Opinion ID: 3009606
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: For an employer, because of the race, creed,

Text: color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, sex or atypical hereditary cellular or blood trait of any individual, or because of the liability for service in the Armed Forces of the United States or the nationality of any individual, to refuse to hire or employ or to bar or to discharge or require to retire, unless justified by lawful considerations other than age, from employment such individual or to discriminate against such individual in compensation or in terms, conditions or privileges of employment . . . . N.J. Stat. Ann. 10:5-12(a). First enacted in 1945, well before federal legislative attempts to eliminate discrimination in the workplace, the LAD was intended by the New Jersey legislature to eradicate the cancer of discrimination. Jackson v. Concord Co., 54 N.J. 113, 124, 253 A.2d 793, 799 (1969); see Lehmann v. Toys `R' Us, Inc., 132 N.J. 587, 600, 626 A.2d 445, 451 (1993).6 6 . The New Jersey legislature has provided: All persons shall have the opportunity to obtain employment . . . without discrimination because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, affectional or sexual orientation, familial status, or sex, subject only to conditions and limitations applicable alike to all persons. This opportunity is recognized and declared to be a civil right. N.J. Stat. Ann. 10:5-4. It has clearly stated the intent behind the LAD within the statute itself: The Legislature finds and declares that practices of discrimination against any of its inhabitants, because of race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, affectional or sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, liability for service in the Armed Forces The New Jersey Supreme Court has generally looked to standards developed under federal anti-discrimination law for guidance in construing the LAD. Lehmann, 132 N.J. at 600, 626 A.2d at 452. The New Jersey Court has adopted the McDonnell Douglas framework, (..continued) of the United States, or nationality, are matters of concern to the government of the State, and that such discrimination threatens not only the rights and proper privileges of the inhabitants of the State but menaces the institutions and foundation of a free democratic State; provided, however, that nothing in this expression of policy prevents the making of legitimate distinctions between citizens and aliens when required by federal law or otherwise necessary to promote the national interest. The Legislature further declares its opposition to such practices of discrimination . . . in order that the economic prosperity and general welfare of the inhabitants of the State may be protected and ensured. The Legislature further finds that because of discrimination, people suffer personal hardships, and the State suffers a grievous harm. The personal hardships include: economic loss; time loss; physical and emotional stress; and in some cases severe emotional trauma, illness, homelessness or other irreparable harm resulting from the strain of employment controversies; relocation, search and moving difficulties; anxiety caused by lack of information, uncertainty, and resultant planning difficulty; career, education, family and social disruptions; and adjustment problems, which particularly impact on those protected by this act. Such harms have, under the common law, given rise to legal remedies, including compensatory and punitive damages. The Legislature intends that such damages be available to all persons protected by this act and that this act shall be liberally construed in combination with other protections available under the laws of this State. N.J. Stat. Ann. 10:5-3. although it has noted that it has never embraced the McDonnell Douglas test literally, invariably, or inflexibly. Grigoletti v. Ortho Pharm. Corp., 118 N.J. 89, 97-98, 570 A.2d 903, 907 (1990). Instead, the New Jersey Supreme Court has demonstrated a marked willingness, and has instructed New Jersey courts in general, to treat the McDonnell Douglas test as only a general framework for analyzing unlawful discrimination claims which must be modified where appropriate. Erickson v. Marsh & McLennan Co., Inc., 117 N.J. 539, 550, 569 A.2d 793, 799 (1990); see generally Carrington v. RCA Global Commun., Inc., 762 F. Supp. 632, 644-45 (D. N.J. 1991) (noting that [t]here is little reason to believe that New Jersey courts will exhibit slavish devotion to federal law in interpreting the NJLAD). Thus, the New Jersey Supreme Court has refused to apply the McDonnell Douglas framework in LAD cases alleging gender discrimination in the form of unequal pay, Grigoletti, supra; modified the elements of the McDonnell Douglas prima facie case in the context of reverse discrimination failure-to-hire cases, Erickson, supra; and shifted to employers the burden of proving the validity of their decisions in some handicap discrimination cases. Jansen v. Food Circus Supermarkets, Inc., 110 N.J. 363, 541 A.2d 682 (1988). See also Jamison v. Rockaway Twp. Bd. of Educ., 242 N.J. Super. 