Opinion ID: 158469
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Indirect Evidence of Discrimination

Text: 16 In the alternative, Shorter argues that she can establish her claim of intentional discrimination indirectly by relying on circumstantial evidence of discrimination. We evaluate Shorter's claim under the familiar burden shifting framework of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973). 17 Under the McDonnell Douglas framework, the plaintiff initially bears the burden of establishing a prima facie case of discrimination. See Reynolds v. School Dist. No. 1, 69 F.3d 1523, 1533 (10th Cir. 1995). If the plaintiff establishes her prima facie case, the burden shifts to her employer to proffer a facially nondiscriminatory reason for the challenged employment action. See id. If the employer offers a nondiscriminatory reason, the burden shifts back to the employee to show that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the employer's proffered reason is merely pretextual. See Morgan v. Hilti, Inc., 108 F.3d 1319, 1323 (10th Cir. 1997); Randle v. City of Aurora, 69 F.3d 441, 451 (10th Cir. 1995). A plaintiff can establish pretext by showing either that a discriminatory reason more likely motivated the employer... or that the employer's proffered explanation is unworthy of credence. Rea v. Martin Marietta Corp., 29 F.3d 1450, 1455 (10th Cir. 1994) (quotation marks omitted) (alteration in original). 18 We assume without deciding that Shorter established a prima facie case of race discrimination in her termination. Thus, we consider whether ICG proffered a facially nondiscriminatory reason for Shorter's termination. See Reynolds, 69 F.3d at 1533. 19 ICG's proffered reason for terminating Shorter is inadequate job performance. In support of this reason, ICG offered extensive evidence of Shorter's inability and failure to do her job. Patricia Lawrence, the person who hired Shorter, testified that Shorter lacked fundamental recruiting skills and contacts in the field, a background which Lawrence believed Shorter possessed when she hired her. When Lawrence left ICG, she told Dughman that, of all the employees in HR, Shorter would require the most time for development. Dughman testified that she received numerous and repeated complaints from ICG executives about Shorter's performance. For example, several ICG executives complained that Shorter provided them with inaccurate data about the number of job openings within ICG. In addition, clients complained that Shorter did not follow through after meetings with them. 20 Dughman's supervisor, John Field, also received numerous complaints about Shorter's performance which he passed along to Dughman, including that Shorter was not locating qualified candidates and was not following up on her recruiting duties. Field also testified that he had received similar complaints about Shorter's performance while Lawrence was her supervisor. According to another ICG employee, Shorter told him that she had no system in place for processing resumes and forwarding them to the appropriate hiring managers. This employee stated that resumes in Shorter's office were misfiled or lost, advertising invoices had not been paid, and open job positions within ICG were not listed in her reports to management. Two days before Dughman fired Shorter, Dughman and Shorter had a meeting regarding complaints from yet another HR employee about Shorter's poor job performance. 21 This evidence satisfies ICG's burden to provide a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for ICG's decision to terminate Shorter. Thus, for her claim to survive summary judgment, Shorter must show that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether ICG's proffered reason is a mere pretext for discrimination. See Randle, 69 F.3d at 451. To support her claim of pretext, Shorter cites evidence that she claims demonstrates she was performing her job satisfactorily. Shorter also cites Dughman's statements as evidence of pretext. 22 Shorter does not challenge, let alone rebut, the myriad complaints offered by ICG regarding her deficient job performance. Shorter cites a handful of e-mails which she claims reflect her satisfactory job performance. However, only two of these e-mails arguably support her claim, and these refer to just two different tasks among the many she was required to perform. This e-mail correspondence hardly begins to rebut the overwhelming evidence of Shorter's inadequate job performance. Moreover, these e-mails were sent in March 1996 by her former supervisor, and ICG has proffered extensive complaints about Shorter's deficient performance after this time and while under Dughman's supervision. Shorter also cites the testimony of another ICG employee who stated he was surprised when he heard Shorter was fired. However, he explained that he was surprised only because he had not personally heard any complaints. He also testified that he had no basis to evaluate Shorter's job performance. Finally, Shorter cites her background in human resources and her own affidavit stating that she believed her work was satisfactory. However, [i]t is the manager's perception of the employee's performance that is relevant, not plaintiff's subjective evaluation of [her] own relative performance. Furr v. Seagate Tech. Inc., 82 F.3d 980, 988 (10th Cir. 1996). Thus, we conclude that the meager evidence offered by Shorter is insufficient to meet her burden to show that ICG's proffered reason for firing her was pretextual. See Lawmaster v. Ward, 125 F.3d 1341, 1347 (10th Cir. 1997) (The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence in support of the non-movant's position is insufficient to create a dispute of fact that is genuine.... (quotation marks omitted)). 23 Shorter also argues that Dughman's comments demonstrate that ICG's proffered reason for firing her was pretextual. Although such comments may serve as circumstantial evidence of discrimination, see WilTel, 81 F.3d at 1514, the plaintiff must still show some nexus between the statements and the defendant's decision to terminate the employee. See Rea, 29 F.3d at 1457 (`Isolated comments, unrelated to the challenged action, are insufficient to show discriminatory animus in termination decisions.' (quoting Cone v. Longmont United Hosp. Ass'n, 14 F.3d 526, 531 (10th Cir. 1994))). 24 Although some of the remarks were directed at Shorter, there is nothing in the statements that link them to Dughman's decision to terminate her. Compare Tomsic v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 85 F.3d 1472, 1474, 1479 (10th Cir. 1996) (holding supervisor's statements supported inference of sex discrimination when supervisor told plaintiff she would not succeed in training program, that she would lack incentive because her husband made too much money, and asked about her marital relationship, while at the same time telling others that plaintiff would be fired) with Hong v. Children's Mem'l Hosp., 993 F.2d 1257, 1265-66 (7th Cir. 1993) (holding that supervisor's statement to Korean employee that she should learn to speak English, when there was no evidence that employee spoke anything other than English, did not create inference of discrimination absent evidence statement was related to decision to discharge her (quotation marks omitted)), cited in Cone, 14 F.3d at 531. The fact that Dughman was Shorter's supervisor does not automatically establish the requisite nexus. See Hong, 993 F.2d at 1266 (holding that supervisor's occasional use of racial slurs directed at an employees' [sic] race... when unrelated to the decisional process, are insufficient to demonstrate that the employer relied on illegitimate criteria, even when such statements were uttered by a decision maker); see also McKnight, 149 F.3d at 1129 (In order to rely on [allegedly discriminatory] statements, [plaintiff] must show that they were made by a decision maker, and that there was a nexus between the discriminatory statements and the decision to terminate. (emphasis added)). 25 We thus conclude that ICG has presented a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for Shorter's termination and that Shorter has not presented evidence sufficient to suggest that this reason was pretextual. The district court properly granted summary judgment for ICG on Shorter's race discrimination claim.