Gaines v. Baltimore City Sheriff's Office
Filing
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MEMORANDUM AND ORDER denying Defendant's 19 Motion to Alter/Amend Judgment. Signed by Judge Richard D. Bennett on 1/22/2019. (dass, Deputy Clerk)
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF MARYLAND
JUANITA GAINES,
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Plaintiff,
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Civil Action No. RDB-17-2755
v.
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SHERIFF JOHN ANDERSON,
Defendant.
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MEMORANDUM ORDER
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On March 5, 2018, this Court issued an Order and accompanying Memorandum
Opinion denying Defendant Sheriff John Anderson’s (“Defendant” or “Anderson”) Motion
to Dismiss. (ECF Nos. 16, 17.) Now pending before this Court is Defendant’s Motion to
Alter or Amend Judgment (“Defendant’s Motion”).
(ECF No. 19.)
The parties’
submissions have been reviewed, and no hearing is necessary. See Local Rule 105.6 (D. Md.
2018). For the reasons stated below, Defendant’s Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment
(ECF No. 19) is DENIED.
BACKGROUND
The facts of this case have previously been addressed in two prior Memorandum
Opinions of this Court. See Gaines v. Martin, No. JKB-12-1126, 2014 WL 1622316 (D. Md.
Apr. 23, 2014) (“Gaines I”); Gaines v. Anderson, RDB-17-2755, 2018 WL 1156768 (D. Md.
March 5, 2018) (“Gaines II”). A brief summary of the case follows, giving particular attention
to its procedural posture. For purposes of reviewing Defendant’s Motion to Alter or
Amend Judgment, which petitions this Court to revise its prior Order and to grant
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Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, this Court accepts as true the facts alleged in the Plaintiff’s
Second Amended Complaint. See Q Intern Courier Inc. v. Smoak, 441 F.3d 214, 216 (4th Cir.
2006). When a defendant moves to dismiss on the ground of res judicata, a court may also
take judicial notice of facts from a prior judicial proceeding so long as the res judicata defense
does not raise disputed issues of fact. Id. (citing Andrews v. Daw, 201 F.3d 521, 524 n.1 (4th
Cir. 2000)).
Gaines worked as a Deputy Sheriff with the Sheriff of Baltimore City from
September 27, 2001 until June 22, 2012. (Second Am. Compl. ¶¶ 1-2, ECF No. 18.) On
July 9, 2010, she filed a Charge of Discrimination (“2010 Charge”) with the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) against Anderson and Baltimore City,
alleging that she was passed over for a promotion and denied overtime because she was
female. (Id. at ¶ 18.) On February 4, 2011, Gaines arrived at work wearing dark pants, a
white collared button-down shirt, a hooded jacket, and a vest. (Id. at ¶ 21.) Gaines alleges
that she had worn these and similar clothes many times before, and that male colleagues with
similar work assignments and wearing similar attire were not sent home. (Id. at ¶¶ 22, 24.)
Nevertheless, Captain Donald Rheubottom called Gaines into his office, inspected her
clothing, and sent her home for dress code violations. (Id. at ¶ 23.) Subsequently, Gaines
updated her Charge of Discrimination at the Baltimore EEOC office. (Id. at ¶ 36.) On
February 8, 2011, Captain Rheubottom again sent home Gaines for purported dress code
infractions. (Id. at ¶ 34.) That same day, she returned to the EEOC office in Baltimore to
add allegations to her pending EEOC charge. (Id. at ¶ 36.) Gaines notified Captain
Rheubottom and her co-workers that she had updated the charge. (Id.)
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Gaines alleges that she faced retaliation because of her EEOC Complaints.
Following these incidents, Gaines was placed on a performance improvement plan on
February 17, 2011 and placed on probationary status. (Id. at ¶ 38.) On August 8, 2011
Gaines was notified of formal internal affairs charges pending against her for unsatisfactory
performance, conduct unbecoming a Sheriff’s Deputy, failure to obey orders, unauthorized
absence, and insubordination—all related to the events of February 4 and 8, 2011. (Id. at ¶
39.)
