Opinion ID: 387364
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: claims for back pay and promotion

Text: 44 Beyond claiming that the sexual harassment she suffered was illegal in itself, Bundy claims that her supervisors illegally retaliated against her refusal of their sexual propositions by delaying her promotion to GS-9 level, and that they continue to retaliate by denying her a promotion to GS-11. Bundy thus requests back pay for the delay in promotion to both levels, and an order requiring her immediate promotion to GS-11. The District Court held against Bundy on these claims, essentially finding that the supervisors were not offended by Bundy's refusal of their advances, and hence had no motive to retaliate against her, and that Bundy's flawed qualifications and work performance gave them legitimate reasons for delaying and denying the promotions. Bundy now argues that the District Court's factual findings were clearly erroneous, Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a), and notes that in a discrimination case the appellate court may make an independent review of the record to determine whether the District Court was correct in finding the ultimate fact of discrimination or no discrimination. Kinsey v. First Regional Securities, Inc., 557 F.2d 830, 836 (D.C. Cir. 1977). The parties presented to the District Court, and present to us now, a fairly confusing set of facts with respect to the promotion claims. We review them only very briefly. 45 Bundy became eligible for promotion to GS-9 in January 1975 after 12 months as a GS-7. She was not promoted until July 1976. 16 At the time she became technically eligible for a promotion she was told that a temporary job freeze made even a recommendation of promotion impossible. Nevertheless, other employees in her unit were recommended for promotion and even promoted during the purported freeze. App. 41-44. Specifically, William Hill, another Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist, was promoted to GS-9 in May 1975 after 15 months as a GS-7 and three months of technical eligibility, App. 184, and William Goff, who was hired as a GS-9 Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist, was promoted to GS-11 in July 1975 after 15 months as a GS-9, App. 183. Bundy cites evidence that she performed the same work as these men, and that she performed it every bit as well as they did. App. 107-108. 46 The trial court found that Bundy's work was in fact deficient, and that her qualifications were inferior to those of Hill and Goff. It found that Bundy had taken excessive sick leave, failed to file required reports, made insufficient field contacts, and neglected to report her duty assignments, Findings of Fact Nos. 16-19, App. 10, and that her supervisors had properly informed her of these deficiencies, id. No. 20, App. 10. It also found that Hill and Goff, unlike Bundy, had had considerable experience working with ex-offenders or disadvantaged youths before they joined the agency, and that Goff, unlike Bundy, possessed a college degree. The District of Columbia now supports the District Court decision by noting that Bundy's consistent satisfactory work ratings are not in themselves a sufficient basis for promotion, Defendant's Exh. No. 17, SA 294, and that had Bundy been promoted in January 1975 she would have achieved the promotion faster than any employee in her unit, male or female, and much earlier than several male employees, Defendant's Exh. No. 14, SA 288. Bundy responds that there is no basis for the District's challenges to her work performance, that in the testimony of her colleague Ann Blanchard all employees in the unit had difficulty with filing and other procedures, App. 107-114, and that her allegedly excessive sick leave was in fact due to emotional stress she suffered as a result of sexual harassment, App. 39-40. 47 As for her desired promotion to GS-11, Bundy notes that such a promotion was granted in 1977 to another employee, Curtis Davis, whose responsibilities and performance, she argues, were similar to hers. In finding against her on this issue, the District Court found that because Bundy, unlike Davis, worked mostly with so-called regular procedure cases rather than special procedure cases, as defined by the Civil Service Commission, she was not eligible for GS-11. Findings of Fact Nos. 10-11, App. 9; Conclusion of Law No. 4, App. 17. 48 The relevant distinction between Bundy's and Davis' work is apparently that Bundy worked primarily with clients over 26 years old and Davis solely with clients under 26. App. 73-75. Bundy insists that the District Court misconstrued the Civil Service classifications in concluding that the age of the clients automatically and by itself determines a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist's eligibility for GS-11. She argues that the Civil Service Commission's notion of special procedure cases is in fact flexible, including clients of any age who present such special placement problems as illiteracy or emotional disability. Since many of her adult clients have such problems, App. 192-193, 207-208, she believes the District Court erred in categorically presuming that she was ineligible for GS-11. 17 Although this issue may appear to be one of construing the Civil Service classification rules, it is also a factual question of the similarity or difference between Bundy's and Davis' responsibilities. 49 In a case of such factual dispute, we of course owe great deference to the trial court's findings. Indeed, we must affirm the trial court's conclusion on the question of discrimination if the so-called subsidiary facts are not clearly erroneous, if the inferences drawn from them are reasonable, and if the findings and inferences reasonably support the ultimate factual finding on discrimination. Kinsey v. First Regional Securities, Inc., supra, 557 F.2d at 835-836. Nevertheless, were we to make a final disposition of Bundy's back pay and promotion claims, even under this highly deferential standard we might be inclined to overrule the District Court. Most important, we would readily reject as clearly erroneous the District Court's findings that the supervisors in Bundy's agency never took the ritual of harassment seriously and that they therefore had no motive for retaliating against Bundy. Findings of Fact Nos. 38, 44, App. 15, 16. Moreover, we would at least be inclined to question the District Court's findings on Bundy's allegedly poor work performance, id. Nos. 16-20, App. 10, since the only important evidence of flaws in her work was the self-serving testimony of supervisors who had themselves been her harassers. 