Vicky S. CRAWFORD, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE, Defendant-Appellee, Gene Hughes, Dr.; Pedro Garcia, Dr., Defendants.
No. 05-5258.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
Nov. 14, 2006.
472 F.3d 373
The judgment in favor of defendants is AFFIRMED in part and REVERSED in part, and the case is REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this opinion on the claim of excessive force against Mondeau.
RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge, concurring.
I fully concur in both the reasoning and the result reached by the lead opinion. My purpose in writing separately is simply to point out that, in my opinion, Officer Mondeau‘s alleged statements to the effect that he “loved to manhandle women” are of greater significance in this case than the footnote mention to which they are relegated. Lead Op. at 11 n. 8. Mondeau‘s statements are not just after-the-fact characterizations, but rather provide a contemporaneous account of the force that he intended to exert in Lustig‘s arrest. By his own alleged description, Mondeau did not simply escort Lustig by placing her in a control hold; he instead “manhandl[ed]” her.
Mondeau‘s alleged statements thus bear on the excessive-force determination in this case and lend further support to the lead opinion‘s conclusion in step one of its analysis that Mondeau‘s alleged use of force was excessive. I believe the statements also factor into the second step of the lead opinion‘s analysis in determining whether “it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted.” Lead Op. at 14 (citation and quotation marks omitted). Again, Mondeau‘s own alleged contemporaneous statements to the effect that he was “manhandl[ing]” Lustig support the inference that he was or should have been aware that such conduct was unlawful.
Francis H. Young, Metropolitan Department of Law, Nashville, TN, for Defendant-Appellee.
Before: BOGGS, Chief Judge; DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge; MILLS, District Judge.*
PER CURIAM.
Vicky S. Crawford, a former employee of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee (“Metro“), appeals the district court‘s grant of summary judgment against her claims for retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
I
As this case is before us on an appeal of a grant of summary judgment, we state the facts in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. See Hopson v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., 306 F.3d 427, 432 (6th Cir.2002).
Vicky Crawford had worked for Metro for thirty years before being fired in November of 2002. Crawford alleges that the situation that led to her firing arose in the fall of 2001, when Metro hired Dr. Gene Hughes as the employee relations director for the Metro School District. As employee relations director, Hughes was responsible for, inter alia, investigating complaints of discrimination. In May 2002, an attorney for the Metro Legal Department contacted the Human Resources Department after Jennifer Bozeman, an attorney with Metro Legal, learned from another Metro employee that there were several employees within the administrative offices that had expressed concern about specific incidents of inappropriate behavior by Hughes. Because Hughes would normally have been responsible for investigating complaints of sexual harassment, this complaint was instead brought to the attention of Dr. Pedro Garcia, the director of schools. Metro then assigned Veronica Frazier, the assistant director of human resources, to investigate the complaint. In carrying out the investigation, Frazier contacted employees who worked with Hughes in the Metro administrative offices
* The Honorable Richard Mills, United States District Judge for the Central District of Illinois, sitting by designation.
In July 2002, Crawford went to the legal department as requested and Frazier questioned her about Hughes. Crawford told the investigators that Hughes had sexually harassed her and other employees.1 According to Crawford, she believed that she was exercising her rights under federal law when she informed Frazier of Hughes‘s actions. Frazier‘s investigation concluded that Hughes had engaged in inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, though not to the extent of Crawford‘s allegations. It appears that no disciplinary actions was taken against Hughes; the investigators did recommend training and education for the staff.
According to Crawford, during the investigation, three employees made statements that Hughes had engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct, and after the sexual harassment investigation, these three employees were immediately investigated on other grounds and all promptly discharged. Crawford herself was terminated in January 2003 after having been accused of embezzlement and drug use, charges which she states were “ultimately found to be unfounded.” In June 2003, Crawford filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC alleging retaliation, and after receiving her notice of right to sue, she brought this suit.
II
We review a district court‘s grant of summary judgment de novo, using the same
III
Title VII provides that “[i]t shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against any of [its] employees ... because [the employee] has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this subchapter [(“the opposition clause“)], or because [the employee] has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this subchapter [ (“the participation clause“) ].”