On April 12, 2012, after obtaining a right to sue letter related to her Charge, Gaines
filed suit in this Court against the State of Maryland, Anderson, and three other individual
defendants, alleging violations of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the Fourteenth
Amendment (“Gaines I”). (Id. at ¶ 42; Gaines I, 2014 WL 1622316, at *1.) The Complaint
concerned Plaintiff’s experiencing working as a Deputy Sheriff in the Special Operations
Unit in 2008. Gaines I, 2014 WL 1622316, at *1. Within a week of filing her Complaint, on
April 17, 2012, Gaines received notification of an internal Trial Board hearing date for the
internal affairs charges pending against her. (Id. at ¶ 43.) On April 27, 2012 Gaines was
found guilty of the charges against her by a panel of three officers appointed by Sheriff
Anderson. (Id. at ¶ 44.)
Even though the Trial Board only recommended a 30-day
suspension, Sheriff Anderson terminated Gaines’ employment on June 22, 2012. (Id. at ¶
45.) Subsequently, Gaines filed a Second Charge of Discrimination with the EEOC (“2012
Charge”), asserting that she had faced retaliation in violation of Title VII. (Id. at 7.) Gaines
also amended Count 2 of her Complaint to include an allegation that Defendants had
retaliated against her by terminating her employment. Am. Compl. ¶ 48, Gaines v. Martin,
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No. JKB-12-1126, 2014 WL 1622316 (D. Md. Apr. 23, 2014).
Subsequently, Defendants moved to dismiss Gaines’ Amended Complaint. In their
Memorandum in support of this Motion, Defendants acknowledged that Count 2 of the
Complaint contained an allegation that Plaintiff’s employment was terminated in retaliation
for, inter alia, filing a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. (Def.’s Mem. Mot. to
Dismiss 4, ECF No. 31-3). Defendants argued, however, that Count 2 must be dismissed
because she had failed to file a charge of discrimination with the Maryland Commission on
Civil Rights (“MCCR”) before filing her 2012 Charge. (Id. at 8-9.) They further contended
that Gaines had failed to state a claim for retaliation in Count 2, focusing solely on
paragraphs 29 through 35 of the Amended Complaint, which did not contain her allegation
that she had been fired in retaliation for filing an EEOC Charge. (Id. at 31.)
In response, Gaines informed Defendants and this Court that the 2010 Charge—not
the 2012 Charge—formed the basis for her claims. She explained that the 2012 Charge was
an “additional retaliation charge filed by Plaintiff” concerning her employment termination.
(Pl.’s Resp. Opp. 3, ECF No. 36.) Defendants did not challenge Gaines’ apparent attempt to
separate claims arising from her employment termination from Gaines I.
Judge James K. Bredar of this Court dismissed all of Plaintiff’s claims. Gaines I, 2014
WL 1622316, at *1. Informed by the parties’ submissions, which indicated that Plaintiff’s
termination claim was not at issue, the Memorandum Opinion did not acknowledge that
Gaines’ employment had been terminated. See Id. at *1 (“Plaintiff is a deputy sheriff”)
(emphasis added). This Court did not even reference the 2012 Charge, but instead merely
observed that Gaines had exhausted her administrative remedies by filing her 2010 Charge.
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Id. at *3. Furthermore, the Memorandum Opinion’s analysis of Count 2 made no reference
to Gaines’ allegation that she had been fired for filing a charge with the EEOC. Id. at *5.
On March 31, 2017, the EEOC issued a cause determination addressing the 2012
Charge and found that the Sheriff’s Office violated Title VII with regard to Gaines’
discharge. (ECF No. 18, at ¶ 15.) Accordingly, Gaines filed the instant lawsuit (“Gaines II”).
In this lawsuit, Gaines alleges that her employment at the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office was
terminated in retaliation for pursuing an EEOC Charge. (Id. at ¶ 69.) Defendant moved to
dismiss the claim, and for the first time since Gaines filed her 2012 Charge, he has objected
that Plaintiff’s claim is barred by res judicata. In her Response in Opposition to Defendant’s
Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 10), Gaines conceded that res judicata applied to her claims, but
argued that an exception to that doctrine applied in this case because Defendant had
acquiesced to Plaintiff’s claim-splitting (i.e., he permitted Gaines to pursue her termination
claim in a separate lawsuit). (Pl.’s Resp. Mem. 7, ECF No. 10.) On March 5, 2018, this
Court issued a Memorandum Opinion and accompanying Order denying Defendant’s
Motion to Dismiss, having determined that res judicata did not bar Plaintiff’s claims.
