Ghogomu v. Delta Airlines Global Services, LLC , 652 F. App'x 701 ( 2016 )

FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT June 16, 2016
_________________________________
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
MAAHNCHOOH GHOGOMU,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. No. 15-5112
(D.C. Nos. 4:14-CV-00048-JED-TLW
DELTA AIRLINES GLOBAL &4:14-CV-00049-JED-PJC)
SERVICES, LLC, as a subsidiary of (N.D. Okla.)
Delta Airlines Inc., and JOHN
WATTS,
Defendants-Appellees.
_________________________________
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
_________________________________
Before BRISCOE, BACHARACH, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.
_________________________________
At the Tulsa International Airport, every Delta flight is supposed to
have a “final walk around” before the airplane moves from the gate. Prior
to pushing the airplane from the gate, an employee of Delta Airlines
*
The Court has determined that oral argument would not materially
aid our consideration of the appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir.
R. 34.1(G). Thus, we have decided the appeal based on the briefs.
This order and judgment does not constitute binding precedent except
under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel.
But our order and judgment may be cited for its persuasive value under
Fed. R. App. P. 32.1(a) and 10th Cir. R. 32.1(A).
Global Services, LLC walks around the airplane to check on certain things,
such as making sure the fuel-panel door is secure.
There was no final walk around for Delta Flight 5188, and the fuel-
panel door was left open, resulting in damage to the airplane when it
arrived at the Detroit airport. Delta Global investigated to identify the
employee who was supposed to conduct the final walk around. This
investigation led Delta Global to point the finger at Mr. Maahnchooh
Ghogomu, who had already been warned that another infraction could
result in termination. Delta Global fired Mr. Ghogomu for failing to
conduct the final walk around.
Mr. Ghogomu viewed the firing as discriminatory because he was
black and Cameroon. He brought suit under Title VII and invoked state-law
theories of unjust termination, defamation, and intentional infliction of
emotional distress. The district court granted summary judgment for Delta
Global and denied Mr. Ghogomu’s summary judgment motion. Mr.
Ghogomu, appearing pro se, appeals based on eight arguments:
1. The district court relied on tampered deposition excerpts of
himself and a Delta Global employee.
2. The Federal Aviation Administration ultimately blamed
someone else for the incident.
3. Delta Global lied about part of its investigation.
4. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sided with
Mr. Ghogomu.
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5. Delta Global failed to produce documentary evidence.
6. Delta Global changed its version of events.
7. The district court deliberately misconstrued facts and claims.
8. The district court waited too long to issue a scheduling order.
We afford Mr. Ghohomu’s pro se filings a liberal construction. See Yang v.
Archuleta, 525 F.3d 925, 927 n.1 (10th Cir. 2008). But we reject each of
his arguments.
1. The district court acted within its discretion in rejecting Mr.
Ghogomu’s allegation of inaccuracies and omissions in the
deposition excerpts.
Mr. Ghogomu contends that the deposition transcripts for himself and
a Delta Global employee (John Watts) are inaccurate and incomplete.
According to Mr. Ghogomu, his actual deposition testimony was not
accurately transcribed by the court reporter and five pages were omitted in
his copy of Mr. Watts’s deposition transcript. Mr. Ghogomu raised these
issues in district court, requesting an order to strike the two deposition
transcripts. The court declined to strike the deposition transcripts. That
ruling fell within the district court’s discretion. See Sports Racing Servs.,
Inc. v. Sports Car Club of Am., Inc., 131 F.3d 874, 894 (10th Cir. 1997)
(“Like other evidentiary rulings, we review a district court’s decision to
exclude evidence at the summary judgment stage for abuse of discretion.”).
Because Mr. Ghogomu said he was missing five pages from Mr.
Watts’s deposition transcript, the defendants provided these pages to the
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district court before it ruled on summary judgment. In addition, the district
court concluded that the alleged errors were immaterial and that Mr.
Ghogomu had bypassed an opportunity to make changes on the errata page.
This reasoning makes sense, and the district court acted within its
discretion in declining to strike the deposition transcripts.
2. The Federal Aviation Administration’s report does not affect the
outcome.
The Federal Aviation Administration investigated and issued a report
after Mr. Ghogomu had been fired. The report stated that the fueler had
been counseled to secure the fuel cap and door. Mr. Ghogomu views this
report as proof that he was not at fault.
The district court correctly concluded that the report does not affect
the summary-judgment rulings. The report did not come into existence
until Mr. Ghogomu had already been fired. Thus, Delta Global could not
have consulted the report when deciding whether to fire Mr. Ghogomu.
The eventual FAA report did nothing to exonerate Mr. Ghogomu. The
final walk around is designed to catch things like the fueler’s failure to
secure the fuel cap and door. Thus, a mistake by the fueler would not
excuse a failure of Mr. Ghogomu to make the final walk around.
The district court was right: The eventual FAA report did not affect
the summary-judgment rulings.
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3. Mr. Ghogomu lacks any evidence that Delta Global lied about its
investigation.
In investigating the incident, Delta Global tried to find out who was
supposed to do the final walk around for Flight 5188. Delta Global said
that the departure had been captured on videotape kept by airport officials.
Thus, Delta Global said, three of its employees watched the video to
identify the employee who had pushed the airplane from the gate for Flight
5188. That employee would have been the person responsible for the final
walk around.
