Opinion ID: 3013236
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: A Constructive Discharge, When Proved,

Text: Constitutes a Tangible Employment Action within the Meaning of Ellerth and Faragher Although we are cognizant of this wide divergence of views among the Courts of Appeals, we disagree with the PA State Police’s argument that a constructive discharge is not a tangible employment action. Our decision is based on the following observations: (1) although we have not definitively ruled on the issue, our recent decisions have suggested that a constructive discharge constitutes a tangible employment action; (2) none of the grounds advanced by the Caridad line of cases persuades us that a constructive discharge should not be held to constitute a tangible employment action; and (3) holding an employer strictly liable for a constructive discharge resulting from the 36 actionable harassment of its supervisors more faithfully adheres to the policy objectives set forth in Ellerth and Faragher and to our own Title VII jurisprudence. At the outset, we note that although the present appeal marks the first time that we definitively address the issue of constructive discharge within the framework of Ellerth and Faragher, we are not writing on a blank slate. In Cardenas v. Massey, 269 F.3d 251, 266-67 (3d Cir. 2001), plaintiff alleged that he was subjected to a racially hostile work environment, resulting in his constructive discharge. In reversing the grant of summary judgment on plaintiff ’s hostile work environment claim, we noted that “[i]f Cardenas convinces a jury that he was victimized by a hostile work environment created by [defendants], it is certainly possible that the same jury would find that the hostile environment was severe enough to have precipitated Cardenas’ resignation, i.e., a constructive discharge.” Id. We also recognized that “[t]here appears to be some disagreement on whether constructive discharge constitutes a tangible employment action.” Id. at 267 n.10. Nevertheless, we felt that in light of the particular facts and circumstances in Cardenas, the better result was to “leave this issue to the District Court in the first instance. For purposes of this discussion, we assume a constructive discharge is a tangible employment action.” Id. In addition, in Durham Life, 166 F.3d at 149 n.5, plaintiff also alleged sexual harassment and a constructive discharge. In that case, a majority of the panel was achieved by the concurrence of two of our colleagues. In discussing the reasons for the different perspectives of the panel members, the Court noted that “[Plaintiff] was the subject of a tangible adverse employment action, the District Court found that her supervisors were responsible for her constructive discharge and the District Court returned a verdict compensating her for the damages she suffered.” Id. Furthermore, we suggested in clear terms that a constructive discharge would constitute a tangible employment action: “In a case such as this one, where [plaintiff] was constructively discharged by her supervisors’ action after their own actionable behavior, the holdings and instruction of Ellerth and Faragher are clear: the employer, 37 Durham Life Insurance Company, is automatically liable and no affirmative defense is available.”15 Id. Despite this clear suggestion, our holding in Durham Life was ultimately based on employment actions unrelated to the constructive discharge—that is, we found that plaintiff had met her burden at trial of demonstrating a tangible employment action based on, inter alia, evidence that her supervisor had (1) dismissed her secretary; (2) removed files from her office which were vital to her work; and (3) allocated a disproportionate share of less lucrative assignments to her. Id. at 153-54. Therefore, notwithstanding the suggestions in Cardenas and Durham Life, one court noted in April 2002, that as to the issue of whether a constructive discharge constitutes a tangible employment action, “the Third Circuit explicitly has declined to resolve this issue.” Evans v. Nine West Group, Inc., No. CIV. A. 00-4850, 2002 WL 550477, at  (E.D. Pa. Apr. 15, 2002). We seek to resolve this issue today and to elaborate on the statements that we have already made as to the significance of a constructive discharge in the Ellerth and Faragher analysis. In addition to our earlier suggestions in Cardenas and Durham Life, we are not persuaded that the grounds advanced in the Caridad line of cases compel the holding that a constructive discharge does not constitute a tangible employment action. We address first the argument in Powell, 37 F. Supp. 2d at 1019, that there is some meaning in the Supreme Court’s exclusion of constructive discharge from the list of representative tangible employment actions. We disagree. The Supreme Court made it clear that it intended to provide a non-exclusive list of clear cases of tangible employment actions, on the one hand, and broader categories, on the other. The Supreme Court stated that a “tangible employment action constitutes a significant 15. We also stated that “[u]nder Durham’s theory, any substantial adverse action, such as a demotion in authority and pay, would not be a tangible adverse employment action if it led the affected employee to quit before the demotion took effect. This is contrary to Title VII doctrine, which recognizes a constructive discharge under such circumstances.” Durham Life, 166 F.3d at 153. 