Opinion ID: 204037
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prima facie prong two: Vélez's qualification for the position of Tool Crib Attendant

Text: Although the district court accepted for the sake of argument that Vélez had established a prima facie case, the court noted its agreement with the magistrate judge that Vélez failed to establish that he was qualified for the job for two reasons: 1) Vélez had only established that he had performed satisfactorily in his own eyes, not in the estimation of Thermo King, and 2) Vélez did not disprove the honesty of Thermo King's position and belief that his actions fatally impaired its confidence in his ability to comply with the Code of Conduct. Both conclusions of the magistrate judge and the district court judge were faulty. First, the plaintiff relied on far more than his own perceptions in making his prima facie showing that he was qualified for the job. Plaintiff pointed specifically to his long record of employment at Thermo King, a twenty-four year period without discipline or indications of deficient performance, and his promotion to Tool Crib Attendant and eight successful years at that job. These are facts of record. They are not simply plaintiff's own perception that he was qualified for the job. Second, by concluding that Vélez was not qualified because he had not disproved the honesty of Thermo King's belief that he had violated company rules, the magistrate judge and the district court erroneously accepted for the purpose of the prima facie analysis Thermo King's stated reason for firing Vélez as proof that he was not qualified for the Tool Crib Attendant job. This error was captured well in Wexler v. White's Fine Furniture, Inc., 317 F.3d 564, 574 (6th Cir.2003) (en banc): [A] court may not consider the employer's alleged nondiscriminatory reason for taking an adverse employment action when analyzing the prima facie case. To do so would bypass the burden-shifting analysis and deprive the plaintiff of the opportunity to show that the nondiscriminatory reason was in actuality a pretext designed to mask discrimination. See also Freeman v. Package Mach. Co., 865 F.2d 1331, 1335 (1st Cir.1988) (legitimate expectations prong met where plaintiff tendered some evidence which, if believed, proved that he was doing his chores proficiently).