According to Delta Global, the three employees identified Mr.
Ghogomu as the person who had pushed the airplane from the gate. Mr.
Ghogomu argues that there was never any videotape and that the three
employees lied.
This argument arises in the context of summary-judgment rulings,
requiring the court to consider whether there was evidence to support Mr.
Ghogomu’s allegation of an elaborate lie about watching a nonexistent
videotape. The district court concluded that there was no evidence to
support Mr. Ghogomu’s allegation, and we agree.
The evidence showed that the video was kept by airport officials, not
Delta Global. Airport officials said that they had routinely deleted videos
after 30 days and that Mr. Ghogomu did not request the video until almost
3 months after the incident. By then, the video had been deleted.
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Mr. Ghogomu points out that the airport had no record of a request
from Delta Global to view the video. The absence of a record is relevant if
one would expect a record of the request. But there was little reason to
expect a record here because requests for airport videos were usually made
by telephone. There was no evidence suggesting that a request would
ordinarily have been reflected in the airport’s records.
For these reasons, we reject Mr. Ghogomu’s arguments regarding the
videotape of Flight 5188’s departure.
4. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did not say
anything supportive of Mr. Ghogomu’s claims.
Mr. Ghogomu points out that the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission issued a right-to-sue letter, characterizing the letter as
evidence of Delta Global’s fault. Mr. Ghogomu has misunderstood the
EEOC letter. The EEOC actually said that it was unable to conclude that
Mr. Ghogomu’s information would have established a violation of federal
law. The letter does not support Mr. Ghogomu’s claims.
5. The district court correctly rejected Mr. Ghogomu’s claim
involving nonproduction of documentary evidence.
Mr. Ghogomu claims that Delta Global singled him out for drug
testing after he was identified as the employee responsible for conducting
the final walk around. But, Mr. Ghogomu contends, Delta Global failed to
produce duty logs or reports showing drug testing of other crew members
working on the day of the accident.
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According to Mr. Ghogomu, the industry requires duty logs, so their
nonexistence constitutes evidence of pretext. He does not explain how a
failure to keep duty logs would serve as evidence of pretext. Nor does he
present any evidence of an industry standard requiring duty logs. Mr.
Ghogomu’s allegation is unexplained and unsupported.
Mr. Ghogomu also contends that the absence of documents showing
drug testing or incident reports proves that he was singled out. But Delta
Global acknowledges that it singled Mr. Ghogomu out. The question is
why. Delta Global contends that it singled Mr. Ghogomu out for drug
testing only after identifying him as the employee responsible for the final
walk around. Mr. Ghogomu’s argument about the absence of documents
does not create a genuine dispute of material fact. Therefore, the district
court correctly rejected Mr. Ghogomu’s argument against summary
judgment.
6. The district court correctly rejected Mr. Ghogomu’s contention
that Delta Global had changed its version of events.
Mr. Ghogomu contends that Delta Global changed its explanation for
his firing during the litigation. In one motion, Delta Global said that it had
fired Mr. Ghogomu because he was responsible for the final walk around
and he had neglected to secure the fuel panel door. In later filings, Delta
Global said that it had fired Mr. Ghogomu because he failed to conduct the
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final walk around. In Mr. Ghogomu’s view, the two statements are
different and this difference constituted evidence of pretext. We disagree.
In our view, the two statements are substantively the same. In both
statements, Delta Global said that it had fired Mr. Ghogomu because he
failed to conduct the final walk around. That failure was important because
it should have led Mr. Ghogomu to see that the fuel panel door was open.
In these circumstances, we reject Mr. Ghogomu’s characterization of the
two statements as a change in Delta Global’s version of events.
7. Mr. Ghogomu lacks evidence that the district court deliberately
misconstrued facts and claims.
According to Mr. Ghogomu, the district court deliberately
misconstrued facts and claims. We reject this contention.
Mr. Ghogomu does not identify the facts supposedly misconstrued
and identifies only one claim allegedly misconstrued: the unjust
termination claim. The district court said that this claim had arisen under
Title VII. This characterization was correct because Mr. Ghogomu had
relied solely on Title VII on his claims involving the termination.
8. The district court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a
scheduling order.
Mr. Ghogomu contends that the district court waited too long to issue
a scheduling order. According to Mr. Ghogomu, the delay gave Delta
Global too much time for discovery.
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The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure set a deadline for the issuance
of scheduling orders. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 16(b)(2). The district court’s
scheduling order arguably did not satisfy this deadline. But even if the
scheduling order was late, it would have remained valid. See 3 James Wm.
Moore et al., Moore’s Federal Practice § 16.12[1][a], at 16-44 (3d ed.
2016) (“The time limits applicable to the issuance of a scheduling order do
not imply that an order filed after the deadline is invalid.”).
Mr. Ghogomu contends that by waiting too long to issue a scheduling
order, the district court gave the parties too much time for discovery. This
argument is unconvincing. Even with an earlier scheduling order, the court
could have given the parties just as much time for discovery. Thus, Mr.
Ghogomu has not alleged a reason to believe he was harmed by the delay in
issuing the scheduling order.
9. Disposition
We affirm.
We also deny the defendants’ motion to strike Mr. Ghogomu’s
exhibits to his reply brief.
Entered for the Court
Robert E. Bacharach
Circuit Judge
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