First, Crawford‘s actions do not constitute opposition under the meaning of the opposition clause. We have enumerated the types of activities that constitute opposition under Title VII: “complaining to anyone (management, unions, other employees, or newspapers) about allegedly unlawful practices; refusing to obey an order because the worker thinks it is unlawful under Title VII; and opposing unlawful acts by persons other than the employer—e.g., former employers, union, and co-workers.” Johnson v. Univ. of Cincinnati, 215 F.3d 561, 579 (6th Cir.2000). The general idea is that Title VII “demands active, consistent ‘opposing’ activities to warrant protection against retaliation.” Bell v. Safety Grooving and Grinding, LP, 107 Fed.Appx. 607, 610 (6th Cir.2004).
Crawford‘s actions consisted of cooperating with Metro‘s investigation into Hughes by appearing for questioning at the request of Frazier and, in response to Frazier‘s questions, relating unfavorable information about Hughes. Crawford does not claim to have instigated or initiated any complaint prior to her participation in the investigation, nor did she take any further action following the investigation and prior to her firing. This is not the kind of overt opposition that we have held is required for protection under Title VII.
Second, Crawford‘s participation in an internal investigation initiated by Metro in the absence of any pending EEOC charge is not a protected activity under the participation clause. We have held that “Title VII protects an employee‘s participation in an employer‘s internal investigation into allegations of unlawful discrimination where that investigation occurs pursuant to a pending EEOC charge.” Abbott, 348 F.3d at 543. In Crawford‘s case, however, no EEOC charge had been filed at the time of the investigation or prior to her firing; the investigation was internal and was prompted by an informal internal statement. Courts have generally held that the participation clause does not protect “an employee‘s participation ‘in an employer‘s internal, in-house investigation, conducted apart from a formal charge with the EEOC‘; at a minimum, an employee must have filed a charge with the EEOC or otherwise instigated proceedings under Title VII.” Ibid. (quoting EEOC v. Total Sys. Serv., Inc., 221 F.3d 1171, 1174 n. 2 (11th Cir.2000)); Brower v. Runyon, 178 F.3d 1002, 1006 (8th Cir.1999); Vasconcelos v. Meese, 907 F.2d 111, 113 (9th Cir. 1990); Goldberg v. Media General, Inc., 2003 WL 21920923 at *3 (E.D.Tenn. June 18, 2003).
Crawford argues that we should break from the general trend requiring a formal EEOC charge to have been filed or the machinery of Title VII otherwise invoked before the participation clause takes effect. Crawford points to the Supreme Court‘s decision in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998), which created an affirmative defense against an employer‘s vicarious liability for sexual harassment by its employees when: “(1) the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and (2) the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise.” Id. at 805-07, 118 S.Ct.
As an initial matter, this foreboding scenario is predicated upon a lax reading of Faragher. In order to be entitled to an affirmative defense, an employer must exercise “reasonable care.” Ibid. Certainly, a policy or practice of firing a person who testified negatively during an investigation into complaints of sexual harassment would not be “reasonable.” Courts have held that an anti-harassment policy designed to deter sexual harassment can help an employer meet its burden as to the first element of the Faragher test only if the policy is “both reasonably designed and reasonably effectual” and not administered “in bad faith.” See, e.g., Brown v. Perry, 184 F.3d 388, 396 (4th Cir.1999). A policy of firing any witness that testified negatively during an internal investigation would certainly constitute bad faith; even an instance of an allegedly unjustified firing would put the Faragher defense at risk.
This court has stated that the purpose of Title VII‘s participation clause “is to protect access to the machinery available to seek redress for civil rights violations and to protect the operation of that machinery once it has been engaged. Accordingly, any activity by the employee prior to the instigation of statutory proceedings is to be considered pursuant to the opposition clause.” Booker v. Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co., Inc., 879 F.2d 1304, 1313 (6th Cir.1989). The impact of Title VII on an employer can be onerous. By protecting only participation in investigations that occur relative to EEOC proceedings, the participation clause prevents the burden of Title VII from falling on an employer who proactively chooses to launch an internal investigation. Expanding the purview of the participation clause to cover such investigations would simultaneously discourage them. we will not alter this limit delineated by the language of Title VII and recognized by this court and others.
IV
Accordingly, for the reasons set out above, we AFFIRM the district court‘s grant of summary judgment.
PER CURIAM