## Facts

- Angela Ames worked for Nationwide as a loss-mitigation specialist and took maternity leave after giving birth in May 2010.
- After learning her leave had been miscalculated, department head Karla Neel told Ames she could take an additional paid week and then unpaid leave, cautioning that extended unpaid leave might cause problems.
- Before returning to work, Ames was told she could use a lactation room to pump milk every few hours.
- On her first day back in July 2010, Ames requested access to the lactation room and was told paperwork was required and took three days to process; Ames was unaware of the policy.
- A company nurse attempted to expedite access and suggested temporary alternatives, while noting potential hygiene concerns with a wellness room.
- Ames’s supervisor told her that none of her work had been completed during leave and that she needed to catch up quickly or face discipline within two weeks.
- Ames asked Neel for help obtaining lactation-room access; Neel declined and stated it was not her responsibility.
- Neel told Ames, “I think it’s best that you go home to be with your babies,” and dictated a resignation statement; Ames wrote and signed a resignation letter and left that day.
- Ames did not return to work or use internal complaint procedures before resigning.

## Issues

1. Whether Ames presented sufficient evidence of constructive discharge—objectively intolerable conditions and employer intent or foreseeability—under Title VII and the Iowa Civil Rights Act, including whether she gave the employer a reasonable opportunity to remedy the conditions.
2. Whether Ames could argue on appeal that she was actually discharged when she signed a resignation letter dictated by her department head, despite not raising that theory in the district court.

## Decision

- The Eighth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Nationwide and Neel.
- The court held Ames failed to create a triable issue on constructive discharge because the alleged conditions were not objectively intolerable and, in any event, she resigned immediately without giving the employer a reasonable chance to address the situation.
- The court declined to consider Ames’s actual-discharge theory because it was not raised in the district court and was waived.

## Legal Principles

- Constructive discharge requires proof that (1) working conditions were so objectively intolerable that a reasonable person would resign, and (2) the employer intended to force resignation or could reasonably foresee it.
- A constructive-discharge claim generally fails if the employee resigns without giving the employer a reasonable opportunity to correct or ameliorate the complained-of conditions.
- Arguments not presented to the district court are waived on appeal.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that delayed lactation-room access under a neutral processing policy, a demanding workload expectation, and a supervisor’s “go home to be with your babies” remark did not establish constructive discharge where the employee resigned within hours of returning from leave and did not allow the employer a reasonable opportunity to remedy the situation; her alternative claim of actual discharge was forfeited by failure to raise it below.


Ames v. Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co., 747 F.3d 509 (8th Cir. 2014)