Wigfall v. Office of Compliance

332 F. Supp. 3d 159
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedSeptember 18, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 16-cv-2332 (DLF)
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 332 F. Supp. 3d 159 (Wigfall v. Office of Compliance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wigfall v. Office of Compliance, 332 F. Supp. 3d 159 (D.C. Cir. 2018).

Opinion

DABNEY L. FRIEDRICH, United States District Judge

Terry Wigfall brings this action against her employer, the Office of Compliance, under the Congressional Accountability *164Act.1 Wigfall claims that individuals at her workplace have discriminated against her on the basis of sex, race, and disability; subjected her to a hostile work environment; and retaliated against her for various actions she took. Before the Court is the Office of Compliance's Motion to Dismiss the complaint pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. For the reasons that follow, the Court will grant the motion and will dismiss the complaint without prejudice.

I. BACKGROUND2

Terry Wigfall began working for the Office of Compliance (OOC), a federal legislative agency, in 2007. Second Am. Compl. ¶ 18. Around 2010,3 Wigfall began working with John Uelmen, then a senior attorney. Id. ¶ 23. Uelmen is a white man, and according to Wigfall, he "had trouble interacting with non-white employees" and "frequently ignored" them "[f]rom the outset." Id. ¶¶ 22-23. In the fall of 2013, when OOC was considering Uelmen for the general counsel position, Wigfall "raised concerns" to OOC's executive director that "Uelmen was racist and sexist." Id. ¶¶ 34-35. OOC did not select Uelmen for the general counsel role in 2013, but he later became general counsel in 2015. Id. ¶ 37. From 2010 to the present, Wigfall alleges that Uelmen "has regularly engaged in rude and inappropriate behavior" including interrupting her at meetings and minimizing her achievements, while sparing Wigfall's white colleagues. Id. ¶ 38. Wigfall claims that "Uelmen's poor treatment of [her] intensified after she recommended to the Board that he not be chosen as General Counsel in 2013," id. ¶ 39, though her complaint does not allege any specific instances before 2015.

Wigfall was promoted to occupational safety and health (OSH) program manager in 2013. Id. ¶ 33. In that role, she completed three reports between August and October 2015 finding health and safety issues in cases filed by the Architect of the Capitol's Inspector General's Office employees. Id. ¶ 40. In October 2015, the general counsel (Uelmen's predecessor, a white woman named Amy Dunning) told Wigfall that she intended to remove the findings, and Wigfall "strongly objected." Id. ¶ 41. On October 28, 2015, Dunning gave Wigfall a negative performance evaluation. Id. ¶ 43. Wigfall alleges that "[b]ecause of [her] negative performance evaluation, she was denied a bonus in 2015," id. ¶ 44, though she admits in her opposition to OOC's motion to dismiss that she learned of the bonus decision in September, Pl.'s Opp'n, Dkt. 37 at 9. Wigfall met with OOC's executive director on October 30 and November 5, and at both meetings she "expressed concerns of racial discrimination in the office." Second Am. Compl. ¶¶ 45-46.

*165On December 7, after investigating a complaint from another OOC employee, Wigfall informed management about mold in one of OOC's file rooms. Id. ¶¶ 47-51. OOC's executive director "became visibly upset and stated that there should be no findings." Id. ¶ 51. Sometime in December, Uelmen stopped processing Wigfall's report on this issue and "changed the process of OSH safety reports" so that "attorneys completed a final review without input from the OSH team," often resulting in attorneys removing OSH findings. Id. ¶ 52. And on December 9, after Wigfall had submitted calendars with inspection dates for the OSH team, Uelmen "returned the calendar proposal with additional job duties" that included "increas[ing] the schedule from 3 days of inspections per week to 4 days per week, and added inspections pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act." Id. ¶ 55. Wigfall believes this added work was retaliation for her mold-in-the-file-room findings. Id. ¶ 56.

In "spring 2016," an OOC attorney-Hillary Benson-started wearing mosquito repellant because she was pregnant and did not want to contract the Zika virus. Id. ¶ 57. Wigfall "immediately began having significant negative, physically disabling reactions to the repellant, including difficulty breathing," and her reactions "materially impacted her ability to perform her job duties." Id. ¶ 58. She missed "numerous days of work" and had to work from an empty conference room when she did come in. Id. ¶ 61. Wigfall alleges she "asked for a reasonable accommodation"-she does not specify what-but that Uelmen dismissed her reactions as seasonal allergies. Id. ¶¶ 59-60. Wigfall alleges that she took two days of sick leave in April 2016 "to recover from bronchitis that she developed as a result of [Benson's] excessive use of insect repellant inside OOC offices." Id. ¶ 66. On April 18, Uelmen "acted aggressively" in a staff meeting, and Wigfall believes this behavior was retaliation for her accommodation request. Id. ¶ 67. On April 20, Uelmen sent Wigfall an expectations memo that was critical of Wigfall's job performance. Id. ¶ 68.

Wigfall filed her first counseling request with OOC on April 25, 2016, and she alleges in her complaint that she "discussed the issues contained above" in her first counseling request. Id. ¶ 69. She completed counseling and requested mediation on June 14; the mediation period ended on August 25. Id. ¶ 70.

At a May 2 staff meeting, Uelmen "did not permit [Wigfall] to speak" and "ignored her." Id. ¶ 71. At meetings on May 4 and May 18, Benson sat close to Wigfall, and Wigfall believes she did so intentionally despite knowing of Wigfall's bug spray sensitivity. Id. ¶¶ 72, 74. Uelmen ignored a May 11 email from Wigfall complaining about the repellant. Id. ¶ 73. On May 18, after Wigfall met with Architect of the Capitol staff to discuss cleaning the office to remove the bug spray smell, OOC's executive director "scolded" her. Id. ¶¶ 75-76. And while a cleaning did take place in late May 2016 that allowed Wigfall to work in her office, Wigfall "does not believe that the spring cleaning was related to her request for a reasonable accommodation" and alleges that OOC "wholly failed" to accommodate her or engage in an interactive process. Id. ¶¶ 77-80.

Wigfall alleges continuing "[r]acial and [g]ender [d]isparities" over the summer of 2016. In May and June, after Wigfall complained to Uelmen that one of her direct reports-a white woman-was habitually late and unresponsive to Wigfall's correction, Uelmen instructed Wigfall to write her up but then met with the employee and took her side. Id. ¶¶ 81-82. Wigfall further alleges that Uelmen "strongly encouraged *166[Wigfall] to discipline non-white employees against [her] judgment," but "refused to allow" her to discipline two white employees (including the tardy employee). Id. ¶ 84. Finally, at a July 18 meeting, Uelmen "ignored" Wigfall and instead directed questions to her subordinate, a white man. Id. ¶ 85.

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332 F. Supp. 3d 159, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wigfall-v-office-of-compliance-cadc-2018.