Rodriguez-Machado v. Department of Veterans Affairs

845 F. Supp. 2d 429, 2012 WL 616478, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25867
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedFebruary 28, 2012
DocketCivil No. 10-1980 (DRD)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 845 F. Supp. 2d 429 (Rodriguez-Machado v. Department of Veterans Affairs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rodriguez-Machado v. Department of Veterans Affairs, 845 F. Supp. 2d 429, 2012 WL 616478, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25867 (prd 2012).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

DANIEL R. DOMINGUEZ, District Judge.

Pending before the court is Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment under Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Docket No. 14). For the reasons set forth below, the Motion for Summary Judgment is GRANTED and the complaint is hereby DISMISSED with prejudice.

I. PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On October 8, 2010, Laura Rodríguez-Machado filed a complaint against her employer, the Department of Veterans Affairs and Mr. Erik K. Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs 1 (collectively, “VA”), under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, 29 U.S.C.A. §§ 621 et seq. (“ADEA”), and the Constitution of the United States of America. (Docket No. 1). The complaint was subsequently amended on February 16, 2011 (Docket No. 7). Plaintiff claims that she was the victim of discrimination on the basis of her age and that one or more of her immediate supervisors created against her a hostile work environment. Plaintiff further claims that she was the victim of retaliation for complaining to VA officials about the age discrimination, for filing two complaints with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, San Juan Local Office (“EEOC”) and for filing the complaint in the instant case.

On June 3, 2011, VA filed a Motion for Summary Judgment (Docket No. 14) alleging, in summary, that Plaintiffs allegations do not establish a case of age discrimination or that VA took retaliatory actions against Plaintiff for engaging in protected activity under ADEA. Further, Defendants argue that Plaintiff failed to exhaust administrative remedies in connection with the retaliatory charges that allegedly occurred between September 16, 2010 and October 4, 2010 because the EEOC complaint filed on account of such allegations was procedurally dismissed as a result of the filing of the instant case. (Docket No. 14).

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Below is a summary of the events that lead to the filing of the instant complaint, [433]*433as alleged in the parties’ statements of uncontested facts and accompanying documents thereto (Docket Nos. 15 and 24).

Plaintiff has been an employee of VA since June of 1976, specifically at the VA Caribbean Healthcare System (“VACHS”) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, employed as a staff nurse. At the time the events that give rise to the instant complaint took place, Plaintiff was fifty-six (56) years of age and was working as a Health System Specialist GS-13.

On July 28, 2008, Plaintiff informed Ms. Evelyn Ramos (Plaintiffs immediate supervisor) that an employee of another department had complained to Plaintiff about his own supervisor and that he had requested Plaintiffs assistance in resolving his grievance. According to Plaintiff, Ms. Ramos, who was fifty-seven (57) years old at the time, became upset and hostile toward Plaintiff and instructed her not to entangle herself in such office gossips. See Docket No. 24, page 5.

Plaintiff avers that, in retaliation for notifying Ms. Ramos of a fellow employee’s complaints, Ms. Ramos assigned Plaintiff additional tasks which were the responsibility of an employee that was no longer working under Ms. Ramos’ supervision. This assignment was additional to Plaintiffs regular workload. Although Ms. Ramos distributed all of the tasks among various employees (including two co-workers that were approximately forty (40) years old at the time), Plaintiff claims that she received the longest and most complicated of them and that the tasks she received required immediate action. See Docket No. 24, page 6. Notwithstanding, Plaintiff admitted that when she requested assistance from Ms. Ramos because she was overwhelmed with the workload, Ms. Ramos re-distributed the assignments between other members of the staff. Docket Nos. 15 and 24.

On August 4, 2008, two of Plaintiffs peer co-workers, not decision-makers as to Plaintiff, asked Plaintiff when she was planning on retiring. At the time, both employees were forty (40) years of age. Plaintiff claims that she felt so overwhelmed by the intrusion that she required psychological assistance and that she contacted her partner, Dr. Nieves (who also works at VACHS), to let her know of the situation. Allegedly, Plaintiff left for the rest of the day to seek medical attention at the Employee Assistance Program and asked Dr. Nieves to inform Ms. Ramos of the incident. Upon Plaintiffs return to work the following day, Plaintiff claims that Ms. Ramos yelled at her and questioned her as to failing to notify her absence during the previous day.

Plaintiff further complained that Ms. Ramos had yelled at her on various other occasions, mostly related to administrative matters and miscommunication between the two with regards to the preparation and execution of the Emergency ICS Activation Plan and for Plaintiffs failure to promptly make travel arrangements for a training held overseas. Plaintiff alleges that some of Ms. Ramos’ outbursts occurred in the presence of other VA employees and Plaintiffs peers.

On September of 2008, Plaintiff requested a meeting with Ms. Nancy Reissner, Acting Director of VACHS, to complain about Ms. Ramos’ alleged hostility against Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s mental health condition as a result of such hostility. Both Ms. Ramos and Ms. Reissner were surprised to learn about Plaintiffs complaints of hostile work environment. During the meeting, Ms. Reissner suggested that they mediate Plaintiffs complaint, but Plaintiff admitted that she did not accept mediation. As a result, Plaintiff was assigned to work under the direct supervision of Ms. Reissner. Docket Nos. 15 and 24.

[434]*434Around the same time, Ms. Ramos allegedly sent Plaintiff an email requesting her assistance in developing the job description for the position “Veteran’s Equitable Resource Allocation Coordinator.” In the email, Ms. Ramos suggested that Plaintiff apply to such position. Plaintiff was offended by Ms. Ramos’ suggestion and interpreted the remark as a signal of Ms. Ramos letting Plaintiff know that she wished Plaintiff out of her current position.

On December 2, 2008, Plaintiff claims to have applied for a higher-grade position within VA. Ms. Reissner was the VA official responsible for selecting the candidate for such position. Plaintiff alleges that the position was awarded to Ms. Nayda Ramirez, whose educational background is in a subject unrelated to medical and/or nursing sciences (i.e. decorative arts). Plaintiff further alleges that Ms. Reissner did not appoint Plaintiff for the position because, in retaliation for Plaintiffs complaint to Ms. Reissner about Ms. Ramos, Ms. Reissner gave Plaintiff a poor performance evaluation in the criteria for “ability to establish and maintain relationships with other employees of the Agency,” “ability to communicate” and “ability to supervise, plan and direct the work of subordinate”. Furthermore, Plaintiff claims that such evaluation was the result of Ms. Reissner’s failure to investigate Plaintiffs complaints of hostile work environment. Ms. Reissner denied Plaintiffs allegations and having knowledge about Plaintiffs application for any vacant positions during Ms. Reissner’s term as Acting Director of VACHS.

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Bluebook (online)
845 F. Supp. 2d 429, 2012 WL 616478, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25867, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rodriguez-machado-v-department-of-veterans-affairs-prd-2012.