Court Opinion

ID: 9493222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:01:40.292227+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:43.209620
License: Public Domain

W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
Judge Aldisert’s opinion describes two “overt acts” during the limitations period, either of which is sufficient to render Fielder’s filing timely. I write separately to give reasons, in addition to those adduced in Judge Aldisert’s opinion, to support the conclusion that Fielder’s complaint was timely filed.
I believe that nothing needs to be added to Judge Aldisert’s accurate and detailed account of Fielder’s attempt to accompany her mother onto the airplane at the Med-ford Airport, and of the subsequent reprimand by Bibler. I will say only that Fielder and United tell dramatically different versions of that episode. If Fielder’s account is believed, as it must be on a motion for summary judgment, Bibler’s actions constituted an overt act within the limitations period.
However, I believe it may be useful to add to Judge Aldisert’s account of United’s failure to grant Fielder’s transfer request while granting a transfer- request of an employee with less seniority. The dissent maintains that there is no evidence that Fielder’s transfer request remained active during the 300-day limitations period, and that the majority is simply “making up facts.” In her deposition, Fielder testified that sometime before August 1993 she had put in a request to transfer to Seattle or Portland, and there is no evidence in the record that she ever withdrew that request. I believe that our obligation to draw all reasonable inferences in favor to the nonmoving party compels us to conclude, for purposes of summary judgment, that the transfer request was still pending during the limitations period. See Hunt v. Cromartie, 526 U.S. 541, 552, 119 S.Ct. 1545, 143 L.Ed.2d 731 (1999) (“[I]n ruling on a motion for summary judgment, the *990nonmoving party’s evidence is to be believed, and all justifiable inferences are to be drawn in [that party’s] favor.”) (internal quotation and citation omitted).
The dissent further maintains that United’s grant of a transfer request made by Cecilia Johnson, a co-worker with less seniority, cannot support a claim of retaliation because Johnson, too, had complained about M.C. According to the dissent, Johnson’s complaints about M.C., and her subsequent transfer, show that Fielder’s claim of retaliation is groundless. I disagree, for there is evidence in the record showing that Fielder and Johnson were not similarly situated. According to Johnson’s deposition testimony, she went to Bibler’s office in the wake of Fielder’s complaint to tell him “that this was not an isolated incident, that it should be taken very seriously, and that it should not be just brushed off.” Johnson did so because she “wanted to make sure that Ted did not think that Joanne was just making it up.” Johnson’s deposition makes clear that her “complaints” were intended to support Fielder’s case, not to press her own. When asked if she complained about M.C. before or after Fielder’s incident with M.C., Johnson replied, “Why would I say anything before the incident?” Johnson continued: “My impression was that, after talking to Joanne, Ted wanted to put the whole thing to rest and just let everything that had gone on before — to just be done with it and start over again.” Fielder, however, did not want to “be done with it.” According to Johnson, Fielder “pushed” the issue. Based on this evidence, a reasonable jury could conclude that United transferred Johnson rather than Fielder because Fielder had complained vigorously and vociferously about sexual harassment while Johnson had not.