38 change in employment status, such as hiring, firing, failing to promote, reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits.” Ellerth 524 U.S. at 761 (emphasis added). Several aspects of this definition support our conclusion that it was intended to be non-exhaustive. As other courts have noted, the use of the qualifier “such as” indicates that tangible employment actions are not limited to those that follow the qualifier. See Jin v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 310 F.3d 84, 93 (2d Cir. 2002); Cherry, 101 F. Supp. 2d at 1175; Vasquez, 218 F. Supp. 2d at 1142-43. In addition, we observe that the list begins with specific actions that could constitute a tangible employment action—hiring, firing, and failing to promote—and ends with broader categories that could describe many different workplace actions—reassignment with significantly different responsibilities, or a decision causing a significant change in benefits. By employing this structural technique, the Supreme Court recognized a simple reality of harassment in the modern workplace: tangible employment actions often take the form of subtle discrimination not easily categorized as a formal discharge or demotion. Also, for the proposition that a tangible employment action is a flexible concept, not limited to the actions mentioned in Ellerth, we need look no further than our recent decision in Durham Life. There, as described above, we determined that a tangible employment action resulted where a supervisor (1) dismissed an employee’s secretary, (2) removed her essential work files, and (3) allocated to her a disproportionate share of less lucrative assignments. See Durham Life, 166 F.3d at 153-54. Of course, none of these actions appear in the list set forth in Ellerth, which is entirely consistent with our finding that the Supreme Court intended to set forth a non-exclusive list of representative actions. See id. at 144 (“The concept of a tangible adverse employment action is not limited to changes in compensation, although Evans’s pay was certainly affected by the actions taken against her. ‘Tangible adverse employment action’ includes the loss of significant job benefits or characteristics, such as the resources necessary for an employee to do his or her job . . . .”). 39 Next, we address the court’s reasoning in Caridad that the Supreme Court implicitly addressed and rejected constructive discharge as falling within the ambit of a tangible employment action. The court’s reasoning was based on the fact that although plaintiff in Ellerth had initially alleged a claim of constructive discharge, the Supreme Court concluded that “[plaintiff] has not alleged she suffered a tangible employment action at the hands of [her supervisor].” Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 766. Based on our review of the procedural history of the case, however, we find that the claim of constructive discharge was never before the Court when it ruled. While it is true that plaintiff initially pleaded a claim of constructive discharge, the trial judge granted summary judgment as to that claim, noting that “it can not be said that [defendant] made [plaintiff ’s] working conditions intolerable forcing her into an involuntary resignation.” Ellerth v. Burlington Industries, Inc., 912 F. Supp. 1101, 1124 (N.D. Ill. 1996). When the matter reached the Seventh Circuit, the focus of the appeal was limited to plaintiff ’s claims of quid pro quo harassment and hostile environment harassment. See Jansen v. Packaging Corp. of America, 123 F.3d 490, 494 (7th Cir. 1997) (en banc) (consolidated with Ellerth). By the time the matter reached the Supreme Court, the issues had narrowed even further: “The question presented on certiorari is whether [plaintiff] can state a claim of quid pro quo harassment, but the issue of real concern to the parties is whether Burlington has vicarious liability for [defendant’s] alleged misconduct, rather than liability limited to its own negligence.” Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 753. Simply put, plaintiff ’s claim of constructive discharge was never before the Supreme Court and, in fact, the Seventh Circuit barely addressed it. See Cherry, 101 F. Supp. 2d at 1174. Our conclusion is supported by the fact that constructive discharge does not appear anywhere in the Supreme Court’s analysis. Therefore, we agree with the court in Cherry, that “the Ellerth decision left entirely open the question of whether a constructive discharge resulting from conduct of a supervisor can constitute the sort of ‘tangible employment action’ that deprives an employer of the Ellerth/Faragher defense.” Id. at 1175. 40 In addition, the court in Caridad held that because “[c]o- workers, as well as supervisors, can cause the constructive discharge of an employee,” it should not be construed as a tangible employment action. 191 F.3d at 294. This observation is beside the point. The Supreme Court recognized that many tangible employment actions may be perpetrated by either supervisors or co-workers. After all, supervisors and co-workers alike can make obscene gestures, lewd comments, sexual propositions, or steal another employee’s clients. For the sake of recognizing reasonable limits to the aided in the agency relation standard, however, the Supreme Court made the categorical distinction between co-workers and supervisors and imposed vicarious liability only with respect to the actions of the latter. Furthermore, the Court noted that most, but not all, tangible employment actions are usually committed by supervisors. Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 762 (“As a general proposition, only a supervisor, or other person acting with the authority of the company, can cause this sort of injury.”) (emphasis added). It is of no consequence that constructive discharge may be caused by a co-worker because we are only concerned here with that which is caused by a supervisor. And in that regard, our inquiry is not whether an action may be caused by a co-worker or supervisor, it is whether the supervisor’s action constitutes a “significant change in employment status.” Id. at 761.16 We turn to the final rationale advanced by the court in Caridad, the notion that, unlike termination or demotion, 16. As the court observed in Cherry, this argument “appears to be backwards: The panel in Caridad reasoned that a ‘tangible employment action’ must be a harm that only a supervisor can inflict, when the Supreme Court defined a ‘tangible employment action’ in terms of the harm it can inflict, observed that ordinarily, but not exclusively, only a supervisor can inflict such harm . . . , and then concluded that the ‘aided in the agency relation’ standard ‘will always be met when a supervisor takes a tangible employment action against a subordinate.’ Consequently, this court concludes that, under the Supreme Court’s definition, it is the nature of the harm inflicted by a supervisor—that is, ‘a significant change in employment status’ or ‘inflict[ion] of a direct economic harm’—that determines whether the supervisor’s action is a ‘tangible employment action,’ not whether a co-worker could also inflict such harm.” 101 F. Supp. 2d at 1172-73 (citations omitted). 41 constructive discharge is not ratified by the employer. It is true that in a constructive discharge situation, it is the employee who ultimately decides that he or she has no alternative but to resign. In that sense, as regards the specific event which terminates the employer-employee relationship, a constructive discharge may not bear the “imprimatur of the enterprise,” Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 762, in the same way as a formal termination. We are not persuaded, however, that this distinction compels the conclusion that a constructive discharge is not a tangible employment action. First, this view contravenes the fundamental principle of our jurisprudence that a constructive discharge, when proved, operates as the functional equivalent of an actual termination. Sheridan, 100 F.3d at 1075 (finding that a constructive discharge is the “constructive equivalent of a [formal] discharge”). This principle recognizes that when a plaintiff-employee successfully demonstrates that the work environment created by an employer was so intolerable that he or she had no choice but to resign, the constructive discharge becomes, for all intents and purposes, the act of the employer. There are sound reasons for adopting this legal construct. For instance, when a plaintiff-employee meets the stringent test of showing a constructive discharge, the direct economic harm suffered is identical to that of a formally discharged employee. Cherry, 101 F. Supp. 2d at 1173 (“constructive discharge constitutes precisely the same sort of ‘significant change in employment status’ and inflicts precisely the same sort of ‘economic harm’ as any other ‘firing.’ ”); see also Vasquez, 218 F. Supp. 2d at 1142-43. In addition, to the extent that Caridad suggested that only an action ratified by the employer and documented in official records qualifies as a tangible employment action, we disagree. As another panel of the Second Circuit noted: “though a tangible employment action ‘in most cases is documented in official company records, and may be subject to review by higher level supervisors,’ the Supreme Court did not require such conditions in all cases.” Jin, 310 F.3d at 98 (emphases in original) (quoting Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 762). As we noted above, tangible employment actions 42 defy neat categories and an attempt to list them all would be futile. They occur within the context of each unique factual situation. Therefore, we agree that tangible employment actions are often ratified by an employer, and we should look first to official company records for relevant evidence. But by no means is a tangible employment action precluded solely because no documentation of a company act exists. Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 762. In fact, in other Title VII contexts, courts have explicitly recognized that some of the most pernicious forms of workplace harassment, clearly amounting to tangible employment actions, are often not accompanied by official company acts. This is especially true in quid pro quo cases where a victimized employee submits to a supervisor’s demands for sexual favors in return for job benefits, such as continued employment. In these cases, it is rare that a supervisor’s demands for sexual liberties, and the corresponding threat of adverse consequences for failure to submit, will be documented anywhere in company records. Therefore, a rule requiring a victimized employee who submits to a supervisor’s indecent demand for sexual favors to prove an official company act in order to establish a tangible employment action strains common sense. As the Second Circuit has held, the more sensible approach in the quid pro quo context is to recognize that, by his or her actions, a supervisor invokes the official authority of the enterprise: Finally, MetLife