Opinion ID: 446834
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: discovery of the employment statistics

Text: 21 When we review a district court's order granting summary judgment, we normally examine the record to ascertain whether it provides any basis for affirmance. See Jewel Companies v. Payless Drug Stores Northwest, Inc., 741 F.2d 1555, 1564-65 (9th Cir.1984). We affirm such orders when it is clear that, even if the evidence is viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, no genuine issue of material fact exists and the moving party is entitled to prevail as a matter of law. See Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. v. MCA, Inc., 715 F.2d 1327, 1328 (9th Cir.1983); Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). We can make these determinations because, ordinarily, summary judgment orders are not entered until after the non-moving party has had an opportunity to obtain through discovery whatever evidence is necessary or relevant (at least for the purposes of summary judgment) and to place that evidence in the record. 22 Diaz sought to use statistical data to support both his prima facie case and his argument that AT & T's articulated reason for hiring Gonzales instead of him was pretextual. Diaz filed a discovery motion, seeking to compel AT & T to provide him with information about its hiring and promotion patterns in its Western Region (covering the Western portion of the United States). AT & T claimed that the employment statistics for the portion of its Western Region outside of Tucson were irrelevant and refused to supply them. Because the district judge believed he could dispose of this case on the ground discussed in the preceding section of this opinion, he granted AT & T's summary judgment motion without ruling on the discovery motion. 23 When we review a case in which summary judgment was ordered but the non-moving party was improperly denied discovery, we are not in a position to view all the necessary evidence in the light most favorable to that party. In such a case, there is no purpose to reviewing the record to determine whether the order could be affirmed on a basis other than that relied upon by the district court, unless, of course, there is a separate and independent ground to which the material sought in discovery would be irrelevant. Here, the statistical data, if discoverable at all, would be relevant to the only other ground on which the district court's order might be affirmed. 7 Accordingly, we must next determine whether Diaz was entitled to the requested statistical information. 24 Statistical evidence is unquestionably relevant in a Title VII disparate treatment case. Statistical information is helpful in establishing a prima facie case despite the fact that [it] may not be directly probative of any of the four specific elements set forth by McDonnell Douglas. Lynn, 656 F.2d at 1342-43. In fact, summary judgment is patently inappropriate when a plaintiff needs statistical data to substantiate the inference of discrimination and has been denied the opportunity to discover this data. See Cedillo v. International Association of Bridge & Structural Iron Workers, 603 F.2d 7, 12 (7th Cir.1979). A plaintiff is also entitled to use statistical evidence to show that a defendant's articulated nondiscriminatory reason for the employment decision in question is pretextual. See McDonnell Douglas, 411 U.S. at 804-05, 93 S.Ct. at 1825-26. 8 25 Statistical data is relevant because it can be used to establish a general discriminatory pattern in an employer's hiring or promotion practices. Such a discriminatory pattern is probative of motive and can therefore create an inference of discriminatory intent with respect to the individual employment decision at issue. In some cases, statistical evidence alone may be sufficient to establish a prima facie case. See O'Brien v. Sky Chefs, Inc., 670 F.2d 864, 866 (9th Cir.1982) ([s]tatistical data is one way to establish a prima facie case). But cf. Gay v. Waiters' & Dairy Lunchmen's Union, 694 F.2d 531, 552 (9th Cir.1982) (statistical evidence alone is only rarely sufficient to establish a prima facie disparate treatment case); Laborde v. Regents of University of California, 686 F.2d 715, 718 (9th Cir.1982) (statistical evidence not necessarily sufficient to establish prima facie disparate treatment case), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1173, 103 S.Ct. 820, 74 L.Ed.2d 1017 (1983). Even when not sufficient to establish a prima facie case, statistical evidence is helpful in showing that an employer's articulated reason for the employment decision is pretextual. In some cases it may be essential: 26 Statistics showing racial or ethnic imbalance are probative ... because such imbalance is often a telltale sign of purposeful discrimination; absent explanation, it is ordinarily to be expected that nondiscriminatory hiring practices will in time result in a work force more or less representative of the racial and ethnic composition of the population in the community from which employees are hired. 27 ... In many cases the only available avenue of proof is the use of racial statistics to uncover clandestine and covert discrimination by the employer or union involved. 28 International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 340 n. 20, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 1857 n. 20, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977) (quoting United States v. Ironworkers Local 86, 443 F.2d 544, 551 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 984, 92 S.Ct. 447, 30 L.Ed.2d 367 (1971)). 29 AT & T argues that even if statistical data is generally relevant in Title VII cases, information about its hiring and promotion patterns in the portion of the Western Region outside of Tucson is irrelevant. According to AT & T, the decision about Diaz cannot be considered in the context of this larger geographic labor market because (1) promotions outside of Tucson were made by decision makers other than the Operation Manager who made the challenged promotion decision, and (2) Diaz had told his supervisors he was unwilling to leave Tucson to accept a promotion. 30 Both of AT & T's arguments ignore the underlying purpose of statistical information--to provide otherwise unavailable indications of an employer's conscious or unconscious motives. Diaz contends that his employer, AT & T, engages in a region-wide policy of discrimination. The existence of a pattern of racial disparity in AT & T's employment decisions would allow for an inference about its motives. This would bolster Diaz's prima facie case and would support his contention that the articulated reason for AT & T's failure to promote Diaz is pretextual. Thus, Diaz is entitled to attempt to prove that such a pattern exists. 31 It is irrelevant whether the same Operations Manager made all of the hiring and promotion decisions about which Diaz seeks information. One way of reaching conclusions about an employer's motives is by ascertaining whether the employer's explicit or implicit policies encourage or permit discriminatory employment decisions by its supervisory personnel. The employer is responsible for such decisions, see Miller v. Bank of America, 600 F.2d 211, 213 (9th Cir.1979), because its policies control the manner in which its supervisory employees make them. We have previously recognized that the promotion patterns of the employer, as a whole, are relevant to such an analysis of motive. See Lynn, 656 F.2d at 1342 (defendant's university-wide tenure-granting pattern, not just tenure patterns in individual departments, relevant in disparate treatment case). 32 Similarly, it is irrelevant whether Diaz would have been willing to leave the Tucson area if he had been offered a promotion. 9 Even if Diaz could not use the Western Region statistics as evidence that he was discriminated against with regard to other potential promotions, the evidence of a pattern of racial disparity would nevertheless be of probative value with regard to his employer's motive. In Lynn, we evaluated statistical evidence about the defendant university's tenure-granting pattern from the time of its founding until the time of the complaint; we did not restrict ourselves to a consideration of tenure practices during the period in which the plaintiff was eligible for tenure. See 656 F.2d at 1342. 33 Furthermore, even if we assumed that the statistical information would be relevant only if it pertained to jobs in areas in which Diaz was willing to work, the Western Region statistics would not, on the basis of the record before us, be irrelevant. AT & T argues that Diaz refused to leave Tucson to accept a promotion. However, the only evidence before us that in any way supports this contention is the evidence that, in the past, Diaz had refused to leave Tucson to accept transfers to positions at the same level as his current position. Diaz contends, however, that he would have been willing to leave Tucson to accept a promotion; nothing in the record before us serves to refute his argument. 34 AT & T refused to provide Diaz with relevant statistical information which might support both the prima facie inference of discrimination and Diaz's allegation that AT & T's articulated reason for failing to promote him was pretextual. Thus, we do not have before us all of the material that would be necessary before we could determine whether the summary judgment order could be affirmed on any of the potential grounds presented by the record.