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Santiago-Ramos v. Centennial P.R. Wireless Corp., 217 F.3d 46 (1st Cir. July 6, 2000)

Keywords: Title VII (sex discrimination, wrongful termination; retaliation) 

Introduction: Nilsa Santiago-Ramos sued Centennial P.R. Wireless Corporation under Title VII for sex discrimination alleging wrongful termination and retaliation. The district court granted summary judgment for Centennial. The First Circuit affirms in part and vacates in part.

Facts: Centennial, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based Centennial Cellular Corporation is a telecommunications business that began operations in Puerto Rico in early 1996. Amaury Rivera, Centennial's vice president and general manager, hired Santiago-Ramos in June of 1996. She was the only female among Centennial's four high-level executives. She was responsible for Centennial's finance, certain personnel matters and some inventory assignments.

At the time, Santiago-Ramos had one child and hoped to have another child within several years. During her employment, comments were made to her about her ability (in particular) and about a woman's ability (in general) to perform her job while juggling family responsibilities. These comments were made by Rivera, by Phil Mayberry (the parent company's senior vice president for Puerto Rico operations) and by other Centennial employees.

In fact, while assisting Rivera in planning a major job fair at which many Centennial employees would be hired, Rivera discussed a hiring profile with Santiago-Ramos that purportedly excluded from consideration married women and women with children. Santiago-Ramos also claims that Rivera called Mayberry, read the profile to him, and he approved it.

On September 27, 1996, Santiago-Ramos was terminated. The decision was allegedly made by Mayberry -- although there is evidence that Rivera also had input. Santiago-Ramos was not given a reason for her termination.

Law:

1. Centennial proffered five reasons for her termination

   1. When a shipment of 500 telephones crucial to Centennial's telecommunications operations arrived, five telephones were missing. Santiago-Ramos had inventory responsibility over this shipment and the fact that phones were missing was not discovered until several days after the shipment had arrived.

   2. Centennial incurred demurrage charges on a shipment containing communications towers because they were picked up at the San Juan docks late.

   3. Electrical service was cut off at several Centennial locations because utility bills were unpaid. Santiago-Ramos was responsible to pay these bills, and Centennial bore reconnect charges to restore power.

   4. The Centennial employee manual, over which Santiago-Ramos had ultimate oversight responsibility, was not completed during her employment.

   5. Her general attitude and lack of commitment.

2. Evidence of pretext

   1. Pretext can be established by showing that key decisionmakers or persons in a position to influence key decisionmakers made discriminatory comments. In this case, Mayberry, a key decisionmaker, and Rivera, a person in a position to influence a key decisionmaker, made discriminatory comments. For example, two weeks before her termination, Mayberry was quizzing Santiago-Ramos about her ability to balance work and parental responsibilities. Santiago-Ramos told him of her desire for another child and he questioned her ability to fulfill her work responsibilities should she have a second child.

   2. Evidence of a general atmosphere of discrimination may be considered with other evidence to establish pretext. Santiago-Ramos presented evidence that discriminatory comments were made by others at Centennial and the parent company.

   3. Another method of establishing pretext is to show that Centennial's nondiscriminatory reasons were after-the-fact justifications. According to Rivera's secretary, his memo dated the day of Santiago-Ramos's termination (which gives the reasons for her termination) was not actually prepared until after the termination when it became apparent that Santiago-Ramos would pursue a legal remedy.

   4. Finally, a plaintiff can establish pretext by showing "weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions in the employer's proffered reasons." With respect to the five missing phones, Rivera told her it was a minor matter. With respect to the late pick up of the communications towers, Santiago-Ramos claims this was not her responsibility. The fact that the employee manual was not completed was because an outside law firm was tardy in providing the first draft of the manual.

3. Discriminatory animus

   1. Mayberry's comments two weeks prior to the termination are sufficient evidence of discriminatory animus.

4. Retaliation claim

   1. Her protected activity was opposing the hiring profile Rivera allegedly discussed with her prior to the job fair.

   2. There is a question as to whether Mayberry was aware of the protected activity, but even if he was, there is no evidence of a causal connection between the protected activity and the termination.

5. Therefore, the Court vacates and remands on the discrimination claim, but affirms the dismissal of the retaliation claim.

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