## Facts

- Brenda Chaney, a Black certified nursing assistant (CNA), worked for Plainfield Healthcare Center, a nursing home in Plainfield, Indiana.
- A resident, Marjorie Latshaw, told the facility she did not want care from Black CNAs.
- Plainfield maintained a practice of complying with residents’ racial preferences when assigning CNAs.
- Plainfield reflected Latshaw’s request on the daily assignment sheets given to CNAs, stating that Latshaw “Prefers No Black CNAs.”
- Chaney, concerned about being fired if she disobeyed, complied with the written restriction and did not provide care to Latshaw.
- Chaney testified that being limited in her work because of race caused her emotional distress.
- White coworkers taunted Chaney about her race and about her inability to care for certain residents because of the “no Black CNAs” notation.
- Plainfield took steps that stopped the most openly offensive racial epithets, but coworkers continued to make race-related comments tied to the assignment restrictions.
- Plainfield later terminated Chaney’s employment.
- Chaney sued under Title VII (and also asserted a § 1981 claim), alleging (1) a racially hostile work environment based on Plainfield’s resident-preference practice and related coworker conduct and (2) discriminatory discharge based on race.
- The district court granted summary judgment to Plainfield. Chaney appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a nursing home violates Title VII by honoring a resident’s racial preference through work-assignment restrictions (e.g., “Prefers No Black CNAs”) that a jury could find created a racially hostile work environment.
2. Whether genuine disputes of material fact existed as to whether Chaney’s termination was motivated by race, making summary judgment improper on her discriminatory-discharge claim.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit reversed the district court’s grant of summary judgment and remanded.
- The court held that Plainfield’s race-preference policy, implemented through written assignment-sheet restrictions, could violate Title VII because a reasonable jury could find it created a hostile work environment.
- The court rejected Plainfield’s argument that federal and state patient-rights laws required accommodating residents’ racial preferences through race-based assignments.
- The court held that issues of fact remained on whether race motivated Chaney’s termination, so summary judgment on the discharge claim was not warranted.

## Legal Principles

- Title VII generally forbids employers from treating employees differently because of race in job assignments, even when acting to satisfy a client’s, customer’s, or patient’s racial preference.
- Customer preference is not a lawful justification for race-based employment decisions; Title VII does not allow race-based assignment restrictions simply because the recipient of services requests them.
- A hostile work environment exists when workplace conduct, viewed in context and in its totality, is objectively and subjectively hostile or abusive and is sufficiently severe or pervasive.
- An employer’s own written, repeated, race-based exclusion (such as a daily assignment-sheet note barring Black CNAs from certain residents) may materially contribute to an abusive environment.
- State or federal laws addressing patient autonomy and care rights do not displace Title VII’s protections for employees; employers must comply with both sets of obligations without using race-based staffing.
- At summary judgment, courts must credit the nonmovant’s evidence and draw reasonable inferences in that party’s favor; where the record would allow a jury to infer discriminatory motive, the claim must proceed to trial.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit held that Plainfield could not defend a race-based staffing restriction by pointing to a resident’s preference or to patient-rights statutes, and it ruled that a jury could find the “Prefers No Black CNAs” assignment practice and related workplace conduct created a Title VII hostile work environment; the court also found triable factual disputes on whether Chaney’s discharge was racially motivated, so it reversed summary judgment and remanded.


Chaney v. Plainfield Healthcare Center, 612 F.3d 908 (7th Cir. 2010)