Opinion ID: 169783
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Retaliation Claim under the ADA

Text: We next consider Mr. Proctor's claim that UPS violated the ADA, 42 U.S.C. § 12203(a), by discharging him in retaliation for filing administrative charges of disability discrimination. When, as in the case before us, the plaintiff does not offer direct evidence of retaliation, we analyze a retaliation claim under the burden-shifting framework delineated in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 802-04, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973). See Anderson v. Coors Brewing Co., 181 F.3d 1171, 1178 (10th Cir.1999). Following this framework, if Mr. Proctor establishes a prima facie case of retaliation, the burden shifts to UPS to assert a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the adverse action. Piercy v. Maketa, 480 F.3d 1192, 1198 (10th Cir.2007). If UPS provides a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for its decision, the burden shifts back to Mr. Proctor to show that UPS's proffered reason is a pretext masking discriminatory animus. Id. In order to establish a prima facie case of retaliation, Mr. Proctor must show: (1) that he engaged in protected opposition to discrimination, (2) that a reasonable employee would have found the challenged action materially adverse, and (3) that a causal connection existed between the protected activity and the materially adverse action. Argo v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Kan., Inc., 452 F.3d 1193, 1202 (10th Cir.2006) (citing Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v. White, ___ U.S. ___, 126 S.Ct. 2405, 2414-15, 165 L.Ed.2d 345 (2006)). [4] Mr. Proctor clearly engaged in protected activity when he filed administrative charges with the OFCCP, EEOC, and the Kansas Human Rights Commission alleging disability discrimination based on UPS's failure to accommodate him and return him to work. See Stover, 382 F.3d at 1071 (There is no dispute that [the plaintiff's] EEO complaints are protected activity.); Anderson, 181 F.3d at 1178 (By filing an EEOC claim, Plaintiff engaged in protected activity.). In addition, a reasonable employee would certainly find UPS's termination of Mr. Proctor a materially adverse action. See Argo, 452 F.3d at 1202. Hence, only the third element concerning causation is at issue. To establish that a causal connection exists between the filing of administrative charges and his discharge, Mr. Proctor may proffer evidence of circumstances that justify an inference of retaliatory motive, such as protected conduct closely followed by adverse action. Haynes, 456 F.3d at 1228 (quotation omitted). Proctor filed his last administrative charge on September 8, 2003, and received his termination letter over four months later on January 14, 2004. Four months is too large a time gap to establish a causal connection. See Piercy, 480 F.3d at 1198 (noting that we have found a proximity of three months insufficient to support a presumption of causation); Anderson, 181 F.3d at 1179 ([W]e have held that a three-month period, standing alone, is insufficient to establish causation.) (citing Richmond v. ONEOK, Inc., 120 F.3d 205, 209 (10th Cir.1997)). In an attempt to establish causation by temporal proximity, Mr. Proctor argues that he engaged in protected activity until the last administrative agency, the OFCCP, issued its finding of no probable cause and its right-to-sue letter on December 19, 2003. According to Mr. Proctor, because UPS and the OFCCP were dealing with his complaint until December 2003, he engaged in protected conduct until the agency issued its decision. Not surprisingly, the Supreme Court has characterized this argument as utterly implausible. Clark County Sch. Dist. v. Breeden, 532 U.S. 268, 273, 121 S.Ct. 1508, 149 L.Ed.2d 509 (2001) (noting that the court of appeals rejected respondent's utterly implausible suggestion that the EEOC's issuance of a right-to-sue letter an action in which the employee takes no partis a protected activity of the employee). Mr. Proctor took no part in the agency determination. He engaged in protected activity when he filed the administrative charge on September 8, after which more than four months passed before his discharge. Because a four-month time period does not support an inference of retaliatory motive, Mr. Proctor must present additional evidence to establish the necessary causal connection. See Piercy, 480 F.3d at 1198-99 ([T]he passage of time does not necessarily bar a plaintiff's retaliation claim if additional evidence