Kaite v. Altoona Student Transp., Inc.
Kaite v. Altoona Student Transp., Inc.
Opinion of the Court
I. Introduction
Before the Court is Defendant's Renewed Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings. (ECF No. 17.) The motion has been fully briefed (see ECF Nos. 18, 25, 32) and is ripe for disposition. For the reasons stated below, Defendant's motion will be DENIED .
II. Jurisdiction
This Court has original jurisdiction over Plaintiff's civil rights claims under
III. Background
Plaintiff filed a Complaint before this Court on January 12, 2017 (ECF No. 1), which Plaintiff subsequently amended on June 17, 2017. (ECF No. 14.) The Court accepts as true the following facts from the Amended Complaint for the sole purpose of deciding Defendant's Renewed Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings.
Defendant hired Plaintiff to work as a school bus driver in 2001. (Id. at 2.) In November, 2015, Defendant informed Plaintiff that, in accordance with a newly enacted state law, Plaintiff needed to undergo a background check to continue her employment. (Id. ) The background check required that Plaintiff be fingerprinted. (Id. )
Plaintiff is a devout Christian. (Id. ) Plaintiff informed Defendant that, according to her sincerely held religious beliefs, "the Book of Revelation prohibits the 'mark of the devil,' which she believes includes fingerprinting, and that she will not get into Heaven if she submits to fingerprinting." (Id. ) Plaintiff asked Defendant for an accommodation, specifically, whether she could perform a different type of background check that did not require her to be fingerprinted. (Id. )
*739Defendant informed Plaintiff that no accommodations were available, and terminated her for failing to comply with state law's fingerprinting requirement, effective December 31, 2015. (Id. at 2-3.) However, Defendant allowed at least one employee with "unreadable" fingerprints to participate in an alternative background check for which fingerprinting was not required. (Id. at 3.)
Plaintiff asserts three claims: (1) religious discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ("Title VII") (see
IV. Legal Standard
"The standard for deciding a motion for judgment on the pleadings filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c) is not materially different from the standard for deciding a motion to dismiss filed pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6)." Zion v. Nassan,
Either motion may be used to seek the dismissal of a complaint based on a plaintiff's "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6) ; id. at 12(h)(2)(B). The only difference between the two motions is that a Rule 12(b) motion must be made before a "responsive pleading" is filed, whereas a Rule 12(c) motion can be made "[a]fter the pleadings are closed." Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b) ; id. at 12(c); Cerciello,
A complaint may be dismissed under Federal Rule of Civil Rule 12(b)(6) for "failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted." Connelly v. Lane Const. Corp.,
Under the pleading regime established by Twombly and Iqbal, a court reviewing the sufficiency of a complaint must take three steps.
Because a motion for judgment on the pleadings is analyzed under the same standard as a motion to dismiss, "a court must accept all of the allegations in the pleadings of the party against whom the motion is addressed as true and draw all reasonable inferences in favor of the non-moving party." Zimmerman v. Corbett,
V. Discussion
A. Religious Discrimination Claim
"To establish a prima facie case of religious discrimination, the employee must show: (1) she holds a sincere religious belief that conflicts with a job requirement; (2) she informed her employer of the conflict; and (3) she was disciplined for failing to comply with the conflicting requirement." Webb v. City of Philadelphia,
*741"An accommodation constitutes an 'undue hardship' if it would impose more than a de minimis cost on the employer." Webb,
Defendant asserts that Plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case of religious discrimination. (ECF No. 18 at 6-8.) Defendant claims that Plaintiff has not shown that she had a "religious" belief; Defendant asserts that the Third Circuit defines a "religious" belief as one that an employer can accommodate without undue hardship and that, because Defendant could not accommodate Plaintiff's belief without undue hardship, Plaintiff's preference to not be fingerprinted is not a "religious" belief. (Id. at 7.) Additionally, Defendant avers that Plaintiff has not alleged that she failed to comply with an "employment requirement," because the Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law ("CPSL"), not Defendant, imposed the requirement that Plaintiff undergo the background check that entailed fingerprinting.
Defendant further asserts that, even if Plaintiff did allege a prima facie case of religious discrimination, this Court should nonetheless grant its motion for judgment on the pleadings because Defendant could not accommodate Plaintiff without suffering an undue hardship. (Id. at 10.) Specifically, Defendant claims that it could be subject to criminal penalties for failing to comply with the CSPL.
*742This Court finds that Plaintiff satisfied her burden. Plaintiff states that she has a sincere religious belief that being fingerprinted constitutes the "mark of the devil" and would prevent her from going to Heaven, and that this belief conflicts with her job requirement that she undergo a background check. (See ECF No. 14 at 2.) Plaintiff informed Defendant of her sincerely held religious belief and was subsequently terminated for failing to comply with the fingerprinting requirement. (Id. ) Plaintiff alleged facts that give rise to a plausible claim for religious discrimination. At this early stage, nothing more is required. Iqbal,
This Court is unpersuaded by Defendant's contention that Plaintiff failed to meet her prima facie burden. Defendant correctly notes that, in the Third Circuit, "if an employer cannot accommodate a religious practice without undue hardship, the practice is not 'religion' within the meaning of Title VII." United States v. Bd. of Educ. for Sch. Dist. of Philadelphia,
This Court also rejects Defendant's assertion that Plaintiff has failed to plead a prima facie case of religious discrimination because the fingerprinting requirement was imposed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and/or the FBI and, therefore, was not an "employment requirement."
