Stephanie Howard v. Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy

446 F.3d 559, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11089, 87 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,399, 97 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1729, 2006 WL 1172329
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedMay 4, 2006
Docket05-1258
StatusPublished
Cited by65 cases

This text of 446 F.3d 559 (Stephanie Howard v. Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stephanie Howard v. Donald C. Winter, Secretary of the Navy, 446 F.3d 559, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11089, 87 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,399, 97 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1729, 2006 WL 1172329 (4th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

Affirmed in part; vacated and remanded in part by published opinion. Judge WILLIAMS wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge WILKINS and Judge SHEDD joined.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge.

Appellant Stephanie Howard appeals the district court’s entry of summary judgment for Appellee Secretary of the Navy (Navy), in his official capacity, 1 on her hostile work environment claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.A. § 2000e et seq. (West Supp. 2005). The district court granted summary judgment based on its conclusion that once the Navy was provided adequate notice of Howard’s allegations, its response was reasonable. For the reasons stated herein, 'we affirm in part, and vacate and remand in part.

I.

We summarize the essential facts of this case in the light most favorable to Howard. 2 Howard is a former employee of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Arlington, Virginia. During some of her time at NAVAIR, Howard was employed as a group secretary, where her duties consisted of providing administrative services to all fifty-five staff members in the Air Assault and Weapons Division.

One of those fifty-five staff members was Randy McCall, a Logistics Management Specialist. Howard alleges that McCall sexually harassed her between the period of June 1995 to November 1996. Howard claims that McCall often spoke to her in a sexually provocative manner and fondled her breasts, backside, and face. This behavior reached a height on March 5, 1996, when Howard walked over to McCall’s cubicle to read his newspaper, as she often did. While she was reading the newspaper, McCall placed his fingers up her dress and inside her vagina. Traumatized and violated, Howard immediately fled McCall’s cubicle area.

After the March 5 incident, 3 Howard drafted a letter to McCall explaining that his advances were unwanted and he had gone too far. After drafting the letter, she delivered it to McCall while accompanied by her friend and coworker, William Willard. On March 19, Howard went to speak with Jessica Demaris, who worked in NA-VAIR’s human resources division. Howard told Demaris that she wished to be *563 placed on a list to receive placement with another Department of Defense division. When Demaris asked why, Howard told her she was being “assail[ed]” at work. (J.A. at 321.) Demaris attempted to get more information out of Howard, but, by Howard’s own admission, she was not “very specific” and did not name McCall. (J.A. at 85.) Unable to obtain much information from Howard, Demaris then referred Howard to Aaron Pendleton, a Human Resources Specialist. (J.A. at 507.) At her deposition, Howard recounted her conversation with Pendleton:

[Pendleton] said to me, Hey, what’s going on? What are you doing here?
I says, I am trying to get the hell up out of here.
He says, Why? What’s wrong?
I said this mother-f-r put his hands
on me, and I don’t like it.
He says, Who?
I said, Somebody old enough to be my grandfather.
He says, Who?
I said, Randy McCall.
He says, I don’t know him. He says, This is what you need to do. He says, What you need to do is you need to write him a letter.
I said, I already did.
He says, The next thing you need to do is you need to write down everything else that he, you know, he does to you if he harasses you again. Now, if he harasses you again, you need to let somebody know. You need to tell your supervisor or you need to come back to me.

(J.A. at 322-23.)

Some time later, McCall again began to make inappropriate comments to Howard, but he did not touch her again until November 18, 1996, when Howard alleges that McCall cornered her while she was sorting mail, this time placing his hand on her face, neck, and breast. Howard told her friend and coworker Pace about McCall’s behavior, and sometime in November 1996, Pace — with Howard’s consent — went to Pace’s supervisor, Ginger Toucher, to explain Howard’s problem and provide Toucher with a copy of Howard’s earlier letter to McCall. At that point, Toucher called both of Howard’s supervisors, Michael Erk and John Bara-nowski, into her office to explain what she had learned. This was the first that Erk or Baranowski had heard of Howard’s allegations. Erk and Baranoswki then immediately informed NAVAIR’s Office of General Counsel of the allegations, and Baranoswki located McCall and brought him into his office. McCall was immediately reassigned to another NAVAIR division on a different floor level. An investigation ensued, but NAVAIR could not verify Howard’s charges. Nonetheless, McCall’s reassignment off of Howard’s floor was made permanent. Howard .did not complain of any harassment after this November date.

At all times during the period of alleged harassment, the Department of the Navy had a specific sexual harassment policy in place. The relevant portions of the policy provided:

Individuals who believe they have been sexually harassed are encouraged to address their concerns or objections regarding the incident directly with the person demonstrating the harassing behavior. Persons who are subjected to or observe objectionable behavior should promptly notify the chain of command if:
(1) The objectionable behavior does not stop; or
(2) The situation is not resolved; or
(3) Addressing the objectionable behavior directly with the person concerned is *564 not reasonable under the circumstances; or
(4) The behavior is clearly criminal in nature.
If the person demonstrating the objectionable behavior is a direct superior in the chain of command or the chain of command condones the conduct or ignores a report, individuals who have been subjected to or who observe objectionable behavior are encouraged to promptly communicate the incident through other available means.

(J.A. at 213.)

In January 1997, Howard filed an EEO complaint with NAVAIR, alleging that the Navy discriminated against her on the basis of her sex in violation of Title VII. On July 15, 1999, an EEOC administrative judge (AJ) entered a “Decision Without Hearing” against Howard. (J.A. at 180.) The AJ found that McCall had no supervisory authority over Howard, that Howard first informed NAVAIR of her allegations in November 1996, and that the Navy responded with immediate and appropriate action once it was put on notice in November. NAVAIR adopted the AJ’s findings of fact and conclusions of law as its final agency decision. Howard appealed the final agency decision to the EEOC’s Office of Federal Operations, and they affirmed the decision.

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446 F.3d 559, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 11089, 87 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 42,399, 97 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1729, 2006 WL 1172329, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stephanie-howard-v-donald-c-winter-secretary-of-the-navy-ca4-2006.