BENTON -- Penn Aluminum International LLC was granted summary judgment after it was sued for gender discrimination and sexual orientation discrimination by a worker who had a consensual romantic relationship with her boss, but Penn was denied its motion for attorney fees.
U.S. District Judge Staci M. Yandle denied Penn’s motion for attorney fees Sept. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The court pointed out that the only reason Penn asked for attorney’s fees was because plaintiff Teri Davis, lost her case against it. After being granted summary judgment in March, Penn said the entire lawsuit was completely frivolous and wanted Davis to pay its $5,876.50 in attorney fees.
The court ruled, “Penn clearly baited a hook and is now crying foul. Davis did not assert a hostile work environment or sexual harassment in her complaint. By preemptively arguing against such a non-existent claim in its memorandum in support of summary judgment, Penn took it upon itself to raise the issue and to address the claim on merits. Had it not done so, the issue would not have been addressed by the court and the result would have been the same – judgment for Penn.”
The court also pointed out that Davis erred when she also “took the bait and bundled sexual harassment arguments with her discrimination claim arguments.” But Penn took things even further when it addressed it on the. merits to begin with, the order indicates.
According to background in the ruling, Davis began working for Penn’s Murphysboro facility in March 2006. She began a romantic relationship with a female coworker, Cheri Trandel, in 2013. Trandel later became Davis’ supervisor and the two continued their relationship. In August 2015, Trandel told Davis they could not be together anymore because Penn told Trandel that she would be fired if she continued seeing Davis.
In her complaint, Davis alleged Trandel began to hold her at higher standards than the rest of the employees at the encouragement of Todd Dusch, who was Trandel’s supervisor. Davis said both Dusch and Trandel harassed her.
Then in October 2016, Davis was injured at work, the ruling indicates. She said she followed the rules relating to absences and filed a request for leave via the Family Leave Act, but Trandel still suggested Davis was out of compliance. Davis was later suspended based on Trandel’s alleged false claims that she used profanity toward her. She was also given a warning after her hair fell out of her hair tie and on to her shoulders. Davis said she was convinced she was treated inappropriately because of her gender and later filed the lawsuit.