Olmeda v. Cameron International Corp.

139 F. Supp. 3d 816, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90556, 2015 WL 4254157
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedJuly 13, 2015
DocketCivil Action No. 14-1904
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 139 F. Supp. 3d 816 (Olmeda v. Cameron International Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Olmeda v. Cameron International Corp., 139 F. Supp. 3d 816, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90556, 2015 WL 4254157 (E.D. La. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER AND REASONS

MARTIN L.C. FELDMAN, District Judge.

Before the Court are four motions: ■ (1) Cameron International Corporation’s motion for summary judgment; (2) Cameron International Corporation’s objections and motion to strike plaintiffs summary judgment evidence; (3) Personnel Management Group, Inc.’s motion for summary judgment; and (4) Personnel Management Group, Inc.’s objections and motion to strike plaintiffs summary judgment evi-deuce. For the reasons that follow, the motions to strike are GRANTED in part and DENIED- in part and the motions for summary judgment are GRANTED.

Background

This employment discrimination lawsuit arises from an off-premises, off-duty drive-by shooting incident on Highway 90 around Morgan City, Louisiana. Hours after leaving work, one drunk employee, Scott Carrington, was being driven by another drunk employee, Billy Perez; they had decided to scare a co-worker, Andy Olmeda, by firing a shotgun in the vicinity of his moving vehicle. That they did. After driving about 30 miles, Perez and Car-rington pulled up behind and fired a shotgun at Olmeda’s truck as they all drove northbound up the highway.

Personnel Management Group, Inc., a Bloomington, Minnesota company, recruits and deploys temporary skilled manufacturing laborers and provides labor solutions to manufacturing companies in the United States.1 For companies facing labor shortages, peak season, production backlog, or other labor crises, PMG provides skilled temporary replacement labor. PMG recruits do part-time contract work and have no guarantee of employment. PMG supplies employees to Cameron International Corporation on an as-needed basis.2

Andrew C. Olmeda is half-white and half-Hispanic. Olmeda, a PMG temporary contract worker,3 began working at Cam[822]*822eron as a machinist at its facility in Ber-wick, Louisiana in May 2013.4 Olmeda was placed at Cameron by PMG recruiter Joe Coombs. PMG reported Olmeda’s race as “white” to Cameron when providing employee information. Olmeda admits that he may have told PMG that he is white.5

As a machinist, Olmeda made parts for offshore and onshore drilling; he worked on blow-out preventers, valve bodies, couplings, and generally anything that was associated with a valve. During the workweek, PMG provided Olmeda with a hotel room in Morgan City, five miles from Cameron’s Berwick facility. Olmeda worked the night, or second, shift with 15-20 other workers; his regularly scheduled hours were from 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. Cameron held safety meetings at the start of each shift every day. After those meetings, Olmeda received his tasks for the evening and went to his machine in the shop, which is a large warehouse. Cameron’s Angelo Cardinale was in charge of second shift. Cardinale reported to Melvin Burger, the senior production supervisor.6

Olmeda does not complain of any specific problems between him and his co-workers from May through early September 2013; at least none that he reported.7 But in the days leading up to the shooting on September 14, 2013, Olmeda submits that things happened to stir up hostility between him and other workers at Cameron. After a safety meeting on September 9, 2013, Olmeda announced to his coworkers that they should be ashamed of themselves for having Cardinale clean up after them. Construing this as obsequiousness, the next day some of Olmeda’s co-workers (Scott Carrington, Trent Basas, and Thomas Bragg) yelled for hours at Olmeda, calling him “snorkel.” Olmeda believes that “snorkel” meant that he had his “head so far up [Cardinale’s] ass that [he] needed a snorkel to take a breath.” Olmeda believes that Scott Carrington (then an apprentice at Cameron) came up with the nickname “snorkel.” Olmeda understood this to be typical shop talk, guys on the floor giving each other a hard time.

The next day, Wednesday, September 11, 2013, another employee complained to Cardinale at the safety meeting that people had been yelling “snorkel” the night before. This being the first he had heard of it, Cardinale spoke with Olmeda, and then he informed Burger. Burger spoke to Olmeda, who said that it was Bragg who was the instigator. Burger instructed Bragg to stop and to apologize to Olmeda. Bragg apologized to Olmeda, who put the incident behind him. Burger followed up with Olmeda the next day to confirm Bragg had apologized. Olmeda never complained to Cardinale again.8

[823]*823That same day, some of the second shift employees lined up to purchase boots from a vender. Olmeda and Scott Carrington exchanged profanities. According to Car-rington, Olmeda bragged about owning luxury cars and a .multi-million dollar house. Annoyed, Scott Carrington called him a “f — king liar.”9 Olmeda says that Carrington was walking with Billy Perez10 when he (Carrington) called Olmeda “f— king dumba— mother f- — ker” or- he may have “told me to get the fuck out of the way, fucking Mexican or something like that.” Olmeda told Carrington “f — k you” and gestured with his middle finger. At the truck on September 11 “was the first time [Carrington] made a racial comment” to Olmeda.

The next day, on Thursday, September 12, 2013, Carrington shouted “Hey you dumb mother f — ker.” Olmeda told Cardi-nale, who called Carrington into his office. Carrington then walked up to Olmeda at his machine and said the same thing. Olmeda responded:

Look Scott, you must be stupid or something. Don’t you realize that this is the work place and I could bring harassment charges up against you, which you probably would lose your job, then I would sue you in civil court and then I’d be the one laughing because you’re a moron?

This exchange escalated: Carrington said “Oh so that is how it’s going to be,” to which Olmeda responded, “No don’t you see you’re the one who is doing it, not me, I’m just there to [make] sure you have enough rope.” The exchange culminated (Olmeda submits) into a threat by Carring-ton.11 Olmeda reported the threat to Car-dinale. Cardinale agreed to email Burger and then sent Olmeda home around midnight that night because Olmeda was angry and needed to cool off. Bragg called Olmeda at his hotel room, telling him not to make “harassment charges.”

Olmeda reported to work at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, September 13, 2013. Carrington and Perez left work four hours into second shift, around 8:00 p.m. Sometime later, Perez picked up Carrington in Morgan City. Accompanied by another co-worker named Trent Basas, they first went to a restaurant and bar called Twin Peaks, where they ate and drank beer and liquor. Then they went to a pool hall in Houma, where they continued to drink alcohol over the next few hours.. They got very- intoxicated. On the way back to Morgan City, they dropped off Trent. It was during this time of “heav[y] intoxict[ion]” that Perez and Carrington decided that they would find Olmeda and fire a shotgun near his truck to frighten .him. They went to Carrington’s house, where Carrington got his shotgun and, at some point, Carrington loaded it. Although “hazy” from drinking, the plan was to find and follow Olmeda and “then do something to just scare him.” When Perez blinked the high beams on his truck, that was the signal for Carrington to shoot, not at Olmeda’s vehicle, but toward the woods, as he drove by.

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139 F. Supp. 3d 816, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90556, 2015 WL 4254157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/olmeda-v-cameron-international-corp-laed-2015.