Subsequently, Defendant filed a Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment Denying Motion to
Dismiss Amended Complaint. (ECF No. 19.)
STANDARD OF REVIEW
Although Defendant has styled his Motion as a “Motion to Alter or Amend
Judgment Denying Motion to Dismiss Amended Complaint” under Rule 59(e), the Order it
seeks to alter or amend was an interlocutory order denying a Motion to Dismiss rather than
a Judgment.
As such, his Motion is more appropriately styled as a motion for
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reconsideration of an interlocutory order under Rule 54(b). Cezair v. JP Morgan Chase Bank,
N.A., DKC-13-2928, 2014 WL 4955535, at *1 (D. Md. Sept. 30, 2014) (explaining that a
motion to amend an order denying a motion to dismiss is more properly brought under Rule
54(b)).
Under Rule 54(b), district courts have discretion to reconsider rulings on
interlocutory motions at any time before the entry of Judgment. U.S. Tobacco Coop., Inc. v.
Big South Wholesale of Virginia, LLC, 899 F.3d 236, 256 (4th Cir. 2018). The standards
governing motions filed pursuant to Rules 54 and 59 closely resemble one another. Id. at
257 (quoting Carlson v. Boston Sci. Corp., 856 F.3d 320, 325 (4th Cir. 2017)). A district court
may revise an interlocutory order under three circumstances: “(1) a subsequent trial
producing substantially different evidence; (2) a change in applicable law; or (3) clear error
causing manifest injustice.” Id.
ANALYSIS
This Court previously determined that the doctrine of res judicata did not bar
Plaintiff’s claims because (1) Gaines could not have brought the instant retaliation claim in
Gaines I because it had not been administratively exhausted; and (2) the operative facts giving
rise to Plaintiff’s prior lawsuit in Gaines I differed substantially from those in the case at bar.
Gaines II, 2018 WL 1156768, at *6-8. Defendant petitions this Court to revise its Order
(ECF No. 17) denying his Motion to Dismiss on these grounds. (Def. Mot. 1, ECF No. 19).
Specifically, he argues that res judicata bars Plaintiff’s Title VII retaliation claim because
Gaines did not need to administratively exhaust her claim that she had been retaliated against
for filing an EEOC charge, and she in fact brought this claim in Gaines I by amending her
Complaint. (Id. at 2-3.); see Jones v. Calvert Group, Ltd., 551 F.3d 297, 301-03 (4th Cir. 2009)
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(explaining that plaintiffs need not exhaust administrative remedies when “bootstrapping” a
claim that a prior EEOC complaint resulted in retaliation).
Even if the elements of res judicata are satisfied, the doctrine would not apply in this
case because Defendant acquiesced to “claim splitting,” that is, he permitted Plaintiff to
litigate her pending claim in a separate lawsuit. Because res judicata is designed to protect
defendants from re-litigating the same claim in different suits, a defendant who acquiesces
“in terms or in effect” to claim-splitting will not be able to invoke res judicata. Keith v.
Aldridge, 900 F.2d 736, 740 (4th Cir. 1990) cert. denied, 498 U.S. 900, 111 S. Ct. 257 (1990)
(quoting Restatement (Second) of Judgments § 26(1)(a)). Consent to claim-splitting may be
manifested in “express words or otherwise.” Keith, 900 F.2d at 740 (quoting Restatement
(Second) of Judgments § 26(1)(a), cmt. a). Thus, Defendant’s failure to object to claimsplitting may constitute his consent to this manner of proceeding:
Where the plaintiff is simultaneously maintaining separate actions based upon
parts of the same claim, and in neither action does the defendant make the
objection that another action is pending based on the same claim, judgment in
one of the actions does not preclude the plaintiff from proceeding and
obtaining judgment in the other action. The failure of the defendant to object
to the splitting of the plaintiff's claim is effective as an acquiescence in the
splitting of the claim.
Beazer East, Inc. v. U.S. Navy, 111 F.3d 129 (4th Cir. 1997) (Table) (quoting Restatement
(Second) of Judgments § 26, cmt. a, at 235 (1982)); see also Rotec Indus., Inc. v. Mitsubishi Corp.,
348 F.3d 1116, 1119 (9th Cir. 2003) (explaining that there is “no reason” to “encourage
mischief” by allowing litigants to delay their objections to dual proceedings until they
received a favorable judgment in one proceeding), cert denied 541 U.S. 1063, 124 S. Ct. 2392
(2004).
