Opinion ID: 758674
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Individual Discrimination

Text: 15 In addition to the allegation of a pattern or practice of discrimination, the Plaintiffs claimed they suffered individual discrimination due to their race. Plaintiff Lowery joined Circuit City in October 1989 as a management recruiter in HR after completing her MBA. Lowery's manager, Catharine Madden, gave Lowery high performance reviews through mid-1994, although it appears Madden gave most of her employees high ratings. Lowery performed her recruiting responsibilities well, exceeding her numerical recruiting goals through July 1995, and became Circuit City's most senior and highly paid recruiter. Despite this success, however, Lowery unsuccessfully sought approximately seven promotions in seven years. 16 Circuit City produced evidence that, notwithstanding Lowery's recruiting skills, she had several problems throughout her tenure. Although Lowery performed well for some hiring managers, Circuit City claimed she neglected following up for others, and one recruiter even asked not to work with her again. Evidence was presented that she had problems training new recruiters, showed little leadership and, according to her peers, she was not a team player. Circuit City asserted that Lowery did not participate in staff meetings, volunteer to attend job fairs, or share resumes with other recruiters. She also allegedly lacked focus in interviews, and one African-American supervisor found Lowery's oral style rambling and unstructured. When Lowery asked how to improve her chances of being promoted, she allegedly failed to take the steps that were suggested. 17 Lowery also presented evidence of Circuit City's alleged animus towards minorities. Lowery discovered, years after the fact, that the words velveteen ghetto had been handwritten on her 1989 interview schedule. (J.A. 881, 2137-38). She testified at trial that, in 1991, when she approached Austin Ligon, Vice President of Corporate Planning, about a position in his department, he suggested that she could do better someplace else at a company that was more receptive to minorities and women. (J.A.2091). Later, in 1993, Zierden allegedly told her he believed that sales decreased in stores with black managers, and that stores with Hispanic managers soon had only Hispanic employees. 18 One of Lowery's claims involved her application in October 1994 for a promotion to Supervisor of Management Recruiting. Cynthia Turner, Lowery's new manager, wanted to promote one of the department's recruiters to the position. Turner interviewed everyone in the department including Lowery and Paige Bell, who, along with Lowery, had also expressed interest in the position. The promotion was offered to Paige Bell, and Lowery asserts this decision was because Bell was white. Lowery noted that, while she had an undergraduate business degree and an MBA, Bell had neither. Lowery also had more supervisory experience before joining Circuit City, and had more seniority. Jeanne Linton, then the director of recruiting, testified that Lowery was one of her top three recruiters, yet admitted that the other two top recruiters, both of whom were white, were promoted to supervisory positions within five years of starting with Circuit City, while Lowery has never been promoted during her seven years with the company. 19 Circuit City, on the other hand, claims Bell got the position because she was more organized than Lowery. For example, Circuit City produced evidence that, during her interview, Bell used an out line she had prepared which described ways to improve the department. Lowery, by contrast, allegedly rambled her way through the interview. Moreover, Circuit City claimed that there had been no complaints about Bell's recruiting style, that she participated in staff meetings and job fairs, and had once even managed the department while Madden was on leave and had earned her colleagues' respect. 20 Plaintiff Peterson also alleges she was passed up for promotion because of her race. Peterson joined FNANB in February 1993 as an account management representative. In July 1993 she entered FNANB's training program, which rotates associates through different departments every few months. In May 1994, Peterson rotated into an acting assistant supervisor position in the customer service mail department. It appears that Peterson again rotated into that department some time later. When a regular position became available in that department, Peterson applied for the position. Peterson's supervisor, Jodi Bischoff, rejected Peterson in favor of Janet Whalen, who is white. However, when offered the position, Whalen turned it down. Nevertheless, Circuit City did not then offer the promotion to Peterson, but allegedly handpicked another employee, Denise Ramos, for the position. Peterson left FNANB soon thereafter. 21 Peterson presented evidence that she was employed at FNANB at a time in which it grew from seven to 1,200 employees, and yet FNANB had no African-Americans among its twenty to thirty directors and managers, and had only two African-Americans among its thirty to forty lower-level supervisors. Throughout her employment she received consistently high performance evaluations, allegedly until she applied for promotion. According to Peterson, Whalen had less experience than she did because Whalen had only one rotation as an FNANB trainee; Whalen never received supervisory experience in the customer service mail department; and Whalen had no familiarity with the reports and monitoring expected of an assistant supervisor in that department. 22 According to Peterson, Ramos had no prior customer service experience, no knowledge of the operating functions of the bank, no background contacting customers, and no knowledge of the company's computer system. Witnesses for Circuit City also admitted that, when Ramos was selected for the position, she was struggling in her current assistant supervisory position in another department and could not keep pace with her duties. 23 Circuit City, on the other hand, presented evidence that Whalen was selected over Peterson because Whalen was better qualified. While Peterson did not possess the college degree that FNANB preferred for supervisory positions, Whalen was a college graduate and former assistant supervisor. Bischoff testified that Peterson was also rejected because her performance was deficient during her two rotations as assistant supervisor. Peterson had been repeatedly cautioned for wasting work time by socializing with her supervisees, had submitted late and inaccurate monthly reports, and had completely failed to distribute three other reports. Moreover, Peterson allegedly could not competently analyze reports to identify trends in customer behavior. Finally, Circuit City alleges that Peterson received several oral warnings about her responsibilities, but she still neglected her supervisory role while she attempted to master the paperwork.