Opinion ID: 167585
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Pretext and Causation

Text: 42 To show that an employer's proffered nondiscriminatory reason for an employment action is pretextual, a plaintiff must produce evidence of `such weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions in the employer's proffered legitimate reasons for its action that a reasonable factfinder could rationally find them unworthy of credence and hence infer that the employer did not act for the asserted non-discriminatory reasons.' Morgan v. Hilti, Inc., 108 F.3d 1319, 1323 (10th Cir.1997) (quoting Olson v. Gen. Elec. Astrospace, 101 F.3d 947, 951-52 (3d Cir.1996)). Because the EEOC's pretext argument depends in part on a subordinate bias theory, it must establish a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Mr. Grado's bias translated into discriminatory actions that caused Mr. Peters' termination. 43 BCI now maintains that it fired Mr. Peters solely because of his defiant conduct on the phone with Mr. Grado on Friday, and that Mr. Peters was not terminated because he did not show up for work on Sunday, except to the extent this conduct is viewed . . . as the fulfillment of [his] stated intention to defy a direct order from Mr. Grado. App. 27. On this theory, missing work on Sunday merely confirmed that Mr. Peters' statements on Friday were insubordinate, and did not serve as a basis for dismissal. Yet the first explanation provided by Mr. Grado at the Tuesday morning meeting was, You've been terminated for insubordination, for not showing up for work. Id. at 193 (emphasis added). The Disciplinary Status Notice unequivocally states that the failure to show up for work on Sunday was the act of insubordination: You did not report to work on Sunday 9-30-01, therefore your employment in [sic] being terminated for insubordination. Id. at 41. That document lists Sunday, not Friday, as the date of the violation that prompted the termination, indicating that the act of insubordination was the failure to come into work, not Mr. Peters' attitude during the earlier phone call. Indeed, on October 16, 2001, just two weeks after the termination, Ms. Pederson filed paperwork with the New Mexico Department of Labor stating that Stephen was told by Cesar Grado that if he didn't show up, it would be considered insubordination. Id. at 165 (emphasis added). When asked to describe the final incident that caused the discharge, Ms. Pederson wrote, Stephen did not show up for work on 9/30. Id. Only later did BCI characterize its decision to fire Mr. Peters as hinging on his defiant conduct over the phone, rather than on his absence. 44 A jury might reasonably conclude that BCI's original explanation, that Mr. Peters was fired because he failed to show up for work on Sunday, was pretextual because Mr. Peters was excused from work that day. Mr. Peters was in fact sick, had visited an urgent care clinic, and had been diagnosed with a sinus infection and directed not to work until Monday. He phoned Mr. Katt to report the illness, and was excused from work — an interaction that BCI concedes is perfectly ordinary between merchandisers and account managers. A jury could credit Ms. Edgar's statements that she knew that Mr. Peters' absence was excused and nonetheless (incorrectly, as it turns out) deemed Mr. Peters' alleged sickness suspicious under the circumstances. But it might just as easily credit Mr. Katt's testimony, rather than Ms. Edgar's, and conclude that neither Mr. Grado nor Ms. Edgar learned that Mr. Peters called in sick until the scheduling discussion between Mr. Katt and Mr. Grado on Monday evening, after Ms. Edgar claims she had already made the decision to fire Mr. Peters. The affidavits of Mr. Katt and Mr. Peters state that key players in the decision fell silent upon hearing that Mr. Peters' absence was excused, suggesting that they were indeed surprised by the news. 45 Recognizing the weakness of the original explanation, BCI has refined its position by relying entirely on Mr. Peters' purported insubordination in his conversation with Mr. Grado on Friday. A jury could conclude, however, that this reason too is a pretext for race discrimination, as the result of Mr. Grado's racial animus. It is undisputed that Ms. Edgar, and Ms. Edgar alone, made the formal termination decision. Mr. Grado has succinctly described his role in the disciplinary process: I gather the facts and I present them to our HR department, and they decide whether it is an insubordination or not and whether there's action to be taken or not. App. 63. Surely Ms. Edgar harbored no ill will toward Mr. Peters on account of his race, because she worked in Phoenix and did not even know that he was black. Yet it is also undisputed that Ms. Edgar relied exclusively on Mr. Grado's account of the Friday phone conversation in making her decision. She conducted no independent inquiry into the events that took place that Friday, and failed to take even the basic step — cited by this Court in Kendrick, 220 F.3d at 1231-32 — of asking Mr. Peters for his side of the story. Accordingly, Mr. Grado's report that Mr. Peters had behaved in a defiant, insubordinate manner on Friday caused the termination. If the jury concludes that Mr. Grado's report was tainted by race discrimination — as it might, for the reasons explained above — it could also find that the proffered reason for firing Mr. Peters, which rests entirely on that report, is pretextual. 