Similarly, this Court is unpersuaded by Defendant's argument that if Plaintiff met her prima facie burden to show religious discrimination, Defendant in turn satisfied its burden to prove undue hardship because Defendant could have been subject to criminal liability for violating the CPSL. (See ECF No. 18 at 8-13.) The cases that Defendant cites to support its argument that violating a statute constitutes an undue hardship are inapposite because they were decided later on in the litigation process.
To conclude, Plaintiff pleaded facts that plausibly support her religious discrimination claim. This Court must consider all of Plaintiff's well-pleaded facts as true. Plaintiff alleged that Defendant refused Plaintiff's request for an accommodation, while allowing an employee with "unreadable" fingerprints to undergo an alternative background check. Plaintiff has not alleged that anyone other than Defendant made the decision to deny her requested accommodation, nor that granting her request would have subjected Defendant to an undue hardship. While Defendant asserts in its Answer that it consulted various governmental entities in a good-faith attempt to accommodate Plaintiff and, through those inquiries, determined that granting Plaintiff's request for an accommodation would have subjected Defendant to an undue hardship, this Court must, at this stage, accept the facts in Plaintiff's Complaint as true.
B. Retaliation Claim
To establish a prima facie case of retaliation under Title VII, Plaintiff must show that "(1) she engaged in [a protected] activity"; (2) "the employer took an adverse employment action against her"; and (3) "there was a causal *744connection between her participation in the protected activity and the adverse employment action." Young v. City of Philadelphia Police Dep't,
Defendant concedes that Plaintiff likely satisfied her prima facie burden to show retaliation.
As noted above in the discussion of Plaintiff's religious discrimination claim, the Court must accept all of Plaintiff's well-pleaded facts as true. The Complaint does not allege that anyone other than Defendant made the decision to deny Plaintiff's accommodation and terminate Plaintiff's employment. Defendant avers that it contacted various governmental entities in a good faith attempt to accommodate Plaintiff but, through those conversations, concluded that it could not do so without subjecting itself to an undue hardship. However, this Court cannot weigh the veracity of Defendant's alternative facts at this time, as it must accept as true the allegations in Plaintiff's Complaint.
VI. Conclusion
Plaintiff will need to provide facts to substantiate the allegations in her complaint if she hopes to prevail. However, the question before this Court is not the ultimate question of whether Plaintiff was actually discriminated and retaliated against on the basis of religion. The only question before this Court is whether Plaintiff satisfied "the lenient" standard of review applied at the motion to dismiss stage. See Skolnik v. Friendship Ridge, No. 14CV0507,
An appropriate order follows.
ORDER
AND NOW , this 30th day of October, 2017, upon consideration of Defendant's Renewed Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (ECF No. 17), and in accordance with the foregoing memorandum opinion, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that Defendant's motion is DENIED . Additionally, Defendant's original Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings (ECF No. 8) is DENIED as moot .
"Pennsylvania courts have generally interpreted the PHRA consistently with Title VII, as such, the result of Defendants' motion [to dismiss] will be identical under both Title VII and the PHRA." Rideout v. Pub. Opinion, No. 1:09-CV-0403,
Although Iqbal described the process as a "two-pronged approach," Iqbal,
This Court notes that Defendant attached an affidavit to its Answer from Mark Luchette, who is identified as the Regional Human Resources Director for Student Transportation of America, Inc. (See ECF No. 16-2.) Luchette states that, after Plaintiff requested a religious accommodation, Defendant contacted "Altoona Area School District, a local Pennsylvania lawmaker, legal counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and indirectly [ ] the Federal Bureau of Investigation" ("FBI") in an attempt to accommodate Plaintiff. (Id. at 3.) Essentially, Defendant argues that the Commonwealth entities and the FBI-not Defendant-denied Plaintiff's request for accommodation. Defendant further avers that it lacks the power to grant exceptions or exemptions from the CPSL's fingerprinting requirements. (ECF No. 31 at 3.) However, the veracity of these factual assertions is more appropriately determined at the summary judgment stage. As noted above, because a motion for judgment on the pleadings is analyzed under the same standard as a motion to dismiss, "all factual averments in plaintiff's Complaint must be accepted as true." Thompson,
The Court notes that, pursuant to the CPSL, "[a]n employer, administrator, supervisor or other person responsible for employment decisions that intentionally fails to require an applicant to submit the required documentation [including fingerprints] before the applicant's hiring or upon recertification commits a misdemeanor of the third degree."
Defendant cites four cases to support its argument, none of which this Court finds persuasive. None of the cases are from the Third Circuit. Moreover, three of these cases involved motions for summary judgment-not motions to dismiss or motions for judgment on the pleadings. See El Horin Yisrael v. Per Scholas, Inc.,
Defendant relies on Webb,
Accordingly, this Court rejects Defendant's argument that this Court should grant its Motion for judgment on the Pleadings because Defendant "diligently" attempted to accommodate Plaintiff but, after contacting various governmental entities, decided it could not do so without violating the CPSL. (See ECF No. 18 at 10-13.) At this juncture, the Court must accept Plaintiff's version of the facts as true and draw all reasonable inferences in Plaintiff's favor.
Defendant concedes this for the sole purposes of the pending motion.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Bonnie F. KAITE v. ALTOONA STUDENT TRANSPORTATION, INC.
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published