Opinion ID: 716759
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Pretext Claim

Text: 11 Appellant asserts both a pretext claim and a mixed motives claim. In pretext cases, the plaintiff must first present facts sufficient to establish a prima facie case of discrimination. In order to establish the prima facie case, plaintiff must demonstrate that: (i) he is a member of a protected class; (ii) he was qualified for the position; (iii) he was subjected to an adverse employment decision; and (iv) either the position remained open or he was replaced by someone not a member of his protected class. See McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973); Owens v. New York City Hous. Auth., 934 F.2d 405, 408-09 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 964, 112 S.Ct. 431, 116 L.Ed.2d 451 (1991); Sweeney v. Research Found. of State Univ. of New York, 711 F.2d 1179, 1184-85 (2d Cir.1983). 12 An evidentiary proffer that satisfies the McDonnell Douglas test gives rise to an inference of discrimination, see Cook v. Arrowsmith Shelburne, Inc., 69 F.3d 1235, 1239 (2d Cir.1995), and thereby shifts the burden of production to the employer to proffer a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for its action. McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. At all times the burden of persuasion remains with the plaintiff, who must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that any seemingly legitimate reason proffered by the employer is, in reality, a pretext for unlawful discrimination. St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, 509 U.S. 502, 510-11, 113 S.Ct. 2742, 2749, 125 L.Ed.2d 407 (1993).
13 As a Puerto Rican, de la Cruz is a member of a protected class. Because de la Cruz was replaced by a black female, he also satisfies the fourth prong of the prima facie case. The district court held, however, that de la Cruz failed to satisfy both the second and third elements of the prima facie test because he produced no evidence that he was qualified to remain in the Adoption Unit and because his lateral transfer to another unit within the same division of DSS did not constitute an adverse employment decision. de la Cruz, 884 F.Supp. at 116. We disagree. 14 We have previously held that the level of proof a plaintiff is required to present in order to establish a prima facie case of discrimination is low. Chambers v. TRM Copy Ctrs. Corp., 43 F.3d 29, 37 (2d Cir.1994); see also Texas Dep't of Community Affairs v. Burdine, 450 U.S. 248, 253, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 1093-94, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981) (plaintiff's burden of proof at the prima facie stage is not onerous). To satisfy the second element of the test, de la Cruz need not demonstrate that his performance was flawless or superior. Rather, he need only demonstrate that he possesses the basic skills necessary for performance of [the] job. Powell v. Syracuse Univ., 580 F.2d 1150, 1155 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 984, 99 S.Ct. 576, 58 L.Ed.2d 656 (1978); see also Owens, 934 F.2d at 409 (McDonnell Douglas requires only a minimal showing of qualification to establish a prima facie claim). 15 The district court held that because de la Cruz lacked proficiency in English comprehension and writing, he was unqualified for work in the Adoption Unit. de la Cruz, 884 F.Supp. at 116. An examination of de la Cruz's written work product indicates that he often made grammatical errors, seemed to have trouble with word usage arising in part out of transliteration, 1 and had difficulty structuring English sentences. Nevertheless, despite these deficiencies, de la Cruz's superiors consistently rated his overall performance as a caseworker as good. Although ordinarily courts will not second guess an employer's assertion that a particular category on a performance evaluation is decisive, see Ezold v. Wolf, Block, Schorr & Solis-Cohen, 983 F.2d 509, 531 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 88, 126 L.Ed.2d 56 (1993), a performance evaluation that is positive overall is sufficient to withstand summary judgment at the prima facie stage of analysis. 16 Alternatively, the district court stated that de la Cruz was unable to make out a prima facie case of discrimination because his transfer to the Foster Care Unit did not constitute a legally cognizable adverse action. de la Cruz, 884 F.Supp. at 116. Again, we disagree. Title VII prohibits employers from discriminating with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment on account of an individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) (emphasis supplied). Accordingly, we have held that the protections provided by Title VII are not limited to instances of discrimination in pecuniary emoluments. Rodriguez v. Board of Educ., 620 F.2d 362, 366 (2d Cir.1980) (transfer of art teacher from junior high school to elementary school held to be an adverse employment decision). 17 DSS returned de la Cruz to his normal civil service rank without any cut in pay and transferred him to the Foster Care Unit. He contends that by transferring him from the Adoption Unit to the Foster Care Unit, defendants moved him from an elite division of DSS, which provided prestige and opportunity for advancement, to a less prestigious unit with little opportunity for professional growth. Appellees argue that the two units are equal in status. Although de la Cruz's case is in this respect quite thin, the transfer arguably altered the terms and conditions of his employment in a negative way. This is sufficient to satisfy the third prong of the McDonnell Douglas prima facie test. See Day v. Derwinski, 771 F.Supp. 588 (S.D.N.Y.) (If an employee's transfer to a different job is motivated by race or age considerations, it is obviously a discriminatory action affecting terms or conditions of employment.), aff'd, 953 F.2d 635 (2d Cir.1991); Collins v. Illinois, 830 F.2d 692, 702-04 (7th Cir.1987) (collecting cases) (lateral transfer involving same pay and benefits but change in responsibilities held to be an adverse employment action). We therefore conclude that de la Cruz successfully presented a McDonnell Douglas prima facie case. The question of whether de la Cruz has been harmed by the transfer would be a question of fact for trial.