50 However, we cannot make a final disposition of these claims, because the District Court, whether right or wrong in its factual findings, failed to allocate properly the burden of proof according to Title VII principles. The District Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law in no way indicate that the court properly defined the requirements of the plaintiff's prima facie case, or the burden the employer bears in rebutting a prima facie case. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802, 805, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1824, 1825, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973); Hackley v. Roudebush, 520 F.2d 108, 157-158 (D.C. Cir. 1975). We therefore must remand the case to the District Court to enable it to conduct further evidentiary proceedings in accordance with the proper allocation of burden of proof. However, adjusting the general burden of proof principles of McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, supra, to unusual factual situations is a matter of some difficulty, and this sexual harassment claim is indeed exceptionally unusual among Title VII cases. We therefore shall attempt to guide the District Court in this matter. 51 Recognizing the difficulty a plaintiff faces in proving the motives behind an employer's actions, McDonnell established the general principle that in an employment discrimination case under Title VII the employee must first make out a prima facie case. 52 This may be done by showing (i) that he belongs to a racial minority; (ii) that he applied and was qualified for a job for which the employer was seeking applicants; (iii) that, despite his qualifications, he was rejected; and (iv) that, after his rejection, the position remained open and the employer continued to seek applicants from persons of complainant's qualifications.    U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824 (footnote omitted). As the Supreme Court noted in a later case, this prima facie showing does not in itself prove illegal discrimination. Rather, it constitutes proof of actions taken by the employer from which we can reasonably infer a discriminatory animus, because common experience tells us that such actions normally have a discriminatory motive. Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 579-580, 98 S.Ct. 2943, 2950-2952, 57 L.Ed.2d 957 (1978). Once the prima facie case is made out, the burden shifts to the employer to articulate legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons for denying the applicant the position. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, supra, 411 U.S. at 804, 93 S.Ct. at 1825. If the employer meets that burden, he has rebutted the prima facie case. But the employee must still have a full and fair opportunity to prove in response that the purported legitimate reason was in fact a mere pretext for discrimination. Id. at 805, 93 S.Ct. at 1825. Normally, the plaintiff must make out his prima facie case by a preponderance of the evidence. The employer's burden to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for his action is simply the burden of going forward with the evidence. Board of Trustees v. Sweeney, 439 U.S. 24, 99 S.Ct. 295, 58 L.Ed.2d 216 (1978) (per curiam ); id. at 29, 99 S.Ct. at 297 (Stevens, J., dissenting). Once the employer has submitted evidence tending to show that he had a legitimate reason for his action, the burden of going forward with the evidence shifts back to the plaintiff. Under McDonnell, the ultimate burden of persuasion always remains with the plaintiff. 53 The literal McDonnell formula, of course, is designed for a claim of discriminatory refusal to hire due to alleged racial prejudice. It does not precisely apply to a claim, like Bundy's, of discriminatory refusal to promote. Even more important, the McDonnell formula presumes the standard situation where the alleged discrimination is due to the bare fact of the claimant's membership in a disadvantaged group. It therefore also fails to fit with precision the very unusual, perhaps unique, situation of sexual harassment, where the alleged basis of discrimination is not the employee's gender per se, but her refusal to submit to sexual advances which she suffered in large part because of her gender. McDonnell itself, however, recognizes very realistically that the courts must adjust the definition of a prima facie case and the allocation of burden of proof to the differing situations that may arise in Title VII cases, 411 U.S. at 802 n.14, 93 S.Ct. at 1824 n.14, and with that recognition in mind we proceed to consider the proper proof standards for this case. 54 Adjusting the McDonnell formula to cases of discriminatory refusal to promote is relatively simple. Thus to make out a prima facie case the plaintiff must show that she belongs to a protected group, that she was qualified for and applied for a promotion, that she was considered for and denied the promotion, and that other employees of similar qualifications who were not members of the protected group were indeed promoted at the time the plaintiff's request for promotion was denied. Kunda v. Muhlenberg College, 463 F.Supp. 294, 307 (E.D.Pa. 1978). Qualification for promotion, of course, may not be a strictly precise concept, and will depend on the rules and customs of a particular employer. In the present case, for example, a Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist's technical eligibility for promotion to a GS-9 level never automatically means promotion, nor does mere satisfactory performance in the complainant's current job ever guarantee promotion. But proof of these factors certainly helps establish a prima facie case. On the other hand, there can be no absolute precise and uniform time period