McCaulley v. Harvard Drug Group, LLC

992 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 2014 WL 200827, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6179
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedJanuary 17, 2014
DocketCivil Action No. CV-13-S-1618-NE
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 992 F. Supp. 2d 1192 (McCaulley v. Harvard Drug Group, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCaulley v. Harvard Drug Group, LLC, 992 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 2014 WL 200827, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6179 (N.D. Ala. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

C. LYNWOOD SMITH, JR, District Judge.

Plaintiff, Sabrina McCaulley, filed a complaint on August 29, 2013, asserting claims against The Harvard Drug Group, LLC (“Harvard”), and Aerotek, Inc. (“Aerotek”), two entities that she claims were formerly her joint employers.1 Her complaint asserted three claims against both defendants: (1) “Race and Color Discrimination Disparate Treatment” pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. (“Ti-[1194]*1194tie VII”), and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Count One); (2) “Race and Color Discrimination Hostile Work Environment” pursuant to Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Count Two); and (3) “Race and Color Discrimination Wrongful Termination” pursuant to Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Count Three).2 She also asserts two claims solely against defendant Harvard: i.e., (1) “The Harvard Drug Group, Inc. Retaliation in Violation of Title VII” (Count Four), and (2) “The Harvard Drug Group, L.L.C. Negligent Hiring, Training, Supervision and Retention” (Count Five).3 The case currently is before the court on “The Harvard Drug Group L.L.C.’s Partial Motion to Dismiss” Counts One and Five for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.4 Upon consideration of the motion, pleadings, and briefs, the court concludes that Harvard’s motion should be granted in part, but also denied in part.

I. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b) permits a party to move to dismiss a complaint for, among other reasons, “failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). This rule must be read together with Rule 8(a), which requires that a pleading contain only a “short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2). While that pleading standard does not require “detailed factual allegations,” Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 550, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007), it does demand “more than an unadorned, the-defendant-unlawfully-harmed-me accusation.” Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678, 129 S.Ct. 1937, 173 L.Ed.2d 868 (2009) (citations omitted). The Supreme Court explicated this standard in Iqbal, saying that:

A pleading that offers “labels and conclusions” or “a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.” [Twombly, 550 U.S., at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955]. Nor does a complaint suffice if it tenders “naked assertion[s]” devoid of “further factual enhancement.” Id., at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955.
To survive a motion to dismiss founded upon Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), [for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted], a complaint must contain sufficient factual matter, accepted as true, to “state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face.” Id., at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. A claim has facial plausibility when the plaintiff pleads factual content that allows the court to draw the reasonable inference that the defendant is liable for the misconduct alleged. Id., at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955. The plausibility standard is not akin to a “probability requirement,” but it asks for more than a sheer possibility that a defendant has acted unlawfully. Ibid. Where a complaint pleads facts that are “merely consistent with” a defendant’s liability, it “stops short of the line between possibility and plausibility of ‘entitlement to relief.’ ” Id., at 557, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (brackets omitted).
Two working principles underlie our decision in Twombly. First, the tenet that a court must accept as true all of the allegations contained in a complaint is inapplicable to legal conclusions. Threadbare recitals of the elements of a cause of action, supported by mere conclusory statements, do not suffice. Id., [1195]*1195at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955 (Although for the purposes of a motion to dismiss we must take all of the factual allegations in the complaint as true, we “are not bound to accept as true a legal conclusion couched as a factual allegation” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Rule 8 marks a notable and generous departure from the hyper-technical, code-pleading regime of a prior era, but it does not unlock the doors of discovery for a plaintiff armed with nothing more than conclusions. Second, only a complaint that states a plausible claim for relief survives a motion to dismiss. Id., at 556, 127 S.Ct. 1955. Determining whether a complaint states a plausible claim for relief will, as the Court of Appeals observed, be a context-specific task that requires the reviewing court to draw on its judicial experience and common sense. [Iqbal v. Hasty ] 490 F.3d [143], at 157-158 [ (2d Cir.2007) ]. But where the well-pleaded facts do not permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct, the complaint has alleged — but it has not “show[n]” — “that the pleader is entitled to relief.” Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 8(a)(2).
In keeping with these principles a court considering a motion to dismiss can choose to begin by identifying pleadings that, because they are no more than conclusions, are not entitled to the assumption of truth. While legal conclusions can provide the framework of a complaint, they must be supported by factual allegations. When there are well-pleaded factual allegations, a court should assume their veracity and then determine whether they plausibly give rise to an entitlement to relief

Iqbal, 556 U.S. at 678-79, 129 S.Ct. 1937 (emphasis added).

II. RELEVANT ALLEGATIONS OF PLAINTIFF’S COMPLAINT5

Plaintiff is an African-American female who, on April 26, 2012, was placed by Aerotek to work at Harvard’s Decatur, Alabama facility, in the capacity of a chemical repack technician.6 Plaintiff alleges that Harvard and Aerotek were her “joint employers.”7 Plaintiff, who was one of only two black employees in her work area, allegedly was treated differently from, and excluded by, the white employees. “The white co-workers would not talk to Plaintiff unless it was to belittle or demean her.”8

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
992 F. Supp. 2d 1192, 2014 WL 200827, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6179, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccaulley-v-harvard-drug-group-llc-alnd-2014.