relies on a statement in Ellerth that “a tangible employment decision requires an official act of the enterprise, a company act.” But, assuming Jin’s allegations to be true, Morabito’s use of his supervisory authority to require Jin’s submission was, for Title VII purposes, the act of the employer. This is because Morabito brought “the official power of the enterprise to bear” on Jin by explicitly threatening to fire her if she did not submit and then allowing her to retain her job based on her submission. Jin, 310 F.3d at 98 (citations omitted). This rationale is equally applicable in the context of constructive discharge. By focusing on the actions of a 43 supervisor and on the type of injury to a plaintiff, it becomes clear that when a supervisor creates a hostile work environment so severe that an employee has no alternative but to resign, the official power of the enterprise is brought to bear on the constructive discharge.17 In that regard, we find no sound justification for requiring more in constructive discharge cases than in quid pro quo cases in order to find a tangible employment action: an employee’s constructive discharge is no more unilateral an act of the victimized employee and no less coerced by the employer than submission to sexual advances in a quid pro quo situation. Therefore, we reject any rule requiring a plaintiffemployee alleging a constructive discharge to show an official company act in order to prove a tangible employment action. In any event, we note that, as a practical matter, a constructive discharge is often ratified by the employer. In the appeal of Ellerth to the Seventh Circuit, Chief Judge Posner remarked in his concurring opinion that “[t]he difficult borderline case is that of constructive termination precipitated by a threat. The termination will look to the supervisor’s superiors like a voluntary quit. But since there is always some paperwork involved in an employee’s quitting, the higher-ups in the company will have some ability to monitor constructive discharges, and I would therefore impose strict liability in such cases.” Jansen, 123 F.3d at 515 (emphases added). The present case is a perfect illustration of this proposition. While it is true that Baker’s repetition of the wrestling move five to ten times per evening might not be reflected in official PA State Police records, the circumstances of the allegedly false charge of theft are quite likely to be detailed in documents. Suders was handcuffed, photographed, and detained as a suspect, events that surely leave a paper trail. At a trial on the merits, the significance of these documented events may be 17. See generally Kerri L. Bauchner, From Pig in a Parlor to Boar in a Boardroom: Why Ellerth Isn’t Working and How Other Ideological Models Can Help Reconceptualize the Law of Sexual Harassment, 8 COLUM. J. GENDER & L. 303, 331-32 (1999) (advocating a competing interests approach to sexual harassment cases which would give due regard to the injury suffered by a plaintiff). 44 judged by weighing Suders’s testimony against that of the PA State Police officers. Thus, the documents surrounding Suders’s departure may indeed reflect the imprimatur of the PA State Police to the extent that its supervising officers were trying to force Suders to quit, and we believe that she should have the opportunity to prove that. Moreover, because a constructive discharge will necessarily involve the termination of an employment relationship, the employer will be on notice and have the opportunity to determine the cause of the separation from employment. This too may be an appropriate line of inquiry for trial. For these reasons, we are not persuaded by any of the grounds advanced by the Caridad line of cases for the proposition that a constructive discharge does not constitute a tangible employment action. Lastly, we find that placing a constructive discharge within the rubric of tangible employment actions more faithfully adheres to the Supreme Court’s guidance in Ellerth and Faragher and to our Title VII jurisprudence. At the outset, we reiterate that when a plaintiff-employee satisfies his or her burden of proving a constructive discharge, we view the resignation as the functional equivalent of an actual termination. See Sheridan, 100 F.3d at 1075. As noted above, we have not found any sound justifications for treating a constructive discharge differently from an actual termination in the tangible employment action analysis. As we also noted above, a constructive discharge has, in most critical respects, the primary attributes of a tangible employment action, as defined in Ellerth and Faragher. In the same way as a formal discharge, a constructive discharge “constitutes a significant change in employment status,” by ending the employer-employee relationship. Ellerth, 524 U.S. at 761. A constructive discharge also inflicts the same type of “direct economic harm.” Id. at 762; see also Cherry, 101 F. Supp. 2d at 1173; Vasquez, 218 F. Supp. 2d at 1143. Turning to our Title VII jurisprudence, we noted in Andrews that “Congress designed Title VII to prevent the perpetuation of stereotypes and a sense of degradation 45 which serve to close or discourage employment opportunities for women. . . . Such an objective can only be achieved if women are allowed to work without being harassed. Women who know that they will be subject to harassment will be deterred from joining the work force or accepting certain jobs.”18 895 F.2d at 1483. We also recognized that, “[r]egrettably, however, this