Opinion ID: 201705
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Merits of Ingram's Failure-to-Hire Claim

Text: 48 As the district court found, it is beyond dispute that (1) Ingram is a member of a protected class based on her sex and her pregnancy status during the relevant period, and (2) she applied for the assistant manager position. One could even conclude that Ingram was qualified for the assistant branch manager position, as Brink's apparently believed. The problem is with respect to the third prong of the test — an adverse employment action. Ingram finally got the promotion that she wanted and she turned it down. 49 Ingram argues that three events occurring after February 8, 2001 can be construed as a de facto rejection of her for the assistant manager position — (1) the April 2001 advertisement for the assistant manager position, notwithstanding earlier assurances that the job was her's, (2) the elimination in April 2001 of the assistant branch manager position in favor of operations manager, the title Ingram held, and (3) Gaherity's unfulfilled promise to secure Ingram the assistant manager position within an hour on May 2, 2001. But these events, while they surely may have been frustrating to Ingram, comprise nothing more than delays in the decision making process which are not actionable. 50 The district court correctly found that no reasonable factfinder could conclude that the first or second occasion amounted to a rejection. The process of finding a candidate for the assistant manager position continued; no one else was hired. After Ingram brought the newspaper advertisement to Harrington's attention, he told her that Gaherity was resisting his recommendation, not that Gaherity had conclusively rejected Ingram for the position. And, in the second instance, the change in title from assistant branch manager to operations manager was nothing more than an upper-management decision to change the title of the position to more accurately reflect its role and responsibilities. While the significance of the title change is not at all clear, it surely did not spell rejection for Ingram. 51 The district court characterized the third instance — Gaherity's failed promise to secure Ingram the promotion in an hour — as a closer call, and then passed on the question, finding no need to decide whether this instance amounted to a rejection because Ingram's claim failed at another point in the McDonnell test, namely Brink's ability to rebut a prima facie showing of discrimination with legitimate non-discriminatory motives. 52 It is difficult to construe Gaherity's actions on May 2, 2001, as a rejection. Indeed, after boasting to Ingram that he could secure her the promotion within the hour, Gaherity left the Lawrence branch and promptly drafted an email to his supervisor emphatically recommending Ingram for the assistant manager/operations manager position. Gaherity's email set the hiring process in motion, and, only two weeks later, Ingram was offered the promotion. 53 To be sure, Gaherity's initial assurances about how quickly he could effect her promotion were nothing more than a boast. But his empty boasts hardly amounted to a rejection. On the contrary, Ingram was offered the promotion within a relatively short time thereafter. 54 Without establishing that she was rejected for the promotion within the actionable time frame, Ingram cannot establish a prima facie case of discrimination and her failure-to-promote claim falters. Central to the first stage of the McDonnell framework, is evidence of an adverse employment decision. To be sure, the favorable decision did not come as quickly as Ingram would have liked, and she had her hopes dashed on more than one occasion. But in the final analysis, she got the job and she chose not to take it. 55