Susan Siu v. Kanthi De Alwis

MEMORANDUM

Susan Siu appeals a summary judgment in favor of the defendants in her action for damages, which combined claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , Title VII, and the Hawaii Whistleblower Protection Act, H.R.S. § 378-62. The district court granted summary judgment on her § 1983 claim and her state-law claim, and conducted a six-day jury trial on her Title VII claim, which ended in a defense verdict. We affirm the judgment.

Siu was employed by the Medical Examiner’s Office of the City and County of Honolulu. Her immediate supervisor was Kanthi De Alwis, the Chief Medical Examiner and a named defendant. Relations between the two women deteriorated. In July 2005, Siu filed a state worker’s compensation claim that alleged “inappropriate treatment from a supervisor.” In September 2005, an Equal Opportunity Officer encouraged Siu to take a paid administrative leave to remove herself from an allegedly hostile work environment. She took the leave, and the record does not show that she ever returned to work. Her hostile work environment claims were disposed of in her jury trial.

The district court granted summary judgment on all three of Siu’s retaliation claims because she failed to…