Opinion ID: 2510361
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Intel's Response: A Temporal Standard

Text: {20} In addition to denying any causal connection between protected activity and Plaintiff's termination, Intel argues based on federal precedent that the time between Plaintiff's EEOC complaint and his termination, nearly five months, precludes a finding of causation. Intel also argues that the seven-week period between the complaint and Plaintiff's second written warning is insufficient by itself to establish causation. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has held that if the adverse employment action has occurred within a short time after the protected activity, causation may be inferred from this evidence alone. See Anderson v. Coors Brewing Co., 181 F.3d 1171, 1179 (10th Cir.1999) (discussing case law establishing that one and one half months between the protected activity and the adverse employment action may, by itself, establish causation, but three months is too long). Thus, when no other evidence of causation is available, a plaintiff in the Tenth Circuit may rely on an inference of causation arising from a short time period between the protected activity and the adverse employment action. See, e.g., Meiners v. Univ. of Kansas, 359 F.3d 1222, 1231 (10th Cir.2004) (holding that three months and one week was too long to establish causation by temporal proximity alone); Richmond v. ONEOK, Inc., 120 F.3d 205, 209 (10th Cir. 1997) (a three-month period without additional facts would not be sufficient to establish causation); Ramirez v. Okla. Dep't of Mental Health, 41 F.3d 584, 596 (10th Cir.1994) (finding that one and one-half month period may be enough to show causation), overruled on other grounds by Ellis v. Univ. of Kan. Med. Ctr., 163 F.3d 1186, 1194 (10th Cir. 1998). {21} In response, Plaintiff argues that the temporal proximity of each of Intel's adverse actions, as opposed to his ultimate termination, establishes sufficient temporal proximity. See Marx v. Schnuck Mkts., Inc., 76 F.3d 324, 329 (10th Cir.1996) (noting that the close temporal proximity standard should not be interpreted too narrowly where retaliatory actions began quickly after the employee filed his Fair Labor Standards claim). From the time Plaintiff filed his claim with the EEOC until the time he was terminated, Plaintiff argues that no more than six weeks passed without some type of adverse employment action. See id. at 329 (finding a causal connection when the original write up occurred shortly after filing the claim, but the termination occurred much later). Given the overall context of employer hostility that continued unabated during the entire five-month period, Plaintiff also argues the temporal standard is not relevant because there is other evidence of causation. {22} We have not been asked in this case to adopt the Tenth Circuit's standards where temporal proximity is the only evidence of causation. In this case, Plaintiff presented other direct evidence of causation, and did not rely on temporal proximity alone. Thus, we decline to apply any temporal proximity analysis in this case or adopt a specific time period for inferring facts related to causation. In this case and unlike certain of the cases cited to us, temporal proximity is only one piece of the evidentiary formulation offered by Plaintiff. See Meiners, 359 F.3d at 1231; Richmond, 120 F.3d at 209. The fact-finder should be free to consider timing and proximity, along with all the other facts and circumstances, in deciding the ultimate issue of causation. We leave for another day the question of when the time between the employee engaging in protected activity and the employer taking adverse action might be sufficient to allow an inference of a causal connection between the two.