Opinion ID: 848723
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case

Text: Under any employment discrimination test, plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case. Defendant had discretion to choose one of the candidates on the promotion list and had an established practice of not necessarily promoting people in the order they appeared on the list. Defendant was not required to consider those attributes that plaintiff alleges made him a superior candidate to the employee who was in fact promoted. Plaintiff did not rebut defendant's asserted reliance on the promoted employee's maturity and sense of service. Defendant was not required to forgo subjective criteria in making the employment decision, especially considering the critical role that police officers fill in society. Plaintiff failed to rebut defendant's race-neutral reasons for its employment decision. Plaintiff's failure to sustain his burden entitled defendant to summary disposition. I disagree with the majority's rejection of the background circumstances test of Allen.Allen v. Comprehensive Health Services, 222 Mich.App. 426, 564 N.W.2d 914 (1997). In addition, I note that, even absent Allen, plaintiff's claim must fall because plaintiff failed to refute defendant's legitimate nondiscriminatory basis for promoting another candidate.