Versa v. Policy Studies8/25/2000
The plaintiff, an African-American female, brought this employment discrimination action against her employer, Policy Studies, Inc. The employer filed a motion for summary judgment with supporting material. The trial court granted the motion, finding that the plaintiff had failed to demonstrate that there was a genuine issue of material fact on the question of whether the employer had a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for terminating her. We affirm.
Tenn. R. App. P. 3 Appeal as of Right; Judgment of the Circuit Court Affirmed; Case Remanded
Charles D. Susano, Jr., J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Houston M. Goddard, P.J., and Herschel P. Franks, J., joined.
OPINION
I.
The defendant, Policy Studies, Inc., doing business as Child Support Services of Tennessee ("PSI"), provides child support enforcement services to the State of Tennessee in McMinn and Monroe counties. PSI hired the plaintiff, Darlene Versa, to work as an Intake Specialist in PSI's Athens, Tennessee, office. Versa was hired by Pamela S. Gard, the Athens' Office Program Manager, upon the recommendation of Judy Williams, a PSI Order Specialist. PSI was handling an active child support case on behalf of Williams at the time. PSI instructed Williams not to involve herself in her own case and instructed other staff members that they were not to give Williams' case any special treatment.
During Versa's tenure as a PSI employee, she received several commendations and promotions. In early January, 1998, Gard was notified of a problem with Williams' case. She investigated and learned that the employer of Williams' ex-husband had called PSI seeking clarification of a recently transmitted Income Assessment Order ("IA"). Versa, who had taken the call, relayed the message to Kim Bernard. Upon returning the call, Bernard learned that the employer had received an IA that did not correspond with the IA that Bernard herself had prepared. Bernard asked the employer to fax her a copy of the IA it had received. The IA faxed to her called for a withholding of $210 per month plus a $15.75 payment on an arrearage, while the IA that Bernard had prepared called for a withholding of $105 per month and did not include an arrearage. Bernard then informed Gard of her conclusion that her IA had been intercepted and another substituted in its place and sent to the employer.
On January 7, 1998, Gard questioned Williams. Initially, Williams stated that she knew an incorrect IA had been sent to her former husband's employer but that she did not send it. Upon being asked who was involved, she said, "Well, I'll just say that I did it."
Gard conferred with PSI's Human Resources Director and advocated, as part of a progressive disciplinary scheme, a two-week suspension without pay. Instead, the Human Resources Director instructed Gard to terminate Williams, and Gard did so on January 8, 1998.
Gard authored a memo on January 12, 1998, which stated that she could "find no evidence which verifies participation by any other employee to the action on Dec. 23, 1997 which brought about the termination of Judy Williams." However, two of Williams' friends informed Gard that they had talked with Williams about her termination and that Williams had intimated that Versa was involved. Upon receiving this information, Gard spoke to Versa, who denied involvement.
On January 14, 1998, Gard announced to the staff that PSI would begin an investigation and that Jayne Welch, a computer administrator for PSI, would be coming later that day to search for evidence on the computer system. When Welch arrived, she accessed the computer system through the t
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