MONE v. PARK EAST SPORTS MEDICINE REHABILITATION

Full title: JESSICA MAE MONE, Plaintiff, v. PARK EAST SPORTS MEDICINE AND…

Court: United States District Court, S.D. New York

Date published: Mar 6, 2001

99 Civ. 4990 (DFE) (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 6, 2001)

Opinion

99 Civ. 4990 (DFE)

March 6, 2001

OPINION AND ORDER

DOUGLAS F. EATON, United States Magistrate Judge.

In this pregnancy discrimination case, the defendants have moved for summary judgment. Depending upon how it resolves the credibility of the conflicting witnesses, a rational jury could find the following. Plaintiff satisfactorily performed her duties for 2 1/2 years. On January 14, 1998 she informed her supervisor Theresa Ryan that she was pregnant, and in the next few days she and some co-workers discussed her pregnancy in the presence of Dr. Haar, the principal of the employer corporation. Ms. Ryan then recommended that plaintiff be fired, and Dr. Haar agreed. On January 21, 1998, plaintiff was fired. Ms. Ryan and Dr. Haar have given reasons for the firing, and pointed to alleged deficiencies; some of the them were quite stale and none of them was documented. As the Second Circuit has said:

. . . [The lack of documentation may be] the result of an informal management style. That inference is permissible, but it plainly is not required as a matter of law; and it was not the court's function on a summary judgment motion to draw it as a matter of fact.

Chambers v. TRM Copy Centers Corp., 43 F.3d 29, 39 (2d Cir. 1994). After reviewing the evidence, I find that a rational jury might conclude that the defendants' stated reasons were pretextual and that the real reason was pregnancy discrimination. Flores v. Buy Buy Baby, Inc., 118 F. Supp.2d 425 (S.D.N.Y. 2000) (McMahon, J.); Yang v. Radix Apparel, Inc., 2000 WL 1886584 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 29, 2000) (Casey, J.). Accordingly, I deny defendants' motion for summary judgment.

I enclose (by mail only) my standing instructions for the contents of the Joint Pretrial Order. Plaintiff must serve her sections of the pretrial order by March 23, 2001. Defendants must serve their sections by April 6, 2001. The Joint Pretrial Order must be submitted to me by April 13, 2001, along with a cover letter stating three dates when both sides and their witnesses are available for trial. I will then set a firm date for trial. At the moment, I am available to begin the trial on any of the following dates:

May 15 at 10:00 am. June 18 at 2:00 p.m. July 10 at 10:00 a.m. July 16 at 2:00 p.m. August 27 at 2:00 p.m.