436, 445-47, 577 A.2d 177, 183 (1990) (establishing a variation of the McDonnell Douglas framework to apply in cases alleging a retaliatory failure to promote). Plaintiffs point to this willingness to modify the McDonnell Douglas framework as evidence that the New Jersey Supreme Court would disregard Hicks and instead hold that a plaintiff asserting a claim of employment discrimination pursuant to the LAD is entitled to judgment as a matter of law if he or she has proven a prima facie case and has demonstrated that the reason or reasons the employer gave for the challenged employment action were false. It is true that the New Jersey Supreme Court has taken to heart the legislature's expressed intention that the LAD is to be construed liberally. See supra note 6. It is also true, however, that the legislature has admonished New Jersey courts to construe the provisions of the LAD fairly and justly with due regard to the interests of all parties, N.J. Stat. Ann. 10:5-27, as the New Jersey Supreme Court itself recognized in Andersen v. Exxon Co., 89 N.J. 483, 496, 446 A.2d 486, 492 (1982). Read together, these admonitions are not inconsistent with one another and are both significant to and instructive in our search for guidance. As we explain more fully below, because the New Jersey legislature intended to protect and compensate victims of discrimination but not to relieve them of the burden of proving unlawful discrimination, and because the New Jersey rule regarding presumptions parallels the federal rule on presumptions upon which the Hicks Court based its decision, we predict that the New Jersey Supreme Court would endorse Hicks's view that a plaintiff in a discrimination case is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law simply because he or she proves a prima facie case and that the reason or reasons asserted by his or her employer for the challenged action were false. Our decision is informed by a number of observations concerning New Jersey law. First, under New Jersey law, as under federal law, plaintiffs have always retained the ultimate burden of demonstrating that the actions they challenged were due to discrimination. See, e.g., Peper v. Princeton Univ. Bd. of Trustees, 77 N.J. 55, 87, 389 A.2d 465, 478 (1978); Kearny Generating Sys. v. Roper, 184 N.J. Super. 253, 445 A.2d 1159 (1982).7 Our understanding of the McDonnell Douglas framework 7 . We acknowledge that the New Jersey Supreme Court has not always been entirely clear on this point. In Peper, the case in which it decided to adopt the McDonnell Douglas shifting burden scheme, the court stated in dicta that it agreed with the statements of a federal judge who described the McDonnell Douglas scheme as shifting the burden of proof, rather than simply of production, to the defendant once a prima facie case has been made out. Peper, 77 N.J. at 84, 389 A.2d at 480. The focus of Peper, however, was on the plaintiff's inability to establish a prima facie case. That and numerous statements since by the New Jersey Supreme Court and superior courts confirming that the burden of proof does not shift (e.g., Goodman v. London Metals Exch., Inc., 86 N.J. 19, 429 A.2d 341 (1981); Kearny, supra), convince us that this single statement in Peper cannot serve as a basis for concluding that the court would refuse to incorporate the principles of Hicks into the law of the LAD. Similarly, statements in Jamison v. Rockaway Twp. Bd. of Educ., 242 N.J. Super. 436, 577 A.2d 177 (1990), do not sway our view of the burden placed on a plaintiff asserting a straightforward LAD claim. In that case, the New Jersey Superior Court referred extensively to a decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Wrighten v. Metro. Hosp., Inc., 726 F.2d 1346 (9th Cir. 1984), describing the McDonnell Douglas formulation applicable in retaliatory discharge cases. The Jamison court cited Wrighten as providing that an employee asserting a retaliatory discharge may show by preponderating evidence that a discriminatory intent motivated the employer's action by proving that the articulated reason is a pretext for the retaliation or that a discriminatory reason more likely motivated the employer. Jamison, 242 N.J. Super. at 445, before Hicks similarly required that the plaintiff bear the ultimate burden of proving that the challenged employment action resulted from unlawful discrimination. See, e.g., Billet v. CIGNA Corp., 940 F.2d 812, 817 (3d Cir. 1991). Our decisions finding that this burden could be borne merely by demonstrating that the asserted legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for the employer's actions were incredible were based on the weight given to the McDonnell Douglas prima facie case as a presumption. In other words, our (and other courts') reasoning that proving pretext entitled plaintiff to judgment reflected a belief that the presumption of discrimination raised by the plaintiff's ability to make out a prima facie case had not been rebutted and was only strengthened by the proven falsity of the reasons the employer gave for its actions, thus mandating a decision that the employer's actions had been motivated by unlawful discrimination. See