Opinion ID: 3003137
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Out-of-Court Statements by City Employees

Text: Last, we address the district court’s determination that certain statements by City employees were “textbook hearsay.” To prove the City’s retaliatory motive, Stephens relies heavily on Figueroa’s testimony relaying comments made by two Fleet employees, Millie Velazquez and Laura Johnston. The district court determined that the comments were either hearsay or irrelevant to the issue of whether Stephens was terminated for a retaliatory purpose. According to Figueroa, Velazquez, who was then Commissioner Picardi’s administrative assistant, stated that Picardi was “very upset” about Stephens’s constant complaints, that she heard other negative comments about Stephens attributed to Picardi, and that she (Velazquez) would make things hard for Stephens. Stephens asserts on appeal that Velazquez’s comments should be treated as non-hearsay admissions by a partyopponent. Because Velazquez’s comments were out-of-court statements offered for their truth, see Fed. R. Evid. 801(c), Stephens must establish that an exception applies or that 28 No. 08-1416 the statements are non-hearsay.1 0 Admissions by a partyopponent are governed by Rule 801(d)(2)(D) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, which provides that “[a] statement is not hearsay if . . . [t]he statement is offered against a party and is . . . a statement by the party’s agent or servant concerning a matter within the scope of the agency or employment, made during the existence of the relationship.” The central question regarding Velazquez’s statements is whether they concerned a matter within the scope of her employment. We have acknowledged that the law in this area is “somewhat muddled,” Aliotta v. Nat’l R.R. Passenger Corp., 315 F.3d 756, 761 (7th Cir. 2003), and “not everything that relates to one’s job falls within the scope of one’s agency or employment,” Williams v. Pharmacia, Inc., 137 F.3d 944, 950 (7th Cir. 1998). For an agent’s statement regarding an employment action to constitute an admission, she need not have been personally involved in that action, but her duties must encompass some responsibility related to “the decisionmaking process affecting the employment action.” Simple v. Walgreen Co., 511 F.3d 10 In fact, Figueroa’s statements include two separate out-ofcourt statements, the primary statement being Picardi’s comments, and the second statement being Velazquez’s recitation of them. Stephens must establish an independent basis for admitting both statements, see Fed. R. Evid. 805, but, as the ensuing discussion will make clear, Picardi’s comments qualify as an admission by a party opponent under Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(2)(D). Therefore, we focus solely on Velazquez’s statements. No. 08-1416 29 668, 672 (7th Cir. 2007); see also Pharmacia, Inc., 137 F.3d at 951. In Pharmacia, for example, after expressing our reluctance to impose a “personal involvement” requirement, we nevertheless found that complaints voiced by employees were not admissions because “[n]one of the women were agents of Pharmacia for the purpose of making managerial decisions affecting the terms and conditions of their own employment.” 137 F.3d at 950; see also Simple, 511 F.3d at 672 (finding an admission because employee supervised and reviewed plaintiff, and consulted the decision-maker about the allegedly discriminatory appointment); Keri v. Bd. of Trs. of Purdue Univ., 458 F.3d 620, 630-31 (7th Cir. 2006); cf. Nekolny v. Painter, 653 F.2d 1164, 1171-72 (7th Cir. 1981) (finding admissions where declarant was an “advisor” to the decision-maker, participated in interviews, discussed employees’ performance, and communicated news of termination); Aliotta, 315 F.3d at 762 (“While the hiring/firing/promoting/demoting decisionmaking authority of the declarant may be critical in employment cases in which the admission deals with hiring/firing/promoting/demoting-type decisions, no similar requirement exists in other contexts.”). The parties agree that Velazquez was not personally involved in the promotional decisions at issue. Furthermore, the record demonstrates that Velazquez’s assigned duties as an administrative assistant did not involve any component of Fleet’s promotional or hiring process, nor did Velazquez possess authority to supervise, manage, review, promote, hire, fire, or recommend any employ30 No. 08-1416 ment action regarding any of the candidates. “[T]he subject matter of the admission [must] match the subject matter of the employee’s job description.” Aliotta, 315 F.3d at 762. That is not the case with Velazquez’s statements about what Commissioner Picardi said, and they are inadmissible hearsay. Moreover, even if Velazquez’s statements were admissible, they do not help Stephens. As we found above, Stephens did not connect Picardi to any of the four promotions. Thus, even if we assume Picardi was upset with Stephens, the evidence does not indicate that Picardi influenced the promotional process or otherwise retaliated against Stephens. Next, Velazquez’s statements reflecting her own personal feelings about Stephens are irrelevant to Stephens’s claims. As we have just mentioned, Velazquez possessed no authority to hire, fire, promote, or demote. Any animosity she might have felt toward Stephens is not probative of any issue related to his failure-to-promote claims. Velazquez is not accused of personally retaliating against Stephens, and the district court properly declined to consider her statements. Figueroa also testified that Laura Johnston, an administrative services officer, complained to her about Stephens and once said, “That damn Les. I have to change the applications.” As an administrative officer in the personnel department with authority to create interview lists and sign Commissioner Picardi’s name, Stephens has a much better claim that Johnston’s statements were admissions by a party-opponent. But the district court did not hold otherwise. Instead, it determined that Johnston’s No. 08-1416 31 alleged statements to Figueroa were not probative of any material issue, and we agree. Even if we accepted Stephens’s assertion that Johnston was exasperated with him, she admitted during her deposition that she never discussed Stephens with Picardi, she did not make any of the promotional decisions, and the highest rated applicants received the jobs. Stephens presents no evidence to the contrary. Whether she was frustrated with him does nothing to prove that Stephens was passed over for a promotion based on his prior protected activity. At best, Johnston added Stephens to an interview pool from which he might otherwise have been excluded. He subsequently interviewed with individuals who did not know of his prior complaints, and he still received lower scores than the successful candidate in each. Johnston’s statements do not create a genuine issue for trial.