Stancombe v. New Process Steel LP

652 F. App'x 729
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 2, 2016
DocketNo. 15-11791
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 652 F. App'x 729 (Stancombe v. New Process Steel LP) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stancombe v. New Process Steel LP, 652 F. App'x 729 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Plaintiff-Appellant Michael Stancombe appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendants-Appellees New Process Steel, L.P., New Process Steel LP LLC, and New Process Steel Corporation of Illinois (collectively “NPS”), and Roderick Woodfin (“Wood-fin”), in a lawsuit asserting federal employment-discrimination claims of hostile work environment and constructive discharge, [731]*731pursuant to Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2, and state-law claims of invasion of privacy, outrage, assault and battery, and negligent and wanton supervision. After careful review, we affirm.

I. Factual Background

NPS is a steel-processing company with a facility in Fairfield, Alabama.1 In or around January 2012, Stancombe got a temporary position at NPS through a staffing agency. He worked on the “banding line,” where he banded steel coil products together so that they would not unravel. Stancombe had been working at NPS for roughly one month when he resigned following two incidents of alleged on-the-job sexual harassment by a male coworker, Woodfin.

The first incident occurred on Thursday, February 9, 2012. Woodfin hugged Stan-combe and touched his buttocks three times in a row while stating, “Good job, good job.” Stancombe reported the incident to his supervisor, Joe Young, who, in turn, informed the manager of the production department, Doug Logan. Stancombe met with Logan, who reassured Stancombe that NPS took sexual harassment seriously and that NPS would investigate the complaint. Logan took written statements from Stancombe and Woodfin, moved Stancombe to a different department, and instructed Woodfin not to have any contact with Stancombe. Logan also told Stan-combe that he would be assigned to a different shift than Woodfin starting the following Monday, February 13, 2012.

In the meantime, Stancombe volunteered to work overtime on Saturday, February 11, two days after the first incident. When he appeared for work, he saw that Woodfin also was working that day. Stan-combe told his supervisor, Joel Bowman, that he was not comfortable around Wood-fin, and Bowman arranged for Stancombe to work with Bowman for the day. At some point, Stancombe was alone and kneeling down when Woodfin came over to Stan-combe’s area, grabbed his head, and made three pelvic thrusts in his face. The incident lasted for three to four seconds. Disgusted and in shock, Stancombe angrily picked up his tools, clocked out, and left. That was his last day of work at NPS. Stancombe did not inform NPS of the incident or his resignation directly, but rather told the staffing agency, which contacted NPS on February 13.

Both of Stancombe’s allegations were investigated by NPS. After the first complaint, Logan conducted a preliminary investigation and interviewed Stancombe, Woodfin, and five other employees who had been working in the general area of the incident. Logan did not find any validation of Stancombe’s complaint that Woodfin touched his buttocks. When the human-resources administrator, Renee Richardson, returned from vacation on February 13, she interviewed Woodfin and eight other employees about both of Stan-combe’s complaints. Richardson agreed with Logan’s determination regarding the first complaint and found no validation for Stancombe’s second complaint. Woodfin denied the second incident, no employee witnessed it, and Bowman stated that he was near Stancombe the entire day but did not see the alleged incident.

Following the investigations, Woodfin was suspended for three days for the first incident because he had admitted to putting his arm around Stancombe. While NPS found that the physical contact was instigated by Stancombe and did not qualify as “harassment,” NPS nonetheless sus[732]*732pended Woodfín as a “reminder ... that physical contact of this nature is inappropriate for the workplace.” Apparently, what Woodfín was being reminded of was a prior disciplinary incident from June 2007, when NPS disciplined him for hitting another employee on the buttocks as the employee was bent over to look into a refrigerator. The conduct report for that incident states, “[A]ny further instance of confirmed inappropriate behavior will bring immediate termination.”

NPS has a sexual discrimination and harassment policy in place. The policy explains the types of conduct that qualify as sexual harassment, and it directs employees to report instances of sexual harassment to management immediately. The policy also states that all reports of possible sexual harassment will be investigated and that a determination will be made on a case-by-case basis after taking into account all of the circumstances.

II.Procedural History

Stancombe filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”). Based on Stancombe’s allegations, the EEOC issued a determination finding cause to believe that Stancombe and other male employees at NPS had been subjected to sexual harassment in violation of Title VII. The EEOC also concluded that Stancombe was “constructively discharged.”

After receiving his right-to-sue letter from the EEOC, Stancombe filed suit against NPS and Woodfín in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, alleging various claims under Title VII and Alabama state law. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants on all claims except for a state-law assault-and-battery claim against Woodfín, which it declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over and dismissed without prejudice. Stan-combe' timely appealed.

III.Standard of Review

We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party. Weeks v. Harden Mfg. Corp., 291 F.3d 1307, 1311 (11th Cir. 2002). Summary judgment is appropriate if the movant shows “that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a). A genuine factual dispute exists if a jury could return a verdict for the non-moving party. Wilson v. B/E Aerospace, Inc., 376 F.3d 1079, 1085 (11th Cir. 2004).

IV.Title VII Claims2

A. Hostile Work Environment

Stancombe argues that NPS was not entitled to summary judgment on his hostile-work-environment claim because the [733]*733incidents were sufficiently continuous and concerted to have altered the conditions of his employment. He further argues that NPS failed to take action to stop the sexually inappropriate behavior.

Title VII is violated when an employee’s “workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment.” Harris v. Forklift Sys., Inc., 510 U.S. 17, 21, 114 S.Ct. 367, 370, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted).

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652 F. App'x 729, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stancombe-v-new-process-steel-lp-ca11-2016.