Scheske v. University of Michigan Health System

59 F. Supp. 3d 820, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141702, 124 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1719, 2014 WL 4978671
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Michigan
DecidedOctober 6, 2014
DocketCase No. 13-13345
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 59 F. Supp. 3d 820 (Scheske v. University of Michigan Health System) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Michigan primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Scheske v. University of Michigan Health System, 59 F. Supp. 3d 820, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141702, 124 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1719, 2014 WL 4978671 (E.D. Mich. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

NANCY G. EDMUNDS, District Judge,

This Title VII retaliation case arises out. of Plaintiff Joan Scheske’s employment at Defendant University of Michigan Health System. Plaintiff argues that she was terminated in retaliation for raising gender discrimination concerns in a presentation to a supervisor. Defendant argues that Plaintiffs presentation was not a protected activity under Title VII. For the reasons stated below, this Court GRANTS Defendant’s motion for summary judgement and DISMISSES Plaintiffs complaint with prejudice.

I. Facts

A. Plaintiffs Employment Prior to August 29, 2012

Plaintiff was originally hired in January 2008 as a Senior Financial/Business Analyst in the University of Michigan Medical School’s Department of Finance. She worked in that role until October 2009, when she was promoted to Senior Financial Manager. (Pl.’s Resp., Ex. 3.) Following a restructuring that combined the University of Michigan Medical School’s finance department with the University of Michigan Hospital’s finance department, Plaintiff sought employment in the Department of Surgery, chaired by Dr. Michael Mulholland. (Id., Ex. 6 at 26.)

Plaintiff accepted the new position in April 2010 following a formal offer from David Mohr, Chief Administrator of the Department of Surgery. (Def.’s Mot., Ex. G at 2-3.) Her working title was Director of Strategy and Business Development, and her market title was Market Research Analyst Lead. (Pl.’s Resp., Ex. 4.)1 In this role, Plaintiffs direct supervisor was David Mohr. She also had weekly meetings with Dr. Mulholland to review her assignments and work. (Id., Ex. 6 at 41.)

[823]*823Although Plaintiff had the working title of a director, her market title was only that of an analyst. She believed that her market title was not reflective of her actual responsibilities and that her salary was therefore too low. (Id. at 54.) She alleges that she researched the market titles of both male and female hires in the Department of Surgery and determined that women were being given lesser market titles than men. (PL’s Resp., Ex. 6 at 54.) She also claims that she had multiple meetings with David Mohr where she discussed how she thought that she did not have an appropriate market title for her responsibilities. (Id.) She did not use the term “gender discrimination” in these discussions, but she claims that she did describe “the definition of it” to him. (Id.)

On August 21, 2012, Plaintiff met with Dr. Mulholland for one of their weekly meetings. At this meeting, they discussed Plaintiffs market title and her concerns with it. Dr. Mulholland informed Plaintiff that the Human Resources Department reviewed her market title in February 2011 and deemed it appropriate. The discussion then turned to David Mohr. Plaintiff and Defendant have different recollections of this discussion. Defendant claims that Plaintiff described David Mohr as “ill-intended, illogical, ill-informed and incompetent.” (Def.’s Mot., Ex. J at 2.) Plaintiff admits that she criticized David Mohr, but only described him as being “disingenuous.” (Pl.’s Resp., Ex. 6 at 116.) Plaintiff also claims that she “factually described what [she] believed to be gender discrimination and pay equity” at that time.2 (Id.) Defendant claims that Dr. Mulholland then informed Plaintiff that her criticism of David Mohr was unjustified and that she would have to adjust her behavior if she wished to continue working in the Department of Surgery. (Defl’s Mot., Ex. J at 2.)

The next day, Plaintiff had a performance review with David Mohr. In the review, David Mohr gave Plaintiff a rating of “exemplary” in every category. (PL’s Resp., Ex. 9.) He wrote that Plaintiff “has performed at an exemplary level,” that she “has developed key relationships, throughout the University and beyond,” and that “the department is fortunate to have [her].” (Id. at 6.) He also gave Plaintiff high ratings for the categories “easy to approach and talk to,” “listens well,” and “builds rapport; interacts with staff members in a manner that is engaging and nonthreatening.” (Id. at 8.) He later testified that he did not believe that Plaintiff had intercommunication problems with anyone in the department at that time. (PL’s Resp., Ex. 10 at 17.)

B. Plaintiffs August 29th Meeting With Dr. Mulholland

Plaintiff met with Dr. Mulholland again on August 29th. At this meeting, Dr. Mul-holland informed Plaintiff that he had considered her concerns, but that her market title was not going to be changed to director. Plaintiff again objected to this and wished to make a presentation to Dr. Mul-holland to express her viewpoint. (PL’s Resp., Ex. 6 at 183; Ex. 12 at 2-3.) Plaintiff testified that she prepared the presentation to “express concern about gender discrimination and pay inequity.” (Id., Ex. 6 at 58.) The topics that she planned on covering were “role specifics, titling, issue history and role definition ... titling prior to joining the department and the rationale that was provided for under titling.” [824]*824(Id. at 183.) Dr. Mulholland agreed to let Plaintiff make the presentation as long as it did not discuss David Mohr and his prior decisions. (PL’s Resp., Ex. 6 at 180.)

The title of the presentation is “Staffing.” (Pl.’s Resp., Ex. 11 at 1.) It has a total of 26 slides. The presentation first discusses the history of her “titling issue” and her transition to the Department of Surgery. (Id. at 3-4.) The presentation then describes the rationales given to her by David Mohr for not giving her a market title of director. The slides repeatedly refer to the rationales as being “disingenuous,” “irrational,” and “illogical.” (Id. at 3, 5, 7-13, 20, 25.)

The presentation also compares Plaintiffs situation with that of others in the department, both men and women. Slide 10, under the bullet point titled “Inconsistent Treatment,” discusses how two men, Charles Ridenour and David Mohr, both joined the Department of Surgery and obtained the market title of director. Slide 11 discusses David Mohr and Charles Ri-denour again. It also states that another male employee, Todd Bridges, received a market title change to a management level position upon joining the department, while a female employee, Tanya Koltayr, had her market title changed from a management to a staff role upon entering the department. Slide 12 addresses the rationale that Plaintiff cannot have the market title of director because she reports to David Mohr and there are no directors who report to other directors. To counter this, the slide describes both men and women who report to David Mohr but have nonetheless been given the market title of director.

Aside from those three slides, there are no other comparisons made to other employees, male or female. The presentation never uses the words “discrimination,” “gender,” or “sex,” and it never states that the department treats men differently than women. No reference is ever made to Plaintiffs gender or any of the employees’ genders. The presentation also never states that Plaintiff nor any other employee has ever been denied the market title of director nor has experienced any discriminatory treatment because they are women.

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59 F. Supp. 3d 820, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141702, 124 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1719, 2014 WL 4978671, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scheske-v-university-of-michigan-health-system-mied-2014.