18 We turn next to the question whether appellees proffered a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for de la Cruz's transfer, and, if so, whether he is able to demonstrate that such a reason was pretextual. The district court held that the Little Directive abolishing the practice of allowing individuals to perform out-of-title work in acting positions constituted a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for de la Cruz's transfer which entitled defendants to summary judgment. de la Cruz, 884 F.Supp. at 116. De la Cruz argues that this cannot be the real reason for his transfer because the Little Directive required only that he be returned to his original civil service rank, not that he be transferred to another unit. Indeed, he was replaced by a person holding his rank. We agree with de la Cruz, but the outcome is not affected. 19 The record is anything but clear regarding the impact of the Little Directive. Some transfers were apparently required, and the need for transfers and consequent openings provided an occasion for reconsidering the placement of various employees. The proffer of the Little Directive as the reason for de la Cruz's transfer is based on an isolated portion of Weinberg's deposition. However, she repeatedly professed a lack of memory concerning the transfer and whether there was room in the Adoption Unit for someone of de la Cruz's reduced rank after the issuance of the Little Directive. She was not questioned about whether the Little Directive caused an opening in the unit to which de la Cruz was transferred or whether the Little Directive created a need for Peters to be transferred. 20 We do not believe that Weinberg's deposition testimony, read as a whole, indicated that the Little Directive required de la Cruz's transfer. He was one of 450 employees under Weinberg's supervision at the time of the transfer. Her deposition was taken more than two and one-half years after the transfer and is replete with declarations that she simply could not remember events concerning it, including the Directive's effect on the Adoption Unit. Moreover, the record leaves open the possibility that the Little Directive was connected with, even if it did not require, the transfer either because it created the opening to which de la Cruz was transferred, or because it required the transfer of Peters, or both. On this record, the Little Directive will not support a grant of summary judgment against de la Cruz. However, the isolated portion of Weinberg's deposition relied upon is also not the stuff of pretext. 21 Nevertheless, appellees have proffered a legitimate non-discriminatory motive for the transfer, de la Cruz's difficulties with English. The Little Directive no doubt required an adjustment of workloads based on the new employee ranks and was a suitable occasion for reexamining the placement of people whose ranks had been readjusted. The reexamination of placements following the Little Directive logically raised the issue of de la Cruz's language difficulties. While these difficulties do not render de la Cruz unqualified for purposes of a McDonnell Douglas prima facie analysis, they may constitute a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for the transfer. 22 Employment in the Adoption Unit of DSS requires superior writing and comprehension skills. By his own admission, de la Cruz has some difficulty writing in English, and examples of his written work in the record indicate that de la Cruz's writing was not up to par and created a risk of misunderstanding. His marginal performance evaluation is, therefore, consistent with those examples. Appellant argues that, notwithstanding the one-time marginal rating, the fact that he received an overall rating of good is enough to survive a motion for summary judgment. We disagree. See Ezold, 983 F.2d at 531 (positive evaluations in categories regarded as non-critical by the employer are insufficient to establish pretext). It is not discrimination to replace a qualified worker with a more qualified worker. De la Cruz has offered no evidence that his replacement, Peters, had language difficulties, and the record indicates that Berman perceived such difficulties in only one other employee, not Peters. 23 De la Cruz argues that reliance on his language difficulties is pretextual because this criterion was not applied evenhandedly to Hispanics and non-Hispanics. See McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 804, 93 S.Ct. at 1825 (criterion must be applied alike to members of all races); Grant v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 635 F.2d 1007, 1014-15 (2d Cir.1980) (pretext may be established where policy applied to black plaintiff was not applied to whites), cert. denied, 452 U.S. 940, 101 S.Ct. 3083, 69 L.Ed.2d 954 (1981). As evidence of this disparate treatment, de la Cruz relies upon the evaluations of Donald Williams, a black caseworker in the adoption unit who was also criticized in a performance evaluation for his poor writing skills, but was nevertheless not transferred. Like de la Cruz, Williams was criticized for his writing ability but nevertheless received an overall performance rating of good. Unlike de la Cruz, however, Williams received a rating of good in the assertedly decisive category of writing skills despite the evaluator's comment that Williams's work product was often poorly organized and confusing. De la Cruz has offered no other evidence demonstrating that a good rating for Williams was inaccurate, whereas de la Cruz's marginal rating is fully supported in the record. Because Williams's rating in the decisive category was higher than de la Cruz's, de la Cruz cannot demonstrate that he was treated differently than similarly situated non-Hispanics. 24 De la Cruz's assertion that Berman and Weinberg made allegedly biased remarks does not salvage his claim. The comments alleged (such as your problem is cultural and an Hispanic supervisor will understand you better) are comments about de la Cruz's language abilities. Although culture is not limited to language, de la Cruz's problems that arose out of transliteration may properly be described as cultural. Rather than demonstrating pretext, these statements support appellees' claims about de la Cruz's ability to communicate effectively in English. 25 Finally, we note that the presence of other Hispanics in the Adoption Unit, including Ayala (Berman's supervisor) and Rivera, while not dispositive, confirms our conclusion that appellees' asserted non-discriminatory reasons for de la Cruz's transfer are not, as a matter of law, pretextual.