McCauley v. ASML US, Inc.

917 F. Supp. 2d 1143, 2013 WL 124116, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3155
CourtDistrict Court, D. Oregon
DecidedJanuary 9, 2013
DocketNo. 3:11-CV-01554-BR
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 917 F. Supp. 2d 1143 (McCauley v. ASML US, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCauley v. ASML US, Inc., 917 F. Supp. 2d 1143, 2013 WL 124116, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3155 (D. Or. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

BROWN, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff Mark McCauley’s Motion (#25) for [Partial] Summary Judgment and Defendant ASML U.S. Inc.’s Motion (# 30) for Partial Summary Judgment. For the reasons that follow, the Court DENIES Plaintiffs Motion and DENIES Defendant’s Motion.

BACKGROUND

The following facts are undisputed unless otherwise noted.

In February 1998 Silicon Valley Group hired Plaintiff Mark McCauley as a CS Supervisor. Defendant ASML US, Inc., acquired Silicon Valley Group in 2000 and retained Plaintiff as a CS Supervisor. Scott Kistler was Plaintiffs supervisor when he was employed by Silicon Valley Group and by Defendant.

In his position as CS Supervisor, Plaintiff received annual performance reviews that awarded point scores in each of several categories yielding a cumulative total. Employees’ performance could be rated as unclassified (0-9 points), unsatisfactory (10-24 points), below requirements (25-34 points), meets requirements (35-44 points), above requirements (45-54 points), or outstanding (55 points or above). From 1998 to 2008 Plaintiffs performance reviews were conducted and scored by Kistler. In 2005, 2006, and 2007 Plaintiff received cumulative scores of 45 or 46 points and a total performance rating of “above requirements.” In 2008 Plaintiff received a cumulative score of 44 points for a total performance rating of “meets requirements.”

In 2008 Plaintiff supervised a number of ASML on-site engineers who worked at two Intel sites: Fab 20 and D1C. In mid-2009 Fab 20 closed, and Plaintiff supervised only the ASML on-site engineers at the D1C site.

In March 2009 Gregory Cole became the Regional Customer Support Manager in the Hillsboro, Oregon, area and Plaintiffs supervisor. Gary Mellville, Defendant’s Director of Customer Support for the Western United States, testified at deposition that he removed Kistler as Defendant’s Regional Customer Support Manager in the Hillsboro area because “the performance of the equipment at the Intel site wasn’t meeting expectation. And [Defendant] needed to have a change to set up some structure to be able to operate in a ... new product environment.” Deck of Amy Joseph Pedersen, Ex. 14 at 2.

Cole testified at deposition that he changed several operating procedures when he became the Regional Customer Support Manager, including approval of overtime. Specifically, Cole testified Kistler generally had not restricted overtime by engineers. Cole’s policy, “especially in 2009[and] when we were in a serious [economic] downturn, was that prior to working any ... overtime the engineers had to get approval.” Deck of Ralph Rayburn, Ex. C at 6. “During the worst of the downturn,” Cole asked supervisors to get approval from Cole personally before approving engineers to work overtime. Rayburn Deck, Ex. C at 6-7.

[1147]*1147In 2009 ASML’s service contract with Intel changed for the D1C site and the number of ASML engineers working at the D1C site decreased.

On January 30, 2010, Cole conducted and scored Plaintiffs 2009 performance evaluation and gave Plaintiff a cumulative score of 35 points for a total performance rating of “meets requirements.”

In November 2010 Plaintiff attended Defendant’s supervisor training in Tempe, Arizona, that included a Managers Workshop led by Lindsey Owen, a Human Resources Representative. During the workshop Plaintiff was involved in a heated argument with another manager, Pete Moring. Owen reported Plaintiff told Moring “don’t come to Hillsboro,” which Owen perceived as a threat by Plaintiff. As a result, Owen contacted Plaintiff about being coached on appropriate, professional communication. At Owen’s direction, Plaintiff sent Moring an apology on December 3, 2010, in which Plaintiff stated in pertinent part:

Hoping that you’ll accept my apology for the poor behavior and choice of words that I used responding to your input during our Managers Work Shop, Wed. (Nov-3rd).
Wanted to let you know that it’s not normal for me to lash out the way I did. I put a lot of energy into maintaining a constructive working relationship and build up the self-esteem of all co-workers.

Pederson Decl., Ex. 11.

On December 16, 2010, a tool at DIG stopped working. The tool was down for weeks and resulted in an “escalation” at the site and a number of complaints to Cole by Robert Lindstedt, Intel’s Lithography Department Area Manager in D1C.

On January 13, 2011, Defendant held a “post-mortem” meeting with Intel to discuss the December 2010 escalation. Plaintiff, Cole, Mellville, and Lindstedt, among others, attended the meeting. Mellville testified at deposition that he had concerns about Plaintiffs performance at the postmortem meeting. In particular, Mellville believed there were inaccuracies in the materials presented by Plaintiff, Plaintiff attempted to discuss irrelevant issues, and Plaintiff “kept wanting to drill into a lot of detail, which seemed to be inappropriate.” Pedersen Decl., Ex. 14 at 5.

At some point Mellville communicated to Cole that he was unhappy with Plaintiffs performance at the post-mortem meeting, he did not believe Plaintiff had been well-prepared, he was

embarrassed by [Plaintiffs] reactions to the meeting, and ... [Cole] needed to work with [Plaintiff] to get him into an idea of understanding how to answer the questions that a customer is asking without diving into details. And basically not pleased with the overall performance of the post-mortem event itself.

Pedersen Decl., Ex. 14 at 6. At deposition Mellville concluded Plaintiff “could have performed admirably during the escalation, but there was no admirably during the post-mortem review with the customer.” id

On January 14, 2011, Owen emailed Cole and inquired about the “status of the McCauley documentation.” Pedersen Decl., Ex. 15. In particular Owen requested Cole to provide “information regarding any performance or coaching discussions [Cole] had with [Plaintiff] in 2010, [Plaintiffs] 2010 review, and the documentation on the customer complaints.” Id

On January 18, 2011, Cole forwarded to Owen an email complaint from Intel related to an issue at DIG and noted:

I hate building pearl harbor files, but this part is still not at the fab and all I [1148]*1148am getting is excuses. This illustrates the lack of effective planning and/or no sense of urgency [by Plaintiff].... I have other examples from over the year if I ever get the time.... I had to put another engineer in charge of getting this done.

Pedersen Decl., Ex. 16.

On January 19, 2011, Cole wrote an email to the file in which he noted:

Today, during a call with D1C, [Plaintiff] attempted to bring up what he felt was an issue with the way passdown was done this morning. His attempt was to lodge a complaint and inform Intel this was not how ASML would agree to do passdowns. I stopped this attempt and tried to discuss with [Plaintiff] ... that this was not the audience nor the time.... He did not seem to understand that his attempt to bring controversy into an already intense escalation was inappropriate.

Pedersen Decl., Ex. 17.

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917 F. Supp. 2d 1143, 2013 WL 124116, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3155, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccauley-v-asml-us-inc-ord-2013.