establishes the retaliatory motive.); Haynes, 456 F.3d at 1228 (Standing alone, temporal proximity between the protected activity and the retaliatory conduct must be very close in time. Otherwise, the plaintiff must offer additional evidence to establish causation. (quotation omitted)). The other evidence Mr. Proctor proffers in support of causation is evidence he claims demonstrates the weakness of UPS's proffered reason for his discharge, thereby creating a genuine issue of material fact as to whether UPS's reason is a pretext for retaliation. Although this kind of evidence is typically considered during the third phase of the McDonnell Douglas inquiry, Mr. Proctor correctly notes that we have considered evidence of pretext in the prima facie stage of a retaliation claim. See Wells v. Colo. Dep't of Transp., 325 F.3d 1205, 1218 (10th Cir.2003) (considering evidence of pretext in analyzing the causation element of a prima facie case of retaliation under Title VII). UPS proffers a reason for Mr. Proctor's discharge based on the application of neutral employment policies. The company claims that Mr. Proctor was terminated because Dr. Brown issued a final and binding decision under the CBA that he was unable to perform the essential functions of his job and the company was under no legal duty to accommodate him with a different position; based on these determinations, UPS did not return Mr. Proctor to work, leading to his termination in January 2004 in accordance with its policy of terminating employees who have not returned to work when their workers' compensation claims are resolved. Mr. Proctor concedes that UPS's proffered reason is a facially legitimate, nonretaliatory reason, but contends that two pieces of evidence suggest that the reason is unworthy of belief and therefore a pretext for retaliation. See Stover, 382 F.3d at 1073. To establish pretext, Mr. Proctor must present evidence of such weaknesses, implausibilities, inconsistencies, incoherencies, or contradictions in the employer's proffered legitimate reasons for its action that a reasonable factfinder could rationally find them unworthy of credence and hence infer that the employer did not act for the asserted non-discriminatory reasons. Argo, 452 F.3d at 1203 (quotations omitted). As evidence of pretext, Mr. Proctor asserts that the fact that UPS allowed him to return to work in 1999 with a lifting restriction of thirty pounds suggests that UPS later refused to return him to work with a higher lifting restriction in retaliation for filing administrative charges. See Simms v. Oklahoma, 165 F.3d 1321, 1328 (10th Cir.1999) (noting that plaintiff may use evidence concerning prior treatment to demonstrate pretext). But his 1999 return to work was a temporary arrangement. Dr. Brown (the doctor agreed upon by UPS and the Union under the CBA) did not evaluate Mr. Proctor and recommend that he not return to work until April 2002. When UPS permitted Mr. Proctor to return to work in December 1999, it was still waiting for him to reach maximum medical improvement, at which time UPS could determine whether to return him to work on a permanent basis. Hence, Mr. Proctor's return to work with a temporary accommodation in 1999 cannot support an inference that UPS acted with retaliatory intent in discharging him in 2004. [5] In addition, we note that, to establish that UPS terminated him with retaliatory intent, Mr. Proctor may not rely on prior acts of alleged discrimination occurring outside the charging period, as these constitute discrete and time-barred actions. See Nat'l R.R. Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101, 113, 122 S.Ct. 2061, 153 L.Ed.2d 106 (2002). In arguing that UPS treated him differently by refusing to allow him to return to work with higher lifting restrictions in January 2004, Mr. Proctor is actually challenging UPS's earlier denial of his request for an accommodation. But Mr. Proctor did not file suit based on administrative charges alleging UPS discriminated against him in failing to accommodate his disability. Because UPS's denial of his request for an accommodation constitutes a discrete act of alleged discrimination, it is not actionable unless he files suit based on this act. See id. He cannot impute the alleged intent behind a time-barred act to UPS's decision to discharge him based on a neutral policy of relying on the CBA's third-doctor procedure and of discharging employees not at work at the close of workers' compensation claims. See Haynes, 456 F.3d at 1227 ([An employee] cannot use [an employer's] alleged intent