Taylor v. eCoast Sales Solutions, Ltd.

35 F. Supp. 3d 195, 2014 DNH 164, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107019, 98 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 45,132, 123 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1824, 2014 WL 3844794, 2014 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 165
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Hampshire
DecidedAugust 5, 2014
DocketCivil No. 12-cv-326-JL
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 35 F. Supp. 3d 195 (Taylor v. eCoast Sales Solutions, Ltd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Hampshire primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. eCoast Sales Solutions, Ltd., 35 F. Supp. 3d 195, 2014 DNH 164, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107019, 98 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 45,132, 123 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1824, 2014 WL 3844794, 2014 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 165 (D.N.H. 2014).

Opinion

[197]*197 MEMORANDUM ORDER

JOSEPH N. LAPLANTE, District Judge.

The central question in this case, like in many employment cases, turns on why the defendant fired the plaintiff. Heather A. Taylor has sued her former employer, eCoast Sales Solutions, Ltd., alleging that she was fired for working from home, and then taking a leave of absence, due to documented medical complications from her pregnancy and childbirth. She claims violations of (A) the Family and Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”), 29 U.S.C. § 2615(a)(1), (B) the New Hampshire Law Against Discrimination, N.H.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 354-A7, VI(b), and (C) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e(k), e-2(a)(1). This court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 (federal question) and 1367 (supplemental jurisdiction).

eCoast has moved for summary judgment, see Fed.R.Civ.P. 56, arguing that no rational jury could conclude that Taylor’s working from home or taking leave during her pregnancy played a prohibited role in her firing. Yet Taylor testified at her deposition that, while she was working from home on the orders of her doctors, her immediate supervisor repeatedly told her that “she needed to be back in the office and [she] shouldn’t be out on leave and working from home due to [her] pregnancy.” Ten days after Taylor returned from maternity leave, that same supervisor fired her.

This evidence — which eCoast simply ignored in its opening summary judgment memorandum, and incorrectly dismissed as “unsupported allegations” in its reply— suffices to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether working from home and taking leave due to her pregnancy played an impermissible role in Taylor’s firing, notwithstanding the fact that her supervisor decided to fire her after receiving information that Taylor had engaged in misconduct after returning from leave. In determining the existence of a triable issue as to the employer’s intent, “the question is not whether a reasonable jury could find that [the employer] would have fired [the plaintiff] even in the absence of retaliatory intent. Rather, the question pertinent to '. • • summary judgment is whether no reasonable jury could find otherwise.” Travers v. Flight Servs. & Sys., Inc., 737 F.3d 144, 148 (1st Cir.2013). That conclusion simply cannot follow from the record here, which, though eCoast pretends otherwise, includes Taylor’s testimony as to repeated comments by her supervisor disapproving of her working from home and taking leave due to her pregnancy. Based on that testimony, and other record evidence, “it remains plausible that the pre-existing retaliatory motive tipped the scales when the company decided whether [Taylor] had violated company policy in a way that required [her] termination.” Id. Following oral argument, then, the court denies eCoast’s motion for summary judgment, for the reasons set forth in detail below.

I. Applicable legal standard

Summary judgment is appropriate where “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 dispute is “genuine” if it could reasonably be resolved in either party’s favor at trial by a rational fact-finder, and “material” if it could sway the outcome under applicable law. See Estrada v. Rhode Island, 594 F.3d 56, 62 (1st Cir.2010). Importantly, in deciding summary judgment, the court “views all facts and draws all reasonable inferences in the light most favorable to the non-moving” party. Id.

[198]*198II. Background

As required on summary judgment, the following facts are set forth in the light most favorable to Taylor. See id. In October 2008, Taylor began working as a sales representative for eCoast, a company that generates sales leads for technology vendors. During a period of three-plus months in 2009, Taylor worked from home following major foot surgery, and returned to the office to find “everything where it was or should have been.” Taylor’s immediate supervisor during that time called her “the highest producer month over month [in] any business unit” and praised her “unending drive for perfection and tremendous work ethic.”

In late April 2010, Taylor abruptly quit her job, but after discovering that she was pregnant, reconsidered, realizing that “[i]t was not a time to make major decisions.” In a subsequent conversation with her then-immediate supervisor — as well as with eCoast’s CEO, Allen Tait1 — Taylor explained that she was pregnant, and asked to be rehired. Tait agreed, and Taylor resumed working at eCoast in early May 2010. She was assigned to work for a different immediate supervisor, Jon De-colfmacker.

Within a month or so, in early June 2010, Taylor began experiencing complications with her pregnancy, including bleeding. Initially, her physician ordered Taylor to remain out of work for a week, then cleared her to work from home, first for just “a few hours a day if she is feeling well,” then for 30-35 hours a week. By mid-August 2010, Taylor’s doctor ordered that she “remain working at home until further notice ... from 30-35 hours a week only.” Taylor provided documentation of these orders to eCoast, which, as her doctors had directed, allowed her to work from home beginning in early June 2010.

While Taylor was working from home, she communicated daily with Decolfmacker, her supervisor. ' During this time, De-colfmacker “made quite a few statements that [she] should be back in that office instead of working from home.” Taylor testified that Decolfmacker made these comments “on numerous occasions,” including after he learned, in late July 2010, that her doctor had just ordered Taylor to work from home through mid-August 2010. At that point, Taylor recalled, Decolfmacker “was telling [her] that [she] needed to get back in the office and that he needed to get a time that [she] was going to be back in the office.” Later, in mid-August 2010, when Taylor told Decolfmacker of her doctor’s order “that [she] would be working from home at that point until [she went] out on ... leave for the baby,” Decolfmacker said “he didn’t expect that [she] would be out of the office [that] long with [her] pregnancy and that [she] should be back in the office.” Taylor further testified that, “[f|rom August on, [] De-colfmacker repeatedly kept telling [her] that [she] needed to be back in the office and [she] shouldn’t be out on leave and working from home due to [her] pregnancy.” He was making these statements, Taylor recalled, nearly “every time” she talked to him.

In early November 2010, Taylor was hospitalized due to complications from her pregnancy, and was placed on FMLA leave. Taylor gave birth to her baby, via an emergency caesarean section, in late December 2010.

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Related

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Bluebook (online)
35 F. Supp. 3d 195, 2014 DNH 164, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107019, 98 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 45,132, 123 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1824, 2014 WL 3844794, 2014 Wage & Hour Cas.2d (BNA) 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-ecoast-sales-solutions-ltd-nhd-2014.