like working for Mandour because (1) Mártires felt that Mandour- favored a colleague, Abigail Rivera, a non-black Hispanic woman; (2) Mandour- criticized Mártires for socializing in the office; (3) Mandour criticized Martires’s work and efficiency; (4) Mandour limited the amount of overtime Mártires could work; (5) Mandour did not give Mártires adequate notice of meetings; and (6) Mandour was careless with checks. Although Mártires felt [433]*433overworked as a result of the staffing shortages in the DOT, she was upset that Mandour transferred some of Mar-tires’s job responsibilities to other employees. According to Mártires, these duties were required for promotion.

According to Mártires, on May 10, 2004, Mandour called Mártires into her office, closed the door and told Mártires that she was close friends with Wanda Sheldon, the acting head of personnel and that Sheldon would protect Mandour if Mártires made any allegations against her. Then, Mandour told Mártires that she was upset that Abigail Rivera — a co-worker — was pregnant, that her therapist had instructed Mandour “to stay away from Abigail Rivera,” and “that she loved women.” Mar-tires alleges that Mandour then told her she wanted to perform oral sex act on Mártires, using a Spanish slang expression. According to Mártires, she was humiliated by the incident and, at the time, told only a few close friends and her pastor. Mártires was hospitalized because of stress that day.

On May 18, 2004, Mártires indicated that she could not work with Mandour because of “unfair treatment and harassment.” In particular, Mártires referred to an incident involving an “unsecured unprocessed check.” On May 25, 2004, Mártires was again hospitalized because of stress.

On June 17, Mártires repeated her request to leave work because she was “unable to endure the stress, strain and unfair treatment by Ms. Mandour.” On June 23 and 28, Martires’s doctor sent medical notes to the DOT indicating that Mártires should no longer be supervised by Mandour. Mártires did not inform any of her supervisors of the alleged sexual proposition at this point. Because of these requests, Judith Almeida was assigned to superase Mártires at the end of June 2004.

On August 30, 2004, Mártires complained that Mandour continued to interact with her in the workplace, in violation of her doctor’s orders. On September 1, 2004, Vicky Arpin, who worked in the human resources department, notified Mar-tires that the DOT could not ensure that she would have no workplace contact with Mandour. Arpin placed Mártires on medical leave. Mártires submitted an additional note from her doctor clarifying her restrictions, but Arpin concluded that the accommodation proposed by Mártires was unreasonable. Mártires exhausted her sick and personal leave time during this period.

Later in September 2004, Martires’s doctor submitted an additional note indicating that “I did not remove Celeste Mar-tires from work on 9-1-04. She has been and will be able to perform all her duties as previously performed as long as she is not upset by Ms. Mandour.” Mártires was permitted to return to work on September 24, 2004. Mártires filed a grievance requesting that leave time exhausted during this period be restored, but the grievance was denied. According to Mártires, during this period, white men suspected of wrongdoing were placed on paid administrative leave before being discharged.

Following Martires’s return to work, Mandour continued to come to her work area. According to Mártires, Mandour would “get very close to [her], such as squeezing by [Mártires] at her desk and rubbing up against [her].” In response to Martires’s complaints, Almeida sent an email to DOT staff, including Mandour, asking them to go around Martires’s desk rather than physically touching her.

Mártires filed a complaint dated October 22, 2004 with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (“CHRO”). The CHRO received the com[434]*434plaint on October 25 and forwarded it to the DOT on October 28. This complaint alleged that DOT and Mandour created a hostile work environment through a variety of actions occurring between June 2, 2003 and September, 2004. The complaint referred to the May 2004 sexual proposition only obliquely, saying “[Mártires was] verbally sexually harassed by Ms.

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Martires v. Connecticut Dept. of Transp.
596 F. Supp. 2d 425 (D. Connecticut, 2009)

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596 F. Supp. 2d 425, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4275, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martires-v-state-of-connecticut-dept-of-transportation-ctd-2009.