Larson v. United Air Lines

Filing 41

ORDER granting 19 Motion for Summary Judgment. ORDERED, that judgment will enter for the defendant United Air Lines, dismissing all of the plaintiffs claims and awarding costs by Judge Richard P. Matsch on 06/09/11.(jjh, )

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Senior District Judge Richard P. Matsch
Civil Action No. 09-cv-02745-RPM
GEOFFREY LARSON,
Plaintiff,
v.
UNITED AIR LINES,
Defendant.

ORDER GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT
Geoffrey Larson began work with United Air Lines in 1999. He was transferred to
the Denver International Airport hub in 2002. Mr. Larson worked his way up into a
management position as an Operating Manager, reporting to Jean Massey. Both Mr.
Larson and Ms. Massey were openly gay as were several other UAL employees. Mike
Scanlon was the manager of the Denver hub. Mr. Larson’s primary responsibility as an
operations manager was supervision of the customer service representatives employed
by UAL.
Early in December, 2007, a document was discovered in the break room,
addressed to Mike Scanlon. Without any indication of authorship, the document
complained that “a lot of management or supervisors new and old are homosexuals.”
Specific concern was addressed to a relationship asserted to be between Ms. Massey
and a woman lobby agent. Mr. Larson and others were named as offending the
“straight and heterosexual population.” Exhibit D.

Mr. Larson complained about this letter to Ms. Massey who also took offense
from it. Peggy Decker, an employee in the human resources office of UAL in Chicago,
was assigned to conduct an investigation to determine the source of the anonymous
letter. She asked Mr. Larson to participate in the investigation but he declined.
In December, 2007, a letter signed by many customer service representatives
was sent to Ms. Massey, Mr. Scanlon and others in upper management, expressing
concern about operations in Denver and about the management style of Mr. Larson.
Also in December, 2007, Ms. Massey was transferred to Chicago and Mr. Larson
was reassigned to the position of Manager of Business and Manpower Administration,
responsible for scheduling union employees in the ramp area and complying with the
collective bargaining agreement. His supervisor was Todd Sprague, a person with
whom Mr. Larson had a friendship from the time of his arrival at the Denver hub. That
friendship began because Mr. Sprague, who is not gay, was friends with Mr. Larson’s
gay partner.
Mr. Sprague often expressed some pride in the diversity of the people in the work
place and often referred to Mr. Larson as a “fag” and made other comments concerning
homosexuality. Mr. Larson made no complaints about these comments.
In April of 2008, an anonymous letter addressed to “United Management” was
slipped under the door of Mr. Larson’s office. The author of that letter, claiming to be an
agent, expressed concern about morale and included this statement: “Why does
anybody care what sexual preference you may have for somebody have to do with the
job they have been given. (I never saw the letter that was put in the break room and
this had nothing to do with that.)” Exhibit A.
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Mr. Larson expressed his concern about this letter as being discriminatory to Mr.
Sprague, who did not consider it discriminatory or offensive.
At the time of this letter, it was well known that UAL’s financial difficulties would
cause the layoff or furlough of many employees. During the summer of 2008 many UAL
employees were furloughed. Mr. Larson was a G-level manager. Mr. Scanlon decided
that five of the G-level managers at DIA would be furloughed. Four of them left
voluntarily. On August 21, 2008, Mr. Sprague told Mr. Larson that he was to be
furloughed, effective September 7, 2008. He was entitled to return to his union job of
customer service representative but he was also furloughed from that position due to a
lack of seniority. He filed a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission on January 31, 2009, and filed this civil action on November
21, 2009, after receiving a Notice of Right to Sue letter.
The plaintiff claims gender discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000(e), et seq. and sexual orientation
discrimination and retaliation under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (“CADA”),
C.R.S. 24-34-402.
The defendant moved for summary judgment after completion of discovery.
The plaintiff claims that his supervisor, Mr. Sprague, treated gay men differently
from gay women and that this difference was a motivating factor in the furlough
decision. He also claims that because of his expressed concern about the two letters
he considered to be offensive, he was labeled a troublemaker and the furlough decision
was the result of a retaliatory motive.

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The defendant has presented evidence that the investigation begun by Peggy
Decker was pursued without success in determining authorship of the December, 2007,
letter. There was no investigation conducted as to the April, 2008, letter because it was
not considered offensive or discriminatory. Indeed, the letter was protesting any
concern for the sexual orientation of the UAL staff.
There is some dispute concerning the manner in which the furlough decision was
made. Mike Scanlon, Todd Sprague and other supervisory managers met in a
“consistency session” to score 18 G-level managers. Those scores were recorded on
worksheets and Mr. Larson was ranked next to lowest. The plaintiff challenges this
process and contends that he ranked higher than Kelly Holder, a woman who was
retained. Mr. Larson claims that the scores were manipulated to reverse that
comparative ranking. His only support for that claim is that Kathy Holder told him that
he was higher.
The plaintiff makes much of a difference in worksheets produced during
discovery but the defendant has explained that the difference is in the formats used.
The plaintiff also claims that there was, in fact, no reduction in the number of persons
working under Mr. Sprague’s supervision. That is true. It resulted from the fact that
Gary Dyer, a higher level manager, was demoted and assigned to perform the job that
the plaintiff had been doing.
The primary thrust of the plaintiff’s case is the contention that UAL practiced
retaliation against any employee who complained of any type of discrimination. He has
not made that case. The evidence does not support a fair inference that the furlough of
Geoffrey Larson was influenced by his gender, his sexual orientation or his expressed
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concerns about the letters. Those expressed concerns are an insufficient basis for a
finding that he engaged in the anti-discrimination activity that is statutorily protected.
Because the plaintiff has failed to show adequate evidentiary support to warrant
submission of his claims to a jury, it is
ORDERED, that judgment will enter for the defendant United Air Lines,
dismissing all of the plaintiff’s claims and awarding costs.
DATED: June 9th, 2011
BY THE COURT:
s/Richard P. Matsch
__________________________
Richard P. Matsch, Senior Judge

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