Opinion ID: 768356
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: HCC's Later Activities

Text: 12 After the legal department was disbanded, Demaret assumed most of Michas's responsibilities and delegated the remainder of Michas's duties to the team supervisors. Demaret is older than Michas and a member of the protected class, but some of the team supervisors who assumed Michas's responsibilities were not members of the protected class. 13 About the same time that HCC laid off its legal department, HCC was approached by a venture capital firm, JMI, which was interested in purchasing the company. As a part of the deal, JMI requested that HCC hire consultant John Blaney, who has since become president of the company. Blaney was hired on April 25, 1995, the day after Michas's discharge, at a salary of $180,000 per year. Negotiations over the purchase progressed through mid-1995, and in July, Demaret decided that he again needed an in-house attorney. Demaret wanted the new attorney to manage outstanding cases, so that he could focus on preparing HCC to be sold. Thus, the new attorney would assume a role similar in many respects to the role Michas served before his discharge. 14 HCC initially offered the job to Prazuch, a team leader. Prazuch was not a member of the protected class. Prazuch initially accepted the offer, but after further consideration, he decided to refuse. Instead, in October 1995, HCC hired Henry Romano as corporate counsel. Romano assumed most of Michas's previous functions, as well as many functions that had never been delegated to Michas. Romano was a member of the protected class. In late 1995, JMI completed the purchase of a majority of HCC's outstanding stock. For this reason, Demaret no longer maintains an active role in the company. Most of the case management duties once performed by Demaret are now handled by Romano, who has assumed the position of corporate counsel. 15 Soon after his discharge, Michas filed a complaint against HCC in district court, claiming that HCC had violated the ADEA by discharging him. The parties proceeded through discovery, and at its close, HCC moved for summary judgment. HCC claimed that Michas could not make a prima facie case for age discrimination because he was not replaced by someone outside the protected class and because he could not prove he was performing to HCC's legitimate expectations. In addition, HCC claimed that it had two legitimate reasons to terminate Michas: his subpar performance and its need to cut costs. Because Michas failed to comply with Local Rule 12(N)(3)(a), the district court accepted HCC's uncontested statement of facts as true. On these facts, the court found that Michas could not make out a prima facie case, nor could he show that HCC's reasons for discharging him were pretextual. Therefore, the district court granted HCC's motion for summary judgment.