PHILADELPHIA – McDonald’s has been dismissed from a case brought by a woman who alleged a franchise location manager harassed her with sexually graphic photos during her job interview when she was a 16 year-old minor.
Jane Doe first filed a complaint Dec. 16, 2019 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against McDonald’s USA, LLC and Tanway Enterprises LP, alleging violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, Philadelphia Fair Practices Ordinance and Pennsylvania common law.
During the time of the events in question, Doe was a 16-year-old minor.
On April 12, 2018, Doe reported to a Philadelphia location of McDonald’s located on City Line Avenue, in responding to an opportunity to interview for an open “Crew Member” position there.
After a 45-minute wait during which she completed an application form, store manager Darnell Penn then began to conduct Doe’s interview and allegedly proceeded to go through the plaintiff’s phone and ask a series of probing interview questions about Doe’s personal life, relationship and sexuality – before showing her sexually explicit and graphic photos from his own telephone and demanding the plaintiff provide him with her cell phone number.
Though Doe agreed to a start date, she said she was so shaken by the interview experience with Penn that she and her mother filed a police report – at which time, the company was said to have “constructively discharged” Doe from her role.
On March 19, counsel for McDonald’s filed a motion to dismiss Doe’s complaint in its entirety, for failure to state a claim. According to the company, Doe never actually chose to become a McDonald’s employee and never made the company aware of her alleged treatment at Penn’s hands.
McDonald’s pointed to Doe’s not being an employee of the company as the basis for its arguments that her claims should be dismissed, and that Penn’s alleged misconduct was not in furtherance of his duties as a McDonald’s employee.
After amendments to the complaints and further proceedings, U.S. District Court Judge Eduardo C. Robreno dismissed McDonald’s from the action on Dec. 3.
“Doe alleges that McDonald’s ‘provided explicit detail in their operations manuals, including express business practices and policies.’ McDonald’s instructed Tanway as to ‘the hours of operations of the restaurant’, ‘expressly required the employment of adequate personnel to operate the location’, and ‘dictated the precise uniforms [employees] would be required to wear,” Robreno said.
“These actions, assumed true, fall short of setting conditions of employment. Further, Doe fails to plausibly allege that McDonald’s had the authority to hire or fire Doe or Penn. This factor weighs against Doe.”
Robreno added Doe did not allege that she and/or Penn received business training from McDonald’s, or that McDonald’s engaged in employee discipline at the store where the alleged conduct occurred.
“Given these factors and the other alleged circumstances surrounding the work relationship at issue, Doe fails to plausibly allege that McDonald’s and Tanway are joint employers,” Robreno said.
The plaintiff is represented by Caroline Miller of Derek Smith Law Group, in Philadelphia.
The remaining defendant Tanway is represented by Katharine Virginia Hartman, Claire Blewitt and Danielle Goebel of Dilworth Paxson, all also in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case 2:19-cv-05925
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nick.malfitano@therecordinc.com