in performing time-barred discrete actions . . . to attach discriminatory intent or pretext to [a] termination decision based on a neutral policy.). As further evidence of pretext, Mr. Proctor argues that Dr. Poppa's medical evaluation in April 2003 calls UPS's asserted reason for his termination into question. He contends that a reasonable factfinder could conclude that UPS's asserted reason (i.e., reliance on Dr. Brown's medical evaluation) is unworthy of belief based on Dr. Poppa's later and (in his view) more favorable medical evaluation. As UPS points out, however, Dr. Poppa was not evaluating Mr. Proctor's ability to perform the essential functions of his job. Instead, he was examining Mr. Proctor to assess his workers' compensation disability rating. In addition, as the District Court noted, Dr. Poppa did not state that Mr. Proctor can perform the job's essential functions; indeed, the doctor's findings suggest that Mr. Proctor may not be able to perform these functions (e.g., lifting seventy pounds above shoulder level). Moreover, in the context of a retaliation claim, the crucial question is not whether Mr. Proctor can in fact perform the essential functions of his job. The relevant question is whether Mr. Proctor can show that UPS's motive for taking adverse action was its desire to retaliate for the protected activity. Wells, 325 F.3d at 1218. In other words, we must determine whether UPS treated Mr. Proctor differently because he filed administrative charges of disability discrimination, id. at 1219, not whether UPS correctly concluded that he could not perform the essential functions of his job. As we have cautioned, the relevant inquiry is not whether [the employer's] proffered reasons were wise, fair or correct, but whether [the employer] honestly believed those reasons and acted in good faith upon those beliefs. Stover, 382 F.3d at 1076 (quotation omitted); see also Piercy, 480 F.3d at 1200 (Even a mistaken belief can be a legitimate, non-pretextual reason for an employment decision.). Mr. Proctor has failed to offer any evidence that suggests UPS based his discharge on a retaliatory motive, rather than on its neutral employment policies. Notably, he does not challenge UPS's policy of terminating an employee based on a final and binding doctor's decision under the CBA once all workers' compensation claims are resolved. He does not argue, for example, that UPS does not uniformly apply this policy. See Haynes, 456 F.3d at 1228-29 (noting that employee who failed to establish causation element of retaliation claim did not allege that her employer applied employment policy in discriminatory manner). Nor does he argue that UPS used the policy itself to discriminate against a class of employees. See Piercy, 480 F.3d at 1204 (noting that plaintiff need not prove discriminatory motive when employment policy is discriminatory on its face); see also Ledbetter, 127 S.Ct. at 2173-74 (noting that an employer who adopts a facially discriminatory pay structure engages in unlawful discrimination each time it uses the pay structure). The evidence Mr. Proctor proffers therefore fails to establish the causation element of a prima facie case. See McGowan v. City of Eufala, 472 F.3d 736, 747 (10th Cir.2006) (If the reason for the claimed adverse action does not flow from a discriminatory motive, it lacks the requisite causal connection to the adverse action.). Furthermore, even if we were to assume that Mr. Proctor has established a prima facie case, the evidence in its totality does not raise a genuine issue of material fact regarding the third step of the McDonnell Douglas framework, that is, whether UPS's proffered reason is a pretext for retaliation. See Beaird v. Seagate Tech., Inc., 145 F.3d 1159, 1174 (10th Cir.1998) (noting that we consider the totality of the plaintiff's circumstantial evidence of pretext); see also Stover, 382 F.3d at 1073-74 (assuming plaintiff established a prima facie case but holding she failed to demonstrate a genuine issue of material fact regarding pretext); Annett v. Univ. of Kan., 371 F.3d 1233, 1242 (10th Cir.2004) (affirming district court's grant of summary judgment in employer's favor because plaintiff failed to raise genuine issue of material fact regarding pretext). As the above discussion of Mr. Proctor's evidence regarding pretext demonstrates, he has not created a disputed issue as to whether UPS's proffered reason is unworthy of belief. We therefore affirm the District Court's entry of summary judgment in UPS's favor on Mr. Proctor's claim of retaliation under the ADA.