Opinion ID: 2058634
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the adequacy of the examiner's credibility findings

Text: FHA contends, however, that it is entitled to a finding of no discrimination on this record as a matter of law. It argues, in pertinent part, as follows: Other than the proposed order itself, nothing in the record indicates or suggests FHA's witnesses were unworthy of credence. The tape summary contains not even a hint that FHA's witnesses were not credible; instead, it reports that each FHA witness offered consistent testimony of non-discriminatory reasons for the termination of Petitioner's position. Similarly, the final order, written after review of all evidence, including the hearing tapes and tape summary, squarely finds FHA's witnesses worthy of credence. Against this background, more than five years after he saw the witnesses, the hearing examiner wrote his proposed order containing three curt, unsubstantiated proposed findings that FHA's witnesses were not credible. Yet at no point did the hearing examiner raise any facts in support of these findings: nothing about any witness' eye contact, voice intonation, responsiveness to questioning, appearance or demeanor; nothing about consistencies or inconsistencies within a witness' testimony or consistency comparisons between the testimony of several witnesses. In short, none of the traditional bases underlying incredibility findings exist in the record; on such a record, the hearing examiner's bare assertions of incredibility must fall. (Emphasis in original.) Although these arguments can legitimately be presented to the Commission as reasons for rejecting the hearing examiner's findings, they do not persuade us that the requisite evidence of discrimination was so lacking that he was obliged to find for FHA as a matter of law. Impartial triers of fact are not required to believe denials by persons charged with unlawful discrimination that they harbored the proscribed intent. Even in the then embattled state of Mississippi seventeen years ago, most persons [would] not admit publicly that they entertain any bias or prejudice against members of the Negro race. United States v. Real Estate Development Corp., 347 F.Supp. 776, 783 (N.D.Miss.1972), quoting from Dailey v. City of Lawton, 296 F.Supp. 266, 268 (W.D.Okla.1969), aff'd, 425 F.2d 1037 (10th Cir.1970). As the appellate court aptly observed in Dailey, supra, in the analogous context of racial discrimination by a public agency: If proof of a civil rights violation depends on an open statement by an official of an intent to discriminate, the Fourteenth Amendment offers little solace to those seeking its protection. 425 F.2d at 1039. It has long been recognized in discrimination cases that a person is presumed to intend the foreseeable consequences of his conduct. See, e.g., Rabinowitz v. United States, 366 F.2d 34, 56 (5th Cir.1966). Here, the effect of what FHA did was to eliminate a black woman's job and to replace her with a white woman and then a white man. This did not compel the trier of fact to find that the employer's intention was discriminatory. By the same token, however, the hearing examiner was not required to take at face value the assurance by FHA representatives that their intent was benign. It would have been helpful if the hearing examiner had explained whether his credibility findings were predicated in any measure by the demeanor of FHA's witnesses. He was not, however, required to do so. See, e.g., Porter v. Dep't of Employment Services, 518 A.2d 1020, 1023 (D.C.1986); cf. Baker's Local Union No. 118 v. District of Columbia Board of Zoning Adjustment, 437 A.2d 176, 178-79 (D.C.1981) (an agency generally is free to credit, [5] without explanation, non-expert testimony of a witness). It would also have been helpful if the parties, the hearing examiner, or the Commission had developed information about the racial composition of FHA's work force. As Judge Brown stated for the court in Burns v. Thiokol Chemical Corp., 483 F.2d 300, 305 (5th Cir.1973): In the problem of racial discrimination, statistics often tell much, and Courts listen. Alabama v. United States, 5 Cir., 1962, 304 F.2d 583, 586, aff'd, 1962, 371 U.S. 37, 83 S.Ct. 145, 9 L.Ed.2d 112.... Our wide experience with cases involving racial discrimination in education, employment, and other segments of society have led us to rely heavily in Title VII cases on the empirical data which show an employer's overall pattern of conduct in determining whether he has discriminated against particular individuals or a class as a whole. As the Supreme Court specifically observed in McDonnell-Douglas, supra, 411 U.S. at 804-05, 93 S.Ct. at 1825, an employer's general policies with respect to minorities are relevant to the issue of pretextuality. Cf. Wards Cove Packing Co., Inc. v. Atonio, ___ U.S. ___, ___, 109 S.Ct. 2115, 2119-23, 104 L.Ed.2d 733 (1989) (appropriate statistical evidence may make out prima facie case of disparate impact). See also the majority and concurring opinions in Miller v. Poretsky, 193 U.S.App.D.C. 395, 595 F.2d 780 (1978). Ms. Harris' experiences as reflected in this record are devoid of context. If she was the only black person employed by FHA in a relatively responsible job, the abolition of her position would be a good deal more suspect than if black people were well represented at all levels of employment. We must, however, take the record as we find it and, so many years later, it would be quixotic to expect the parties now to reconstruct the racial composition of FHA or of its affected departments at the time that this controversy began.