Opinion ID: 26085
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the Evidence of Causation Was

Text: Sufficient to Survive Summary Judgment In addition to holding that Fierros failed to assert an “ultimate employment decision,” the district court concluded that Fierros failed to present any evidence other than her “subjective belief” that Arnold had a retaliatory motive in denying her the merit pay increase. Although TDH does not defend this second ground of the district court’s summary judgment, TDH does insist that we should not consider the evidence of retaliatory motive that Fierros submitted with her motion for reconsideration of the summary judgment. According to TDH, because Fierros did not file that motion until after she filed her notice of appeal, and because she does not attempt to argue in her brief that the district court erred in denying that motion, she may not rely on 13 that evidence in urging this panel to reverse the summary judgment against her. We need not determine whether it would be appropriate to consider the evidence that Fierros filed with her motion for reconsideration. There is sufficient evidence in the record relied upon by the district court to raise a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether TDH retaliated against Fierros in violation of Title VII. The summary judgment record includes an affidavit in which Fierros states that Arnold told her that she had been denied the pay increase because she filed a discrimination complaint against him. Such an affidavit is direct evidence that Arnold had a retaliatory motive because it “is evidence which, if believed, proves the fact [of intentional retaliation] without inference or presumption.” Brown, 989 F.2d at 861. Apparently, the district court concluded that the affidavit evinced only Fierros’s “subjective belief” that a retaliatory motive was behind Arnold’s decision to deny her the pay increase. But Fierros does not attest to her belief that Arnold had a retaliatory motive in her affidavit. She attests that Arnold made a statement to her admitting that he had a retaliatory motive. “In the context of Title VII, direct evidence includes any statement or written document showing a discriminatory motive on its face.” Portis, 34 F.3d at 329; cf. Rubinstein, 218 F.3d at 402 (finding that a dean’s testimony that he denied a 14 professor a pay raise because the professor filed a discrimination suit against the university “could be no more direct on the issue of retaliation”). Further, in Portis, we explicitly rejected the argument that the plaintiff’s testimony regarding the employer’s discriminatory statements was merely testimony “regarding [the plaintiff’s] subjective belief.” 34 F.3d at 329. We noted that in contrast to testimony regarding subjective belief, testimony regarding the employer’s statements is direct evidence because it “require[s] no additional inference to conclude that [the plaintiff] was [discriminated against].” Id. Unlike a case in which the plaintiff has presented only circumstantial evidence of retaliatory animus, we do not apply the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework to determine whether Fierros’s direct evidence presents a factual issue for a jury. See Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston, 469 U.S. 111, 121 (1985) (“[T]he McDonnell Douglas test is inapplicable where the plaintiff presents direct evidence of discrimination.”); Portis, 34 F.3d at 328 (same). Fierros’s affidavit by itself precludes summary judgment because it presents a genuine issue of material fact regarding whether “[retaliatory] animus in part motivated or was a substantial factor in the contested employment action.” Brown, 989 F.2d at 861; see also Vance v. Union Planters Corp., 209 F.3d 438, 442 (5th Cir. 2000) (noting that even if the Title VII plaintiff “were the only witness to testify 15 about the [employer’s discriminatory] statements[,] that would not warrant taking the case out of the jury’s hands”); Portis, 34 F.3d at 329-30 n.10 (reversing the district court’s grant of the employer’s post-verdict motion for judgment as a matter of law, noting that “the plaintiff’s testimony on its own . . . is enough to establish intentional discrimination”). Our determination that Fierros has raised a jury question about whether Arnold intended to retaliate against her when he denied her the merit pay increase is further supported by circumstantial evidence. See Vance, 209 F.3d at 443 (concluding that while the testimony regarding the employer’s discriminatory statements was sufficient direct evidence of discrimination to support the jury’s verdict for the plaintiff, this direct evidence was also supported by circumstantial evidence). First, the person who was the subject of Fierros’s discrimination complaint (Arnold) was the same person who denied her the pay increase. Second, the evidence that Fierros produced regarding the two disciplinary “counseling sessions” that she received after filing her EEOC charge further indicates the existence of a retaliatory motive. Although we need not determine whether these two disciplinary actions are “ultimate employment decisions,” see supra note 1, even if the disciplinary actions do not amount to ultimate employment decisions, they may still evince Arnold’s retaliatory motive. The plaintiff in Thomas v. Texas Department 16 of Criminal Justice “presented evidence that after [she filed] EEOC charges she was disciplined twice, and she had never received any disciplinary actions in the 18 years prior to the filing of her charges.” 220 F.3d 389, 394 (5th Cir. 2000). Although this court held that the disciplinary actions taken against the plaintiff were not “ultimate employment decisions,” we noted that “[t]he jury could properly consider” the disciplinary actions “as indications of [the employer’s retaliatory] motives in . . . fail[ing] to promote or transfer [the plaintiff],” i.e., the “ultimate employment decisions” at issue. Id. at 394 & n.2. Fierros’s evidence regarding the two counseling sessions is similar to the evidence of disciplinary actions that this court found persuasive in Thomas. Fierros was disciplined twice within a two-month period after she filed a second internal discrimination complaint with the OCR and her initial charge with the EEOC. Fierros had been a highly-regarded employee at TDH for over twenty years before she filed the discrimination charges. It is undisputed that Carter recommended that Fierros receive the merit pay increase because of her work performance, and Fierros produced documentary evidence showing that she had maintained an impressive performance record as a TDH employee. Further, Fierros presented evidence that another employee who filed discrimination charges against TDH was also given a counseling session for abuse of the sick leave policy after she filed the 17 charges, and that an employee who had not filed any charges and was otherwise similarly-situated to Fierros (i.e., who engaged in the same conduct as that which formed the basis of the disciplinary action taken against Fierros) was not given counseling sessions. Even assuming that Fierros had presented only circumstantial evidence and thus that the McDonnell Douglas framework applied, she would have raised a factual issue precluding summary judgment. Fierros’s circumstantial evidence is certainly sufficient under the initial “much less stringent than ‘but for’” standard to establish a prima facie showing of causation. See Long, 88 F.3d at 306 (concluding that in light of the evidence that the employer knew about the protected activity and took the adverse employment action thereafter, “we have no trouble finding sufficient evidence, for prima facie case purposes, to establish a causal link”). Because TDH has not offered a non-retaliatory reason for denying Fierros the pay increase that would rebut the inference of retaliatory animus raised by Fierros’s prima facie case, Fierros need not establish more than a prima facie case of retaliation to survive summary judgment.