Hicks, 113 S. Ct. at 2762-63 (Souter, J., dissenting). Hicks clarified that under federal law the presumption raised by establishment of the prima facie case no longer exists once an employer has articulated a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its actions. It does not hold that proving that reason false (..continued) 577 A.2d at 182 (emphasis added). Doing so, the court added, creates a presumption . . . that the adverse employment action was the product of improper retaliatory intent. . . . Then, the employer must prove by the preponderance of the evidence that the adverse action would have been taken regardless of retaliatory intent. Id. at 445-46, 577 A.2d at 182. The shifting of the ultimate burden in a retaliatory discrimination case does not necessarily imply that the New Jersey Supreme Court would advocate any shift or lessening of the burden in a straightforward failure-to-hire case. will never suffice to support a decision for a plaintiff; it merely establishes that the plaintiff does not merit judgment as a matter of law once falsity is proven. In thus clarifying the law, the Court in Hicks referred to and relied upon Federal Rule of Evidence 301, concerning presumptions.8 Hicks, 113 S. Ct. at 2747; see also id. at 2749 ([T]he Court of Appeals' holding that rejection of the defendant's proffered reasons compels judgment for the plaintiff disregards the fundamental principle of Rule 301 that a presumption does not shift the burden of proof, and ignores our repeated admonition that the Title VII plaintiff at all times bears the `ultimate burden of persuasion.'). The New Jersey Supreme Court has similarly interpreted the LAD, describing the prima facie stage of the McDonnell Douglas test as establishing a rebuttable presumption of discrimination. Erickson, 117 N.J. at 551, 569 A.2d at 799. It has also stated that when a defendant rebuts the presumption by articulating a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for its actions, the inference of discrimination which literally arose from the plaintiff's evidence is destroyed. Goodman v. London Metals Exch., Inc., 86 8 . Rule 301 provides: In all civil actions and proceedings not otherwise provided for by Act of Congress or by these rules, a presumption imposes on the party against whom it is directed the burden of going forward with evidence to rebut or meet the presumption, but does not shift to such party the burden of proof in the sense of the risk of nonpersuasion, which remains throughout the trial upon the party on whom it was originally cast. N.J. 19, 33, 429 A.2d at 341, 348 (1981). Therefore, corresponding reference to the New Jersey Rule of Evidence regarding presumptions seems appropriate, and our reference thereto provides further support for the conclusion that New Jersey would clarify the law of the LAD as the Court in Hicks clarified Title VII jurisprudence. Like Federal Rule of Evidence 301, New Jersey Rule of Evidence 3019 provides that the introduction of evidence to rebut a presumption destroys that presumption, leaving only that evidence and its inferences to be judged against the competing evidence and its inferences to determine the ultimate question at issue (in an LAD case, the question of whether the defendant illegally 9 . The rule provides: Except as otherwise provided in Rule 303 or by other law, a presumption discharges the burden of producing evidence as to a fact (the presumed fact) when another fact (the basic fact) has been established. If evidence is introduced tending to disprove the presumed fact, the issue shall be submitted to the trier of fact for determination unless the evidence is such that reasonable persons would not differ as to the existence or nonexistence of the presumed fact. If no evidence tending to disprove the presumed fact is presented, the presumed fact shall be deemed established if the basic fact is found or otherwise established. The burden of persuasion as to the proof or disproof of the presumed fact does not shift to the party against whom the presumption is directed unless otherwise required by law. Nothing in this rule shall preclude the judge from commenting on inferences that may be drawn from the evidence. discriminated against the plaintiff). Specifically, it states that [i]f evidence is introduced tending to disprove the presumed fact, the issue shall be submitted to the trier of fact for determination unless the evidence is such that reasonable persons would not differ as to the existence or nonexistence of the presumed fact. The commentary to the rule provides that a valid presumption can be used to establish a prima facie case, but the presumption normally disappears in the face of conflicting evidence. Nevertheless, any logical inference which can be drawn from the basic fact remains. N.J. R. Evid. 301, 1994 supplemental comment.10 Therefore, the rule states with regard to state law exactly what Hicks has explained to be the operation of federal anti-discrimination law under the McDonnell Douglas shifting burden analysis. The New Jersey Supreme Court may choose, as a policy matter, to interpret the LAD even more broadly, so that the usual rules governing presumptions do not apply in LAD cases, cf. N.J. R. Evid. 301 (rule governs [e]xcept as otherwise provided . . . by other law), but in the face of this explicit explanation of the operation of presumptions under New Jersey law, we cannot make that state law policy decision for it. Compare Schweigert v. Provident Life Ins. Co., 503 N.W.2d 225, 288-29 (N.D. 1993) (refusing to adopt Hicks formulation because of different state rule on presumptions). 