Opinion ID: 476659
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Dreyer

Text: 20 Dreyer, who was 60 years old at the time her employment was terminated, was a computer operator in the Financial Controls Department. She had worked in the Beaver Valley plant since 1959. During the reorganization, Dreyer's job was eliminated and a new position was created which consolidated the duties of computer operator and data entry. ARCO officials testified that in deciding who should fill the new position, they had compared Dreyer's qualifications with those of another employee in the department, Marva Allen, who was the data entry supervisor, and they concluded that Allen was better qualified to fill the new position. Allen was 38 years old at the time. 21 Since ARCO articulated a legitimate reason for Dreyer's termination, Dreyer had the burden to prove that ARCO's asserted reason was pretextual as part of her continuing burden to prove that age was a determinative factor in ARCO's decision to terminate her employment. 22 Dreyer appears to have tried her case as to pretext on the theory that once her job was eliminated, she should have been given either the new job of remote job entry operator or another comparable job for which she was qualified. Dreyer challenged ARCO's evidence that she was less qualified than Allen. She attacked the evaluation process itself and produced evidence that her 1981 performance evaluation was made by Allen, her rival for the job. 23 Dreyer also stressed that she was not offered any other available position although there were jobs in the restructured Financial Controls Department for which she was qualified and which she had filled in the past. Two such jobs as payroll clerks were given to younger women, aged 27 and 40, who had little or no experience in them, and women significantly younger than Dreyer were given positions in data entry. Given this evidence, we cannot overturn the jury's verdict that age was a factor in Dreyer's termination. 24 In summary, both Dreyer and Strayer presented prima facie cases of age discrimination. ARCO presented evidence from which a jury could conclude that it retired the plaintiffs for reasons other than age. Much of the evidence before the jury required its evaluation of the credibility of the witnesses. Plaintiffs introduced evidence to show pretext. The jury chose to accept plaintiffs' evidence that the asserted reasons were pretextual. We therefore affirm the district court's denial of ARCO's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict insofar as it sought to overturn the jury's finding that ARCO violated the ADEA in terminating both plaintiffs.