in no way suggests that discrimination based upon an individual’s race, gender, or age is near an end. Discrimination continues to pollute the social and economic mainstream of American life, and is often simply masked in more subtle forms.” Aman, 85 F.3d at 1081-82. In light of both the policies and the realities of workplace discrimination, we have always been mindful of the consequences and the intricate balance of incentives when adopting rules in the context of Title VII. See Durham Life, 166 F.3d at 154 (holding that requiring plaintiffs to report the first instance of discriminatory conduct “would have the perverse effect of putting a greater burden on plaintiffs who had extensive evidence of discrimination.”); see also Kolstad v. American Dental Ass’n, 527 U.S. 526, 544 (1999) (“Applying the Restatement of Agency’s ‘scope of employment’ rule in the Title VII punitive damages context, moreover, would reduce the incentive for employers to implement antidiscrimination programs.”); Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519 U.S. 337, 346 (1997) (noting that the “exclusion of former employees from the protection of § 704(a) would undermine the effectiveness of Title VII by allowing the threat of postemployment retaliation to deter victims of discrimination from complaining to the EEOC.”). In that regard, we emphasize that removing constructive discharge from the category of tangible employment actions could have the perverse effect of discouraging an employer from actively pursuing remedial measures and of possibly encouraging intensified harassment. When confronted with allegations of sexual harassment, employers have a wide range of options, including terminating the offending 18. See also Faragher, 524 U.S. at 805-06 (noting that primary purpose of Title VII is not to provide redress, but rather to avoid harm). This purpose served as the basis for making an affirmative defense available to an employer in the absence of a tangible employment action. 46 supervisor or stepping in and removing the victim from the hostile work environment by, for example, a transfer. But as our ever expanding Title VII caseload shows, there are instances when employers ignore these two alternatives and opt instead to either turn a blind eye or let their internal procedures run their course while the hostile work environment remains unchanged. With these realities in mind, if we were to hold that a constructive discharge does not constitute a tangible employment action, employers would undoubtedly catch on to the availability of the affirmative defense even if the victimized employee resigns from objectively intolerable conditions at work. Under such a rule, the temptation of employers to preserve their affirmative defense would be overwhelming in many situations. Some employers might wish for an employee to quit voluntarily; others might even tacitly approve of increased harassment to achieve that result. In any event, the benefits of stepping in to remedy the hostile work environment are measurably cloudier. These are exactly the sorts of incentives that courts should take pains to avoid. If anything, our decision should be guided by the paramount policy objectives set forth in Ellerth and Faragher: “to prevent sexual harassment from occurring . . . [by] informing employees of their right to raise and how to raise the issue of harassment,” and “to encourage victims of harassment to come forward [without requiring] a victim to complain first to the offending supervisor.” Faragher, 524 U.S. at 806 (quotations and citations omitted). By holding that a constructive discharge constitutes a tangible employment action, we effectively encourage employers to be watchful of sexual harassment in their workplaces and to remedy complaints at the earliest possible moment; otherwise, they risk losing the benefit of the affirmative defense should victimized employees feel compelled to resign. Nor do we believe that our holding today discourages responsible behavior on the part of victimized employees. Because of the stringent test for proving constructive discharge, as set forth in part III.B, supra, it is highly unlikely that employees will walk off the job at the first sign of harassment and expect to prevail under Title VII. 47 Because plaintiffs are expected to show intolerable conditions and reasonable responses to the alleged harassment, the strategy of resigning and then mixing constructive discharge with Title VII claims will ultimately fail in the absence of a genuine constructive discharge situation. For the reasons set forth above, we hold that a constructive discharge, when proved, constitutes a tangible employment action within the meaning of Ellerth and Faragher. With respect to her appeal, we hold that, because Suders raised genuine issues of material fact as to her claim of constructive discharge, the PA State Police is precluded from asserting the affirmative defense to liability advanced in support of its motion for summary judgment. These issues require a trial on the merits. Should Suders persuade the finder of fact that she was constructively discharged, the PA State Police shall be strictly liable for any actionable hostile environment. If Suders does not prevail on her claim of constructive discharge, the PA State Police may be entitled to invoke the affirmative defense. In any event, we will reverse the District Court’s grant of summary judgment and remand for a disposition on the merits in accordance with our opinion.