Opinion ID: 3164759
Heading Depth: 6
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: First Method of Proving

Text: Pretext Assessing the three disciplinary incidents for evidence sufficient for a factfinder to disbelieve the employer’s articulated reasons, this Court concludes that Willis is unable 16 to show that her supervisors did not actually rely on her conduct to discipline her and ultimately terminate her employment. For the August 2011 incident, Willis does not dispute that she violated hospital policy by using profanity in close proximity to families and patients. (A-346); (Appellant Br. 5). Instead, she attempts to mitigate her own actions by suggesting that others have committed the same infraction, citing the “fairly commonplace” use of profanity at Children’s. (A-118). Willis also asserts that because the patient’s father did not hear the profanity, Lamouree’s discipline was improper. (Appellant Br. 14). Willis’s focus on whether the patient’s family heard her outburst is misplaced in the context of this Court’s pretext analysis. It does not matter whether the family heard, or even if she was directly in front of the patient’s family. Rather, it matters whether Willis’s use of profanity was the reason Lamouree disciplined Willis. Since Willis admits to the disciplined conduct, and in light of Children’s goal of maintaining the NICU as an environment in which patients and their families feel safe, 7 7 Willis emphasizes that the patient’s family did not hear her use profanity, however the warning she received did not cite the family hearing her as the basis for the discipline. Rather, the warning stated, in relevant part: “On 8/19/11, several staff members witnessed, and upon questioning, you admit to using inappropriate language including the use of the word “fuck” while in close proximity to patients and families.” (A-185). Based on the language of the warning, it appears that Children’s disciplined Willis because of the very act of using such language in close proximity to patients and families. (Appellee Br. 21–22). Since this uncontroverted act is a sufficient basis for discipline, Willis’s arguments about Lamouree’s failure to ascertain if the family heard is 17 Willis has not shown that Lamouree’s reason for discipline is so weak as to render it “unworthy of credence.” See Fuentes, 32 F.3d at 765 (quoting Ezold v. Wolf, Block, Schorr & SolisCohen, 983 F.2d 509, 531 (3d Cir. 1992)) (internal quotation marks omitted); (A-180). Willis also does not present evidence that renders implausible Children’s decision to terminate Willis because of the other two disciplinary incidents. As the District Court noted, the relevant question with respect to Willis’s early January confrontation with the NICU leadership is not whether Willis actually yelled, which she denies doing, but whether Lamouree believed Willis treated staff members inappropriately and imposed discipline for that reason. (A- 15). In light of Willis’s employment record, she has not shown that “[t]he notion that talking loudly could be the basis for discipline is so ludicrous that it cannot possibly be a rational employer’s true reason for acting.” (A-16) (quoting Appellant Br. 14) (internal quotation marks omitted). It is rational, as the District Court aptly noted, that Lamouree “perceived [this incident] to be another instance of harsh or offensive interpersonal communication by Willis.” (A-16). Six months prior to the incident, in Willis’s performance review, Lamouree told her that she needed to “improve her communication style, which can be harsh and critical.” (A- 337). Lamouree stated that before this incident she had received numerous complaints from both nurses and physicians about Willis’s “condescending and harsh style.” (A-180). Among the reasons Lamouree cited for asking Willis to step down from co-lead NNP were her treatment of staff and subordinate nurses. (A-180–A-181). Based on the record, irrelevant. (Appellant Br. 13). 18 it was not “ludicrous,” as Willis contends, for Lamouree to discipline her for this incident. With respect to the third disciplinary incident involving the incomplete admission orders, Children’s discipline of Willis but not Bernardi does not demonstrate that the discipline was “so plainly wrong that it [could not] have been the employer’s real reason.” Keller, 130 F.3d at 1109. Willis argues that Bernardi was just as culpable, if not more so, despite the two nurse’s different actions and responses to Hupp following the incident. Willis communicated to Hupp that she told Bernardi she “had handled the admission” of the baby and “taken care of it.” (A- 350). Bernardi confirms that Willis did tell her this. (A-359). Bernardi told Hupp she checked in about the patient before the end of her shift and asked Willis if she needed to do anything, to which Willis responded “no, he’s fine.” (A-359). Based on the communication between Bernardi and Willis, it appears Bernardi had reason to think Willis had assumed responsibility, regardless of whether the patient came in on the blue or green team. Subsequently, Willis’s failure to complete the admission orders, which she incorrectly told Hupp she had finished, does not show an inconsistency in Children’s discipline. Bernardi, unlike Willis, did not explicitly assume responsibility for a patient and leave her shift without discharging the attendant tasks. (A-359). The evidence to which Willis points fails to create sufficient disbelief so that a factfinder could rationally find that Children’s did not rely on these reasons in disciplining Willis.