10 . Rule 301 replaced N.J. R. Evid. 14, cited by the PTL employees, effective July 1, 1993. Commentary to it indicates that Rule 301 reflects established New Jersey law. This is particularly true in light of the New Jersey courts' general adoption of federal anti-discrimination law as their guidepost. Indeed, the courts' willingness to depart from federal precedent in the anti-discrimination area has occurred in only three contexts, involving either modification of the McDonnell Douglas framework to fit specific factual situations (e.g., Erickson and Jansen), departure from that framework in accordance with cases decided by various federal courts of appeals (Grigoletti), or departure from the standards we apply in favor of what it believes to be a more sensible interpretation of United States Supreme Court precedent (Lehmann). It has never rejected outright the United States Supreme Court's approach to federal anti-discrimination law; to the contrary, it has noted that there exists an imputed but strong legislative intent to harmonize the State's anti-discrimination statutes with the dominant federal view to maximize the protections for the victims of discrimination and . . . to benefit all of society by these efforts. Grigoletti, 118 N.J. at 108, 570 A.2d at 913. Finally, the New Jersey Supreme Court's decision in Goodman provides further support for our decision, if only by implication. In Goodman, the court considered a case in which a company and its principals argued that a hearing examiner in the New Jersey Division on Civil Rights had misapplied the burden of proof. The complainant, a female job applicant, established a prima facie case that she had not been hired because of her gender. The respondents contended that she was not granted an interview because her attitude had been unpleasant. The hearing examiner nevertheless ruled for the complainant, stating that the `case ultimately turns on credibility' and that he believed the complainant. Goodman, 86 N.J. at 33, 429 A.2d at 348. The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that the hearing examiner had properly applied the McDonnell Douglas shifting burden scheme: The explanation given by respondents for complainant's rejection was sufficient for the employer to meet its burden of articulating a legitimate nondiscriminatory reason for the rejection and thus destroy `the legally mandatory inference of discrimination arising from the plaintiff's initial evidence.' . . . However, the trier of fact may nevertheless be persuaded by that evidence and its inferences combined with that adduced from the respondents that the employer's proposed explanation is unworthy of belief and is nothing more than a mere pretext for unlawful discrimination. Goodman, 86 N.J. at 33, 429 A.2d at 348 (emphasis added). In explaining why it believed the hearing examiner had correctly applied McDonnell Douglas, the court stated not only that the hearing examiner had said he found the plaintiff and her witness to be truthful, but also that he had concluded that the reason given by the employer for [the plaintiff's] rejection was pretextual and that the true reason for her rejection was `because she was a woman.' Id. at 33-34, 429 A.2d at 349 (emphasis added). Thus, the New Jersey Supreme Court did not find that mere disbelief of the employer would support a decision for the complainant; it affirmed the hearing examiner's decision because he had disbelieved the employer and had decided that the true reason for the employer's failure to hire the plaintiff was unlawful discrimination. This is consistent with Hicks and supports our belief that the New Jersey Supreme Court would follow Hicks in interpreting the LAD. In conclusion, we are persuaded that the New Jersey Supreme Court would ultimately determine that plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases under the LAD may not necessarily prevail merely by proving a prima facie case and rebutting an employer's asserted legitimate non-discriminatory reasons for its actions. That level of proof may suffice if the factfinder believes that the employer offered false reasons to conceal unlawful discrimination, but it does not mandate entry of judgment for the plaintiff. Instead, as provided in the New Jersey Rule of Evidence governing presumptions and their operation, the case must go to the factfinder for decision of the ultimate issue -- whether the employer had engaged in unlawful discrimination. Thus, the trial court erred in propounding jury instructions that would entitle the plaintiffs to judgment if they merely presented a prima facie case and demonstrated that the defendant's asserted grounds for decision were pretextual.