Tovihlon v. Allied Aviation, Inc.


UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ) MAWULI M. TOVIHLON, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Civil No. 15-315 (RCL) ) ALLIED AVIATION, INC., ) consolidated with JAMES BUCHANAN, JIM SIVIA, and RICK ) WILLIAMS, ) Civil N0. 15-575 (RCL) ) Defendants. ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION Before the Court is the mo'tion of defendants Allied Aviation, Inc. (“Allied”), James Buchanan, Jim Sivia and Rick Williams (“defendants”) for summary judgement.l ECF No. 75. Upon consideration of the pleadings, the relevant law, and entire record of the case, the Court GRANTS the defendants’ motion and the case is hereby dismissed. I. BACKGROUND2 A. 2010Incidents Plaintiff, Mawuli M. Tovihlon, began working at Allied on January 5, 2009. Allied is an independently owned and operated company whose core business is providing fueling services for the commercial aviation industry. Allied provides services at airports across the United States, including Reagan Airport, where the plaintiff worked for the entirety of his employment with l Defendants Buchanan, Sivia, and Williams do not raise in their motion the issue as to whether they_as individuals_are even proper defendants in a Title VII action. The Court will, therefore, not address the issue as it would have no effect on the outcome of the case. 2 F or this section, the Court draws upon the defendants’ statement of uncontested facts and the plaintiffs response. Allied. On May ll, 2009, after a four-month probationary period, the plaintiff was promoted to Lead Mechanic and assigned the overnight shift. The plaintiff was supervised, at least in part, by defendant Rick Wi~lliams. Plaintiff`s responsibilities as a mechanic and lead mechanic involved fixing trucks, maintaining equipment, maintaining the fuel pits, and repairing buses for Fairf`ax County. While employed with Allied, Plaintiff was a member of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (“IAMAW”), AFL-CIO, Air Transport District Lodge 142, Local Lodge No. 1747 (the “Union”). The first confrontation described by the parties occurred in or about March 2010. The parties dispute certain aspects of the interaction, but at a minimum both provide that it related to a work-performance issue. Defendant Williams confronted the plaintiff regarding the method he employed for fixing a van. After this first incident, there was no write-up or disciplinary charges filed against the plaintiff The plaintiff alleges that around this time he heard Mr. Williams state to Mr. Wyatt and Mr. Sivia_fellow supervisors at Allied_that “he cannot work with an African Negro every day and he cannot deal with Tovihlon” and that all three laughed in response to the comment. ECF No. 77 at 7. The defendants deny any such comments were made and the plaintiff provides no corroborating evidence beyond his own deposition. In or about April 2010, Mr. Williams again confronted the plaintiff regarding his work performance and provided him with a written warning. ECF No. 75-12 at 2. He noted that the plaintiff “was signing off on hydrant pits checks as being ok, when in fact pit lid seals were off the lids, flange ...

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