before and after the denial of the complainant's promotion during which plaintiffs must show that similarly qualified nondisadvantaged employees were promoted. But a court can certainly determine a reasonable period on the facts of a particular case. 55 This minor adjustment in the McDonnell formula for promotion cases could, of course, end our analysis of the issue of Bundy's claims for back pay and promotion; since she is obviously a member of a protected group women Bundy could go on to prove the other requisite factors. See Williams v. Bell, 587 F.2d 1240, 1245-1246 n.45 (D.C. Cir. 1978) (dictum). Nevertheless, to treat Bundy's case as if it were equivalent to an ordinary case of alleged gender discrimination is manifestly unfair. Unlike a woman claiming general gender discrimination, Bundy has already proved that she is a victim of illegal discrimination as a matter wholly independent of her claim for back pay and promotion. We think she should therefore enter the ritual of order of proof at an advantage over the typical Title VII plaintiff who claims categorical gender discrimination which can only be proved as an incident of the discriminatory denial of promotion or other tangible benefit. 56 We have already essentially taken this view in an analogous case. In Day v. Mathews, 530 F.2d 1083 (D.C. Cir. 1976), a black employee of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare had sought promotion. He alleged, and HEW conceded, that HEW officials had discriminated against him on account of his race by impeding his request through administrative delays and unfairly low ratings of his performance. Id. at 1084. Nevertheless, HEW argued that Day would not have gotten the promotion even if he had not been the victim of discrimination; apparently HEW believed the discrimination was a gratuitous act by prejudiced officials and that Day was in any event not qualified for the promotion. In remanding the case to the District Court for further evidentiary proceedings under the proper legal standard of proof, we held that, since the employer had already been proved a discriminator, the plaintiff's prima facie case with respect to the denial of promotion had in effect already been made out, and that the burden should immediately shift to the employer to prove that Day's qualifications were such that he would not have been promoted even if he had not been the victim of discrimination. Id. at 1085. Moreover, in this special circumstance we held that the burden of persuasion, not just the burden of going forward with the evidence, shifted to the employer. And we held that the employer must meet his burden by clear and convincing evidence, rather than simply by a preponderance of the evidence. Id. See Baxter v. Savannah Sugar Refining Corp., 495 F.2d 437, 444-445 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1033, 95 S.Ct. 515, 42 L.Ed.2d 308 (1974) (once employer is proved to have discriminated against plaintiff class, he bears burden of presenting clear and convincing evidence on issue of discrimination against individual plaintiffs). We stressed in Day that since the employer's own proved discriminatory actions were largely responsible for the plaintiff's typical dilemma of having to prove the motive underlying the employer's past action, any resulting uncertainty (should) be resolved against the party whose action gave rise to the problem. 530 F.2d at 1086 (footnote omitted). We thereby recognized that where a Title VII defendant is proved a discriminator as a matter independent of the plaintiff's claim of discriminatory denial of a tangible job benefit, the court should ease the plaintiff's burden on that latter claim. 18 57 We would adjust the McDonnell formula to Bundy's claim as follows: To establish a prima facie case of illegal denial of promotion in retaliation against the plaintiff's refusal of sexual advances by her supervisors, the plaintiff must show (1) that she was a victim of a pattern or practice of sexual harassment attributable to her employer (Bundy has, of course, already shown this); and (2) that she applied for and was denied a promotion for which she was technically eligible and of which she had a reasonable expectation. If the prima facie case is made out, the employer then must bear the burden of showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that he had legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons for denying the claimant the promotion. As in McDonnell, if the employer successfully rebuts the prima facie case, the claimant should still have the opportunity to prove that the employer's purported reasons were mere pretexts. 58 The most important difference between this formula and the McDonnell formula is that we are not requiring the plaintiff to show as part of her prima facie case that other employees who were no better qualified, but who were not similarly disadvantaged, were promoted at the time she was denied a promotion. We relieve the plaintiff of the need to prove such facts because, as we have explained, we think her burden should be eased where she can prove not only that she is a member of a disadvantaged group, but also that she has personally suffered illegal discrimination through the harassment itself. We simply require the plaintiff to show that according to the employer's formal rules she was eligible for promotion and that, within the context of the employer's actual practical pattern of promotion, she had a reasonable expectation of the promotion she sought. In rebutting the prima facie case if the plaintiff makes it out the employer would then have to show by clear and convincing evidence that, despite the employee's technical eligibility for promotion, in practice it set qualification criteria for promotion more stringent than the employee could meet. The employer could support his rebuttal case by showing that any other employees who were promoted at approximately the time the plaintiff was denied promotion and who were not themselves victims of the pattern of sexual harassment in fact met these more stringent criteria. See note 18 supra. 59 Applying these principles, we remand the case to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. 60 So ordered.