Opinion ID: 1908530
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The plaintiff's account.

Text: In September 1994, Tracie Washington was employed as a dietary aide and cook at the Friendship Terrace Retirement Home in northwest Washington, D.C. The home housed approximately two hundred elderly residents, and its dining room and kitchen were operated by Guest Services, Inc. This case arises from the involuntary termination of Ms. Washington's employment on September 9 of that year. The circumstances which allegedly led to Ms. Washington's discharge are described in an affidavit which she filed in opposition to Guest Services' motion for summary judgment, and also in Ms. Washington's pretrial deposition. Briefly, Ms. Washington claims that on September 8, 1994, she was preparing a meal for the residents of the home when a fellow worker, Tyrica Martin, began spraying stainless steel cleaner in the area where Ms. Washington was cooking. Ms. Washington stated in her affidavit that [t]he spray is poisonous and if it comes into contact with food it renders the food unwholesome and unfit for human consumption. She asserted that where I stood I could feel the spray on me and I could see the spray entering the food I was preparing. Ms. Washington claimed to have been especially concerned about potential contamination of the food because many of the residents of Friendship Terrace were in ill health. According to Ms. Washington, [t]he law requires that I not prepare nor serve food unless it is appropriately protected from ... contamination. Therefore, in an effort to obey the law, Ms. Washington told to [Ms. Martin] to stop spraying. To me this was a health emergency. The events that followed were described by Ms. Washington in her affidavit: 12. The manager heard what I told the employee and called me into his office and told me that when he tells an employee to do something, I do not have the authority to tell the employee not to do it. He stated that he told the employee to spray, and that by me telling the employee to stop spraying that this was insubordination. 13. I explained to the manager that the spray was entering into the food and that the employee was spraying next to open food which was being cooked. 14. The manager accused me of insubordination. He told me to go home. I went home and when I returned to work the next day I was fired for insubordination. 15. The insubordination I was fired for was for telling the employee to not spray into and around and near the food I was preparing. This was the only act of insubordination I was told that I committed or that I was aware of.