United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
REBECCA R. PALLMEYER UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE
Plaintiff
Todd Haffner brings this suit for relief against his former
employer under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
(“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. § 621-34. From February
2010 to August 2014, Haffner worked for Defendant New
Concepts Development Corp. (“NCDC”) as its
Director of Information Technology and Information Systems.
On August 28, 2014, NCDC terminated Haffner's employment.
Haffner filed a one-count complaint against NCDC on June 27,
2015, in which he claims that NCDC “willfully
discriminated” against him because of his age by not
following NCDC's internal disciplinary procedures and by
holding him to a higher standard of performance than his
similarly-situated coworkers who were under 40 years old.
(First Amended Complaint [6] (“Am. Compl.”),
¶ 11.)[1]
NCDC
tells a very different story. It claims that Haffner was
terminated based on his insubordination, poor performance,
and multiple instances of misconduct. In addition, NCDC
asserts that after being fired, Haffner logged on to the
company's network from his home computer and sabotaged
critical business data. Defendant NCDC has moved for summary
judgment, arguing that Haffner can prove neither NCDC's
liability nor his own entitlement to damages. (Defendant
NCDC's Motion for Summary Judgment [74]
(“Def.'s SJ Mot.”), 1-2.)
Defendant
has also moved to sanction Haffner under Fed.R.Civ.P. 37 for
numerous discovery violations and his generally
“vexatious and contumacious conduct throughout this
case.” (Defendant NCDC's Motion for Sanctions [85],
1-2.)
For the
reasons stated here, Defendant's motion for summary
judgment [74] is granted. Defendant's motion for
sanctions [85] is denied.
BACKGROUND
NCDC is
an Illinois company that designs, manufactures, and
distributes after-market accessories for Apple products.
Around February 5, 2010, Haffner was hired by NCDC as its
Director of Information Technology and Information Systems
(“IT/IS”). (Defendant NCDC's Local Rule 56.1
Statement of Undisputed Facts [76] (“DSOF”),
¶ 5.) In his role as Director of IT/IS at NCDC, Haffner
managed a small team of employees, served on the
company's leadership team, and reported directly to the
president of the company. (Id. at ¶¶ 5,
9.) At the time Haffner was hired, Larry O'Connor, the
founder and CEO of NCDC, served as president. (Id.)
Haffner does not dispute that O'Connor had the authority
to assign company projects to Haffner's team, and that
Haffner could be held accountable for his team's
performance and ability to meet deadlines. (Pl.'s Resp.
to DSOF [94] ¶¶ 6-8.)
Like
all of NCDC's employees, Haffner was subject to the
various “employment policies and practices”
outlined in NCDC's Employee Handbook. (DSOF ¶ 10.)
The Handbook stated that employees could be disciplined for
insubordination, showing disrespect towards fellow employees,
disclosing confidential communications to third parties, and
poor performance. (Employee Handbook at NCDC0000108, 124-25,
Ex. 6 to DSOF [76-7].) Potential disciplinary actions
included warnings, suspensions, and discharge from the
company, depending on the circumstances. (Id. at
NCDC0000108.) The Handbook made clear that there no
“guarantee that one form of [disciplinary] action will
necessarily precede another.” (Id.) The
Handbook emphasized further that NCDC was an at-will
employer, and that either side could “terminate the
employment relationship at any time, for any reason, with or
without cause or notice.” (Id. at
NCDC0000159.) In March 2012, Haffner signed a document
acknowledging that he received a copy of the Employee
Handbook and agreed to comply with its terms. (Deposition of
Todd Haffner 76:9-77:7 (“Haffner Dep.”), Ex. 1 to
DSOF [76-2].)
In
support of its motion for summary judgment, NCDC cites a
mountain of evidence suggesting that Haffner acted
insubordinately, repeatedly disclosed internal communications
in e-mails to outsiders, missed deadlines, and refused to
accept responsibility for the failure of a major IT project.
In 2012, Haffner was appointed as the project manager of a
major, company-wide software package called
“SYSPRO.” (DSOF ¶ 24-30.) NCDC invested over
$300, 000 in SYSPRO, and, for more than one year, Haffner and
four other employees dedicated the majority of their time to
the project. (Id. at ¶ 28.) The project
ultimately failed around the end of 2013 due to repeated
technical issues and delays. (Haffner Dep. 255:7-259:14,
266:1-268:15.)