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Defendants may acquiesce to claim-splitting by making representations about
pending administrative actions. In Pueschel v. United States, 369 F.3d 345 (4th Cir. 2004), the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit determined that Defendant consented
to claim-splitting by making representations about pending EEOC proceedings. In that case
(“Pueschel II”), Deborah Katz Pueschel, a former air traffic controller, sued the Secretary of
Transportation alleging, inter alia, that the Federal Aviation Administration (“FAA”) had
violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, et seq., and the
Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 791, et seq., by interfering with the processing of her disability
claims filed with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (“OWCP claim”). Id. at
347-48. Pueschel had previously filed a lawsuit (“Pueschel I”) against the FAA for violating
Title VII, alleging (as in Pueschel II) that the FAA was interfering with the processing of her
workers’ compensation claims. Id. at 356. In the FAA’s Motion for Summary Judgment in
Pueschel I, the FAA stated that Pueschel had also brought this claim in a pending EEOC
Charge, and that it was “being investigated and [thus] not part of [the present] lawsuit.” Id.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit determined that, by making this
representation, the FAA effectively consented to claim-splitting. Id. Accordingly, res judicata
did not bar Pueschel’s OWCP claim in Pueschel II. Id.; cf. Doctor’s Exch. of S.C. v. Am.’s Best
Contacts & Eyeglasses, Inc., 26 Fed. App’x 236 (4th Cir. 2002) (finding that Defendant’s
statement before an arbiter that a “charge of sexual harassment” would be “heard and
resolved separately” sufficed to manifest consent to splitting that claim).
Defendant has acquiesced to claim splitting in this case by arguing that Plaintiff’s
retaliatory termination claim was not properly before this Court in Gaines I, failing to reply to
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Plaintiff’s representation that her termination claim constituted a “separate” action, and
remaining silent for years as the EEOC investigated Gaines’ 2012 Charge. In Gaines I,
Defendants argued that Count 2 of the Complaint, which contained the accusation of
retaliatory termination, had not been administratively exhausted. (ECF No. 31-3, at 10.)
Defendants chose not to address her claim of retaliatory termination in the remainder of
their Memorandum in support of their Motion to Dismiss. Instead, Defendants identified
Gaines’ “right to file a complaint with the Inspector General” as her alleged protected
activity and her transfer to the Domestic Violence Unit as a “perceived adverse employment
decision” but remained silent about her allegation that she had been fired for filing an
EEOC Charge. (Id. at 31-32.) In her Response, Gaines indicated that her termination claim
was pending before the EEOC and was “an additional retaliation charge.” (Pl.’s Opp. Resp.
3, ECF No. 36.) Defendant did not file a Reply to contest this characterization.
Only now in Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss—filed five years after the 2012 EEOC
charge and equipped with an intervening judgment in his favor—has he objected to Gaines’
termination claims on grounds of res judicata. While Defendant’s representations in Gaines I
about the pending EEOC charge do not precisely resemble the Pueschel and Doctor’s Exchange
Defendants’ explicit remarks about claim-splitting, the representations in Defendant’s
memorandum concerning the EEOC action, and his failure to object to Gaines’ expressed
intent to split her claims, indicate that the Defendant in this case believed that the claim of
retaliatory termination had been reserved for another day.
Defendant objects that he cannot waive legal defenses by merely failing to raise them
in a position statement before the EEOC. See, e.g., Enright v. Illinois State Police, 19 F. Supp. 2d
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884, 888–89 (N.D. Ill. 1998). This Court does not rule otherwise. Defendant’s failure to
object on res judicata grounds in his EEOC position statement is not determinative. Rather,
it is the sum of Defendant’s actions—his arguments before this Court in Gaines I, his failure
to address Gaines’ intent to split her claims in a Reply or other submission, and his lack of
objection during EEOC proceedings—reveal that he has effectively assented to claimsplitting.
Accordingly, it is HEREBY ORDERED this 22nd day of January, 2019 that:
1) Defendant’s Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment (ECF No. 19) is DENIED;
2) The Clerk of Court shall transmit a copy of this Order to all counsel of record.
/s/
Richard D. Bennett
United States District Judge
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