46 BCI argues that any factual disputes concerning the Friday conversation between Mr. Grado and Mr. Peters are immaterial because both parties agree that Mr. Peters ended the conversation by saying, [D]o what [you] got to do and I'll do what I got to do. App. 58. We agree that this statement can only be interpreted as defiance, and if Mr. Grado had reported nothing but this closing remark to Ms. Edgar, there would be no reason to believe that racial bias on the part of Mr. Grado caused the termination. Yet Mr. Grado reported several additional facts about his conversations on Friday afternoon. First, he told Ms. Edgar that he had learned, through Mr. Katt, that Mr. Peters was already planning to call in sick two days later, in violation of company policy. Second, he reported that in their phone call Friday afternoon, he asked Mr. Peters to describe his plans, affording an opportunity for Mr. Peters to explain his scheduling conflict. Third, he reported that Mr. Peters angrily replied that it was none of [your] business, and was yelling during the discussion. Id. at 36, 65. 47 All of those facts are disputed. Instead of crediting Mr. Grado's testimony, a jury might believe Mr. Katt, who says that he never told Mr. Grado that Mr. Peters had advance plans to call in sick on Sunday, or Mr. Peters, who says that he simply told Mr. Grado that he had been feeling sick that week, not that he planned to violate company policy. A jury might also credit Mr. Peters' version of the Friday afternoon conversation, in which Mr. Grado never bothered to ask Mr. Peters' reasons, Mr. Peters never refused to answer Mr. Grado's questions, and Mr. Peters remained calm throughout the discussion. There is good reason to believe that Ms. Edgar acted on those additional facts, not just on Mr. Peters' do what you have to do remark. She denounced Mr. Peters' advance plans to call in sick as not acceptable, an abuse of the company sick leave policy. Id. at 23. Also, it was Ms. Edgar who originally insisted that Mr. Grado find out what the situation was and determine whether Mr. Peters had a compelling reason he could not come to work, which suggests that she found that information important in making her decision. Id. at 23. Taking the evidence in the light most favorable to the EEOC, it is easy to imagine that the additional details of Mr. Grado's account, in which Mr. Peters appeared to be fabricating his illness, started yelling at his supervisor, and refused to answer questions, led Ms. Edgar to characterize the conversation as insubordination warranting dismissal. The question is not whether Ms. Edgar could have terminated Mr. Peters because of his closing remark alone, which appears to have been permissible under BCI policy, but what actually did cause the adverse employment action. If a jury credits the testimony of Mr. Peters and Mr. Katt, and thus concludes that Mr. Grado lied to Ms. Edgar, it could also find that the additional claims about Mr. Peters' conduct caused the termination. 48 Finally, BCI argues, and the district court agreed, that Ms. Edgar did not rely solely on Mr. Grado but conducted an independent investigation. This investigation consisted of exactly one action: directing Ms. Pederson to pull Mr. Peters' personnel file. We find this investigation inadequate, as a matter of law, to defeat the inference that Mr. Grado's racial bias tainted the decision. Obviously the file contained no information about the recent incident involving Mr. Grado, so it is difficult to see how reading it could independently confirm what had happened. True, the file contained a description of a 1999 incident of insubordination, which (despite its ignoble back story) seemed consistent with Mr. Grado's version of events. The problem is that Ms. Edgar never sought any other version of events, and therefore had no reason other than Mr. Grado's report to believe that the file was relevant. Simply pulling the file therefore does not constitute an independent investigation, and a jury could conclude that Mr. Grado's factually disputed report — the sole source of information on which Ms. Edgar relied — caused the termination. 49 Because the EEOC has established genuine issues of material fact as to whether the nondiscriminatory reasons offered by BCI are pretextual, summary judgment was inappropriate.