After
the SYSPRO failure, Haffner was disciplined for violating
company policy on several occasions. On March 27 and April 3,
2014, Haffner shared internal e-mail threads with
outsiders-acts which O'Connor and others criticized as
“paint[ing] [NCDC] in a bad light.” (DSOF
¶¶ 13-16.) O'Connor issued a “verbal
warning” to Haffner for these incidents of “poor
judgment” on April 7, 2014. (Employee Performance Form,
Ex. 8 to DSOF [76-9]) (signed by Haffner). Both of these
incidents were also discussed at length in Haffner's
annual performance review, which Haffner received on June 20,
2014. (2014 Annual Review of Todd Haffner 2-3, 8-9, Ex. 9 to
DSOF [76-10].) Haffner's annual performance review with
O'Connor also discussed the SYSPRO project's failure;
O'Connor hoped that Haffner could learn from the
experience. (Id. at 2-3, 6-8.) Despite these
criticisms, O'Connor appeared to be otherwise satisfied
with Haffner's performance, and rated Haffner as
“highly effective” (one rank above average).
(Id. at 7.)
During
his tenure at NCDC, Haffner admitted that he frequently took
issue with O'Connor's management style; in
particular, he objected to O'Connor's practice of
“bypassing” Haffner and assigning projects
directly to Haffner's team. (Haffner Dep. 88:9-92:4,
98:11- 99:22.) Haffner acknowledged that O'Connor had the
right to make these direct assignments, but took the position
that O'Connor could not hold him personally accountable
for any of the assignments that “Larry [O'Connor]
wanted [Haffner's team] to work on without going through
me.” (Id. at 88:9-90:14) (stating that Haffner
was only “somewhat” accountable for his
department's performance). Haffner took this concern to
O'Connor more than 20 times up until his termination.
(Id. at 98:11-99:22.)
Furthermore,
Haffner was demonstrably upset by NCDC's decision to
restructure its management team in early June 2014. After the
restructuring, Jennifer Soulé succeeded O'Connor
as president of NCDC, and Haffner began reporting to
Soulé instead. (DSOF ¶ 31.) Haffner's role
within the company also changed. NCDC split his job of
“Director of IT/IS” in two: Haffner remained the
Director of IS, while one of his former subordinates became
the Director of IT. (Id. at ¶ 32.) At the same
time, NCDC discussed creating a new role which would rank
above Haffner's position. (Id. at 33.) Haffner
characterized these moves as “stabbing [him] in the
back.” (E-mail from Todd Haffner of 6/8/14, Ex. 12 to
DSOF [76-13]; Haffner Dep. 231:18- 233:30.) When he received
his annual review on June 20, Haffner was also disappointed
by the associated pay raise. (See E-mail from
Jennifer Soulé to JoAnn Olson of 7/24/14, Ex. 13 to
DSOF [76-14]; Haffner Age Discrimination Timeline 2-3, Ex. 3
to DSOF [76-4]) (stating that Haffner received a 2% raise but
“should have” received 4.6%). Haffner blamed his
meager raise on the fact that Soulé was now his boss.
(Id.)
During
July 2014, the relationship between Haffner and NCDC's
management deteriorated. Soulé and O'Connor
repeatedly expressed concerns about Haffner's behavior:
“especially his judgment.” (E-mail from Jennifer
Soulé to JoAnn Olson of 7/24/14.) Soulé
believed that Haffner was also unhappy that Soulé was
promoted to the position of president of NCDC and he was not.
(Id.) Soulé told NCDC's HR manager that
she hoped to give Haffner another chance to see “if he
ultimately takes any responsibility for the [SYSPRO]
failure.” (Id.) On July 25, O'Connor
forwarded to Soulé an e-mail in which Haffner had
corrected him on a minor point-O'Connor remarked to
Soulé “[n]ot sure why I tolerated this crap. . .
. Todd back in debate mode.” (E-mail from Lawrence
O'Connor to Jennifer Soulé of 7/25/17, Ex. 14 to
DSOF [76-15].) Finally, at a meeting on July 28, Haffner
openly criticized O'Connor in front of his coworkers.
(Summary of 7/28/14 Meeting, Ex. 16 to DSOF [76-17].) While
O'Connor-who was attending the meeting remotely via
speakerphone-was talking, Haffner stood up, muted the phone,
and stated to the other employees in the room that
O'Connor “just doesn't get it.”
(Id.) Haffner repeated the sentiment to other
coworkers in follow-up conversations over the next few days.
(Id.)
Soulé
made the decision to fire Haffner on August 25, 2014, in
consultation with O'Connor. (E-mail from Jennifer
Soulé to Jennifer Soulé of 8/25/14, Ex. 17 to
DSOF [76-18]) (Soulé's contemporaneous notes from
the meeting state that she and O'Connor discussed how
Haffner took time during managers' meetings to
“make fun of” and “complain about things,
” and that Haffner exhibited “insubordination and
not fitting in with culture”). Haffner was informed of
his termination in a meeting with Soulé and NCDC's
HR manager at 8:45 a.m. on August 28, 2014. Haffner's
termination letter stated that he was being fired “due
to [his] work performance not meeting the standards and
expectations of [NCDC].” (Termination Letter, Ex. 20 to
DSOF [76-21].) Defendant claims that Haffner's
insubordination, disclosure of internal communications,
missing deadlines, and ...