Pearson v. Augusta ex rel. Davis

243 F. Supp. 3d 1344, 2017 WL 937945, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34006
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Georgia
DecidedMarch 9, 2017
DocketCV 114-110
StatusPublished

This text of 243 F. Supp. 3d 1344 (Pearson v. Augusta ex rel. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pearson v. Augusta ex rel. Davis, 243 F. Supp. 3d 1344, 2017 WL 937945, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34006 (S.D. Ga. 2017).

Opinion

ORDER

HONORABLE J. RANDAL HALL, ■ UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

This case arises out of Plaintiffs employment with Defendant Augusta, Georgia. After over thirty years of service, Augusta demoted Plaintiff for violating workplace policies. It then, according to Plaintiff, forced her into retirement. In response,-Plaintiff sued Augusta and three Augusta employees under a number of federal employment statutes and the Fourteenth Amendment. But because the Court does not sit as a “super-personnel department assessing the prudence of routine employment decisions,” Flowers v. Troup Cty., Ga, Sch. Dist., 803 F.3d 1327, 1338 (11th Cir 2015) (citation omitted) (internal quotation marks omitted), most of Plaintiffs claims fail. Only her Title VII retaliation claim will proceed.

I. Factual Background

Plaintiff began working for Augusta in 1980. Eventually, she became an operations manager in the Recreation, Parks, and Facilities (“Parks and Recreation”) department. As-part-of her duties, Plaintiff managed over twenty employees and was responsible for the day-to-day operations of over sixty, city facilities. And as an operations supervisor, Plaintiff was classified as an exempt employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Thus, she did not receive overtime compensation for working more than forty hours in a workweek. But according to Plaintiff, she also performed a significant amount of manual labor) which she believed entitled her to overtime pay under the FLSA.

At some point, certain Parks and Recre.ation officials began allowing exempt employees to accrue “comp time” when they worked more than forty hours in a workweek. When employees worked certain special events that ran late intp the night, for example, Parks and Recreation would allow them to record that time. The employees would later be permitted to use the comp time as paid time off from work. Plaintiff participated in this program.

In 1999, Plaintiff asked her supervisor for permission to use some, of her comp time. But Plaintiffs request was denied because, as an exempt employee, she was not permitted to accrue comp time. (Doc. 31, PI. Dep. at 83-86.) Plaintiff contested this decision to the director of human resources, who allowed Plaintiff to use the time she had accrued. (Doc. 31-4.) Specifically, in a letter to the director of Parks and Recreation, the human-resources director noted that Plaintiff was in fact prohibited from accruing comp time because she was an exempt employee. (Id.) But he determined that because Plaintiff had-been allowed to accrue the time, “there [was] no other option other than to compensate her for this time.” (Id.) Thus, Augusta permitted Plaintiff to use the time she had accrued.

Following this incidént, the director of Parks and Recreation, Tom Beck, instructed Plaintiff to stop recording comp time on her payroll records. (PI. Dep. at 87.) Mr. Beck told her that she was instead required to record only 7.5 hours, regardless of how many hours she worked in a day. (Id. at 89.) Plaintiff disagreed with Mr. Beck’s instruction, so she implemented her own method for tracking comp time. (Id. at 89-90.)

Employee timecards at the time contained three sheets—a white sheet, a blue sheet, and a yellow sheet. On the white copy, Plaintiff would record the 7.5 hours [1350]*1350she was required to record. (Id. at 89.) This copy went to the payroll department. On the blue and yellow copies, Plaintiff would record the actual time she worked. (Id. at 90.) And when Plaintiff wanted to use her comp time, she would fill out a request form and request her supervisor’s approval.1 (Id. at 93.) Plaintiff followed this practice from 1999 until 2012, when she was demoted.

In 2000, Augusta adopted an ordinance that created an employee policy manual. (Doc. 31-5.) In 2011, Augusta amended its policy manual. (See Doc. 31-7.) The 2011 version specifically provides that “comp time shall only be applicable to non-exempt employees.” (Doc. 31-8 at 20.)

In July 2011, Plaintiff took a leave of absence from work for medical reasons. (PI. Dep. at 118-19.) She received leave with pay from early July until August 19, 2011. (Id. at 119.) But in August, Plaintiff ran out of leave time. (Id. at 120.) Plaintiff then attempted to use the comp time she had purportedly accrued to continue her leave with pay. (Id. at 123.) Her request was denied, however, because the human-resources department did not have a record of her comp time. (Id. at 128.)

Because Plaintiff had run out of sick leave, some of her coworkers donated leave to her through Augusta’s catastrophic-leave program. (Id. at 148-49.) Under this program, employees could request leave donations from other employees. But out-of-work employees were permitted to make these requests only if they had exhausted all of their own leave. Plaintiff received catastrophic-leave pay from September 9 through December 2. (Id. at 153.) She returned to work on December 5, 2011. (Id. at 154-55.)

When Plaintiff returned to work, she immediately began having trouble working with another employee, Sam Smith, with whom she had previously had issues. (See id. at 160-61.) Plaintiff spoke with Dennis Stroud, her supervisor at the time, about Mr. Smith the first day she returned, but this proved unproductive. Two weeks later, she approached Mr. Stroud again. (Id. at 170-71.) This time, Plaintiff and Mr. Stroud got into a heated argument, and Plaintiff left work. (Id. at 171-72.) When she got home, Plaintiff called Mr. Stroud and asked to use her accrued comp time so she could have a few days to clear her head. (Id. at 172.) Mr. Stroud agreed, and Plaintiff took four days off. (Id. at 178.) Notably, while she was out, Plaintiffs ti-mecard showed that she worked those days. (Id. at 180.)

In the spring of 2011, the human-resources department began an investigation into Plaintiffs use of comp time. According to Bill Shanahan, the interim director of human resources and of the Parks and Recreation department, Lisa Hall, an employee from Parks and Recreation, complained to human resources about Plaintiffs use of comp time. (Doc. 41-1, Shanahan Dep. at 18.) Specifically, Mr. Shanahan contends that Ms. Hall questioned why Plaintiff was able to use comp time after returning to work when Plaintiff had previously requested catastrophic leave, which is only available when an employee has exhausted all other leave options. (Id. at 18.) Ms. Hall denies that she made this complaint and instead claims that others complained to [1351]*1351her about Plaintiffs use of comp time. (Doc. 91-1, Hall Dep. at 26-27.)

In any event, Plaintiff learned about the investigation in February 2011 when Mr. Shanahan and other human-resources employees arrived at her office to review Plaintiffs records. (PI. Dep. at 180.) Soon thereafter, Plaintiff spoke with Mr. Shana-han and explained her timekeeping process to him. (Id. at 187.)

As a result of Mr. Shanahan’s investigation, Plaintiff was demoted to the position of maintenance worker. (Id. at 190.) She began work in that position in early May 2011. (Id. at 204-205.) Around the same time, Plaintiff also appealed her demotion. (Id. at 190.) As part of the appeal process, Plaintiff was granted a hearing in front of Fred Russell, Augusta’s administrator. (Id. at 194.) At the hearing, however, Mr. Russell did not allow Plaintiff to present witnesses. (Doc. 37-1, Russell Dep. at 33-34.) Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
243 F. Supp. 3d 1344, 2017 WL 937945, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pearson-v-augusta-ex-rel-davis-gasd-2017.