Smith v. Holder

115 F. Supp. 3d 5
District Court, District of Columbia·Decided July 15, 2015·No. Civil Action No. 2010-1302·Published·Cited by 20 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

BERYL A. HOWELL, United States District Judge

This Court entered a Memorandum Opinion (“Mem. Op.”), ECF'No. 71, and accompanying Order, ECF No. 72, granting summary judgment to the defendant in this action on May 13, 2015. Now pending before the Court is the plaintiffs Motion to Alter or Amend Order Granting Defendant’s Motion for Summary. Judgment (“PL’s Mot.”), ECF No. 73. For the reasons set forth below, the motion is denied.

I. BACKGROUND

The pertinent facts of this case were adequately explained in the Mem. Op and need not be repeated here. See Smith v. Lynch, No. 10-1302, 106 F.Supp.3d 20, 24-36, 2015 WL 2265100, at *1-11 (D.D.C. May 13, 2015). In short, the plaintiff, who is an African American employee of the U.S. Department of Justice, alleges that she was subjected to discrimination, a hostile work environment, and retaliation, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), .42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., based upon her race and alleged disability of right-hand Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (“CTS”). Id. at 24-25, 2015 WL 2265100, at *1. This Court held, with respect to the plaintiffs Rehabilitation Act claims, in Counts II and IV of the Complaint, that (1) the plaintiff was not disabled within the meaning of the Rehabilitation Act in effect when the plaintiff was allegedly held responsible for- co-workers’ assignments, id. at 27-28, 2015 WL 2265100, at *4; given discriminatory work assignments, id. at 27-29, 2015 WL 2265100, at *4-5; denied advance sick leave, id. at 28-33, 2015 WL 2265100, at *5-8; charged with tardiness, id. at 32-33, 2015 WL 2265100, at *8; and bumped by her supervisor, id. at 32-34, 2015 WL 2265100, at *8-9, all of which events occurred in 2007, id. at 27-34, 2015 WL 2265100, at *4-9; id. at 45-46,- 2015 WL 2265100, at *19 (holding that plaintiff was not “disabled” within the meaning of the pre-ADA Amendments 2 Rehabilitation Act); (2) the plaintiff failed to exhaust her *10 administrative remedies, as required by statute, for any events that occurred after the operative definition of disability under the Rehabilitation Act changed on January 1. 2009, id. at 45-47, 2015 WL 2265100, at *19-20 and' n.24; 3 and (3), consequently, the plaintiffs Rehabilitation Act claims based on alleged discrimination, hostile work environment, and retaliation failed, id. at 46-47, 2015 WL 2265100, at *20.

With respect to the plaintiffs Title VII race discrimination claims, in Counts I and III of the Complaint, the Court held that the plaintiff failed to provide any admissible evidence sufficient to create a triable issue regarding whether she was treated differently from non-African-American employees or whether the defendant’s treatment of her was motivated, in any way, by the plaintiffs race. See id. at 22-23. The Court concluded that “no reasonable jury could find that the plaintiff ... was subjected to a hostile work environment or retaliation based on her race.” Id. at 23. Consequently, the Court granted summary judgment to the defendant on all counts and dismissed this action 4 Id.-, Order at I, ECF No. 72.

The plaintiff now seeks to alter the judgment against her pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 59(e). Pl.’s Mot. at 1. The defendant timely filed an opposition to the motion, Def.’s Opp’n PL’s Mot. (“Def.’s Opp’n”), ECF No. 74, and the plaintiff did not file a reply. This motion is now ripe for resolution.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

A motion to alter or amend k judgment under Federal Rule óf Civil Procedure 59(e) “‘is discretionary and need not be granted unless the district court finds that there is an intervening change of controlling law, the availability of new evidence, or the need to correct -a clear error or prevent manifest injustice.’ ” Messina *11 v. Krakower, 439 F.3d 755, 758 (D.C.Cir.2006) (quoting Firestone v. Firestone, 76 F.3d 1205, 1208 (D.C.Cir.1996)). A district court’s denial of a request for this extraordinary relief is reviewed only for abuse of discretion. See Mohammadi v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 782 F.3d 9, 17 (D.C.Cir.2015) (stating that “ ‘Reconsideration of a judgment after its entry is an extraordinary remedy which should be used sparingly.’” (quoting 11 Charles Alan Wright et al., Federal Practice & Procedure § 2810.1 (3d ed.2012)); Dyson v. District of Columbia, 710 F.3d 415, 420 (D.C.Cir.2013); Messina, 439 F.3d at 759; Anyanwutaku v. Moore, 151 F.3d 1053, 1058 (D.C.Cir.1998).

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Smith v. Holder, 115 F. Supp. 3d 5 (D.D.C. 2015).

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