Stapp v. Overnite Transportation Co.

995 F. Supp. 1207, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2656, 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 45,660, 1998 WL 95022
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedFebruary 5, 1998
DocketCIV. A. 96-2320-GTV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 995 F. Supp. 1207 (Stapp v. Overnite Transportation Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stapp v. Overnite Transportation Co., 995 F. Supp. 1207, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2656, 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 45,660, 1998 WL 95022 (D. Kan. 1998).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

VAN BEBBER, Chief Judge.

In this action, plaintiff claims that defendant subjected her to disparate treatment based on her gender, hostile-work environment sexual harassment, and retaliation, all in violation of Title VH of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq . Plaintiff also brings state law claims alleging outrage, assault, and battery. The case is before the court on defendant’s motion for summary judgment (Doc. 54). For the reasons set forth below, defendant’s motion is denied.

I. Factual Background

The following facts are either uneontroverted or based on evidence viewed in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. Immaterial facts and facts not properly supported in the record are omitted.

Defendant is an interstate carrier of general commodity, less-than-truck-load freight. . On August 8,1988, defendant hired plaintiffs husband, Danny Stapp, as a “road driver” to transport freight between defendant’s various terminals. On May 18, 1989, defendant hired plaintiff as a road driver. Since that time, plaintiff and her husband have worked as a team and jointly operated a sleeper cab. Plaintiff and her husband bid on, and were assigned, the transport route between Kansas City, Kansas and Salt Lake City, Utah.

A. Facts Concerning Disparate Treatment Claim

The bulk of the facts dealing with plaintiffs disparate treatment claim concern her inability to gain equal access to toilet and shower facilities at defendant’s various terminals and service centers. It is uncontested that plaintiff stopped at defendant’s service centers in Oakland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Portland, Sacramento, Des Moines, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Kansas City, Kansas. According to defendant, separate restroom facilities are provided for males and females at each of these terminals. On-site shower facilities are available to both males and females- at unisex facilities at the Oakland, Portland, Denver, and Salt Lake City terminals. 1 Shower facilities are not available to *1210 either sex at the Seattle, Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Des Moines terminals. And at the Kansas City terminal, there are separate shower facilities for both male and female employees.

Despite this apparent equality in the availability of facilities, plaintiff claims that she faced the following disparate treatment while using or attempting to use defendant’s facilities:

1. Although plaintiff has access to the women’s restrooms in Salt Lake City, the facilities are in a part of the building that is not well lit.
2. In Salt Lake City, the plaintiff must, at times, wait for long periods of time until the restroom is empty before using the shower.
3. When plaintiff has used the shower at Salt Lake City, men have kicked the door open and tom down her sign indicating that a woman was in the shower.
4. In Salt Lake City, plaintiff, while waiting to use the. shower, has been exposed to male truck drivers walking naked in the sleeping room..
5. When plaintiff asked one of defem dant’s Denver terminal supervisors where to find , the woman’s restroom, she was told to use the “little brown building with a moon on it.”
6. In Kansas City, plaintiff must have a key to gain access to the separate women’s facilities. At times, when she does not have her key, plaintiff is unable to use the women’s facilities and must use the men’s. As a result, men have walked in on her using the men’s facilities.
7. Plaintiff was not allowed to use the men’s shower facilitie's in Portland in 1994.
8. Plaintiff was not allowed to use the toilet facilities at the Sacramento terminal in 1994.
9. Plaintiff was assaulted in the women’s restroom in the Salt Lake City terminal in 1996.
10. In defendant’s Reno terminal, plaintiff was denied the opportunity to use any of the toilet facilities.

Plaintiff also alleges the following incidents of disparate treatment based on denial of mechanical assistance because she was a woman:

1. In the winter or early spring of 1996, the brake lines on plaintiffs truck froze. A dispatcher told plaintiff to drag the truck to the shop. When plaintiff refused to do so, the dispatcher requested to speak to her husband.
2. In 1994 or 1995, plaintiff reported that a hazardous spill had occurred. The dispatcher requested to speak to plaintiffs husband who was sleeping at the time. Plaintiff refused to wake up her husband.
3. Sometime in 1991 or 1992, plaintiff was told by a dispatcher to find a man to check the oil in her truck.
4. In 1991 or 1992, plaintiff complained to a mechanic that something was wrong with her truck. The mechanic complained that plaintiff was always “bitching about something,” and requested that plaintiff wake her husband to handle the situation.

B. Facts Concerning Hostile Work Environment Claim

Plaintiff claims that the preceding facts also support her hostile work environment claim. To further support this claim, plaintiff presents the following additional facts:

1. In 1989, a safety supervisor and plaintiff arrived late to a training session. The supervisor said, “I’m sorry we’re late, but when I picked Nora up at the motel, something came up.” According to plaintiff, the comment implied sexual arousal.
2. In July 1989, a supervisor in Denver called plaintiff a “dumb bitch” when she failed to deliver various trailers to a brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado.
3. In 1992, Ray June, a dispatcher, asked if plaintiff was “tanned all over” and repeatedly asked to see if she, in fact, was free of tan lines.
4. Also in 1992, plaintiff asked a dispatcher why she was given unfairly heavy loads. The dispatcher responded that *1211 “Maybe I’m not impressed with women’s tits.” Plaintiff, however, admits that the heavy loads were not given to her because she was a woman.
5. Sometime in either 1993 or 1994, plaintiff was not allowed to ask questions at a driver’s meeting because of her gender.
6. During a safety inspection on June 21, 1994, Steve Rash, the then-Salt Lake City Safety Supervisor,.asked plaintiff if she cheated on her husband and then described his experiences at Debbie Does Doughnuts, a topless doughnut shop in Fort Collins, Colorado. Plaintiffs time log indicates that she was detained for nearly two hours.
7. On October 31, 1994, Rash issued a speeding ticket to plaintiff’s husband.

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995 F. Supp. 1207, 1998 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2656, 74 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 45,660, 1998 WL 95022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stapp-v-overnite-transportation-co-ksd-1998.