Opinion ID: 76798
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Events About Which Higdon Complained and the Alleged Retaliation

Text: 4 From the middle of 1997 until the end of 2000, Higdon was self-employed as a commercial car title processor. She regularly processed car titles at the Georgia State Motor Vehicle Office on Trade Port Boulevard in Atlanta, Georgia. Before September 1999, Higdon performed her work by submitting applications for car titles to the Trade Port office and then returned to retrieve the titles after several days. Higdon completed this process without waiting long in line. 5 In September 1999, Georgia changed the process for obtaining car titles. Georgia began using a new computer-based title and registration system, the Georgia Registration and Title Information System (GRATIS). To implement GRATIS, the entire state tag and title system was taken offline for approximately nine days. 6 With GRATIS, commercial processors could not deliver applications to the Trade Port office and return later to retrieve the titles. Both commercial title processors and other applicants were required to wait in separate lines to obtain car titles. The Trade Port office used separate lines because commercial processors had a larger volume of titles to obtain than applicants for personal car titles, and commercial processors were compensated for their time. The combination of a nine-day backlog, glitches in the new system, and the new waiting lines caused long waits for commercial processors when the Trade Port office reopened. 7 With this new system, the Trade Port office established a separate line for disabled applicants for titles to personal cars and a separate window for all disabled applicants set at the height of a wheelchair. Commercial processors were not allowed to use the line for disabled applicants for titles to personal cars. When a disabled commercial processor reached the front of the commercial line, she could use the disabled window to conduct business. The Trade Port office established this policy so that commercial processors, with their high volume of applications and compensation for their time, would be treated equally, and disabled commercial processors would not gain an economic advantage from waiting in the shorter line with prompt access to the disabled window. 8
9 When the Trade Port office reopened on September 8, 1999, Higdon arrived to a line for commercial processors that stretched outside the front door. After waiting in line for approximately three and one-half hours, Higdon's left leg swelled and hurt. She waited about fifteen more minutes and then asked Mary McMichael, a Department of Motor Vehicles supervisor, for permission to use the disabled line. Higdon complained about her leg injury, that she was in pain, and that her leg was swelling from standing in line. McMichael denied her request because Higdon was a commercial processor and the policy did not allow commercial processors to use the disabled line. Higdon then showed McMichael her disabled parking permit and again asked if she could use the disabled line. McMichael said, no, sorry, and left. 10 Shortly thereafter, McMichael returned and offered Higdon an office chair on rollers so Higdon could sit while she was waiting in line. Higdon testified that McMichael scooted [the chair] towards [Higdon], and as she was walking away made a comment, here's a chair, and walked off. Higdon did not use the chair, however, because it's harder ... to get up and down and to control [her] legs in a sitting position than it would be ... just to stand. She also stated that she would have been unable to maneuver the chair in the line with her leg immobilized and her hands filled with title processing files. Before leaving, Higdon obtained the titles that she sought that day. 11 During the remainder of September, the length of the lines steadily decreased. All commercial processors, including Higdon, were still required to stand in the commercial line and were not allowed to proceed directly to the disabled window. Higdon testified that she made several more requests for an accommodation, other than using the office chair in line. The only accommodation she requested was to be treated the same as an applicant for a title for a personal car who was allowed to use the disabled line and proceed directly to the disabled window. 12
13 After she was denied use of the disabled line, Higdon hired an attorney. On September 29, 1999, Higdon's attorney sent a letter of formal complaint to McMichael; Milton Dufford, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Revenue; Jerry Jackson, Commissioner of the Department of Revenue; and Steve Franczi, Director of Risk Management for the Department of Administrative Services. This letter requested a change in the way Higdon was allowed to process titles. The letter stated that Higdon was disabled and demand[ed] that she be immediately permitted to utilize the handicapped line and window to process her work. 14 On November 3, 1999, Higdon met with an insurance investigator hired by the State of Georgia in response to her complaint. Higdon requested that she be treated the same as disabled applicants for titles for personal cars. The state rejected Higdon's complaint in February 2000. 15
16 On November 9, 1999, the Trade Port office assigned commercial processors working for more than one automobile dealer a specific day of the week in which to come to the office to process their titles. Higdon worked for more than one dealer and was assigned one day of the week on which she could process titles at the Trade Port office.
17 On December 31, 1999, three months after her formal complaint, Higdon was in line at a bank near the Trade Port office in her Ford F150 pickup truck. McMichael was driving a Honda del Sol which bumped into Higdon's car. Higdon testified that she exited her car to look at her bumper, and then observed who hit her. Higdon recognized McMichael and approached the driver's side of her car. Higdon testified that McMichael made eye contact, only stared at her, and did not say anything. It is undisputed that there was no damage to either Higdon's car or McMichael's car. 18
19 In early March 2000, Higdon changed the nature of her job and began processing titles for a single vehicle auction company. This new job change allowed Higdon to avoid waiting in line, fax title applications, and retrieve the titles on the following day. The change also allowed her to do business at the Trade Port office on any day it was open. Higdon spoke with at least two employees about her change in status. Although she did not speak with Emma Eberhardt, a Department of Motor Vehicle Supervisor, about her status change, the other two employees told Higdon they would inform Eberhardt.
20 On March 9, 2000, Higdon went to the Trade Port office to retrieve her processed titles. Higdon testified that Eberhardt informed Higdon that she could not be at Trade Port because it was not her assigned day. After Higdon explained her new position and Eberhardt reviewed the titles Higdon had that day, Eberhardt told Higdon that she could come into the office on any day of the week because Higdon now worked for a single automobile dealer. Eberhardt admits that she made this accusation without first checking Higdon's paperwork. Higdon testified that the conversation was civil, but the way she did it in front of others was embarrassing. 21 Higdon testified that similar incidents occurred on two other occasions. Eberhardt confronted Higdon about not being at the Trade Port office on the correct day. On one occasion, Eberhardt told Higdon that Eberhardt had been told that Higdon was working for other dealers. After Eberhardt checked Higdon's paperwork, Eberhardt allowed her to continue processing titles on any day of the week. Eberhardt did not apologize for the confusion, although Higdon contends, she was rude, short and to the point. Eberhardt was not condescending or belligerent, however, and did not use any off-color language or curse. 22 Higdon left the commercial title business at the end of 2000. Higdon began working as a real estate agent in May 2001, and she currently works in that position.