Opinion ID: 767222
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Management stated because of budget cuts.

Text: 39 III. I feel I have been discriminated against on the basis of my disability, in that, they utilize standards, criteria and methods of administration that had the effect of discrimination. 40 To be reasonably like or related, the charge in the lawsuit must describe the same conduct and implicate the same individuals as the charge in the EEOC complaint. See id. at 202-03. Viewed in the most favorable light for Cable, this statement of discrimination suggests that the method used to determine who would be laid off had the effect of discrimination, but does not implicate in any of the behavior alleged to have occurred over the previous five years that forms the basis for the retaliation claim. Based on this statement alone, the EEOC could not have known to look beyond the criteria used for the reduction in force as a source of discrimination. 41 To supplement his bare EEOC charge form, Cable produced an affidavit dated June 16, 1994, which describes in great detail the discrimination and retaliation that he allegedly suffered at Ivy Tech. An investigator with the City of Muncie Human Rights Commission helped Cable prepare the affidavit and notarized his sworn signature. The city investigator forwarded the affidavit to the EEOC Indianapolis District Office on June 20, 1994, and a date stamp indicates that the EEOC received the affidavit on June 21. 42 The district court refused to consider the affidavit as part of the complaint because there was no showing that the document was filed with the EEOC charge. Therefore, Mr. Cable has not shown that this document was part of his EEOC charge. Cable does not develop this issue on appeal as skillfully as we might expect an attorney to do, but bearing in mind that we liberally construe the pleadings of pro se litigants, see Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 (1972); Woods v. Thieret, 903 F.2d 1080, 1082 (7th Cir. 1990), Cable adequately raises the issue for appellate review. Consequently, we review de novo Judge Tinder's conclusion that Cable made no showing that the affidavit was filed with the EEOC. 43 The EEOC charge-filing requirement is not intended to erect elaborate pleading requirements or let the form of the purported charge prevail over its substance. Downes v. Volkswagen of America, Inc., 41 F.3d 1132, 1138 (7th Cir. 1994). Courts have allowed varied types of filings to satisfy the requirement, including sworn affidavits attached to the charge itself. See, e.g., Cheek v. Western & Southern Life Ins. Co., 31 F.3d 497, 502 (7th Cir. 1994); see also Taylor v. Virginia Union Univ., 193 F.3d 219, 239 (4th Cir. 1999). The date stamp and cover letter (also date stamped when received by the EEOC Indianapolis office) from the Muncie Human Rights Commission demonstrate conclusively that the EEOC received the affidavit contemporaneously with Cable's filing of the agency discrimination charge form. There can be no question that the affidavit sufficiently pleads retaliation as a cause of his dismissal: I fought for handicap rights. I tried to help bring Ivy Tech up to code. I really believe that and because of my disability I was let go. Because the affidavit along with the EEOC form sufficiently provide notice of the charge, the dismissal of Cable's retaliation charge for failure to exhaust the administrative remedy was error, but ultimately a harmless one as the following section makes clear. 2. Retaliation 44 Cable failed to present any competent evidence that he was fired in retaliation for demanding better treatment of and facilities for handicapped people. To prevail on a retaliation claim, a plaintiff must produce evidence that (1) he was engaged in protected expression; (2) he suffered an adverse employment action; and (3) a causal link existed between the two. See Talanda v. KFC Nat'l Mgmt. Co., 140 F.3d 1090, 1095 (7th Cir. 1998). Cable's retaliation complaint fails on the third prong of this test. Other than his own affidavit, which is insufficient as a matter of law to withstand summary judgment, see Shank v. William R. Hague, Inc., 192 F.3d 675, 682 (7th Cir. 1999), Cable produced no evidence of protected expression related to his dismissal. The only evidence, other than his own testimony, was a letter discussing handicapped accessibility problems that Cable sent in 1989. In Davidson v. Midelfort Clinic, Ltd., 133 F.3d 499, 511 (7th Cir. 1998), we held that five months was too long between the filing of an EEOC charge and an employee's supposedly retaliatory dismissal. It invites disbelief to suggest Ivy Tech waited five years to retaliate against him for this rather tepid foray into civil disobedience. 45 Cable contends that other untoward comments by various administrators about handicapped people satisfy the causal link. It cannot be determined from the record when any of these comments were made in relation to the decision not to renew Cable's contract. Even if actually said, these comments demonstrate callousness about handicapped people and the issues that affect them but are insufficient to provide evidence of a causal link behind Cable's protected expression and his dismissal. Uncontradicted evidence shows that the decision to lay off Cable was motivated by the decline in enrollment, the need to reduce the staff and the objective criteria used to select the faculty member to lay off. The district court correctly decided the retaliation claim. 3. Discrimination 46 Under the ADA, a prima facie case of employment discrimination requires a showing 'adequate to create an inference that an employment decision was based on a[n] [illegal] discriminatory criterion.' Leffel v. Valley Fin. Servs., 113 F.3d 787, 792 (7th Cir. 1997) (citation omitted). In the context of a reduction in force, where employees are laid off and not replaced, a plaintiff must establish that: (1) he is a member of a protected class; (2) he was adequately performing his job; (3) he was laid off in a reduction in force; and (4) employees outside the protected class were treated more favorably. See DeLuca v. Winer Indus. Inc., 53 F.3d 793, 797 (7th Cir. 1995); Oxman v. WLS-TV, 846 F.2d 448, 455 (7th Cir. 1988). An employer may rebut the prima facie case by offering a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason for its decision, which the plaintiff must then show to be pretextual by a preponderance of the evidence. See Sarsha v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., 3 F.3d 1035, 1039 (7th Cir. 1993). 47 No evidence suggests Ivy Tech deviated in any way from the even-handed application of the objective criteria. The record shows no proof nor even an allegation that the school made an exception from the objective criteria to retain a non-handicapped person. Cable cannot show that similarly situated employees outside the protected class were treated more favorably. Furthermore, Ivy Tech has carried its burden in coming forward with a legitimate non- discriminatory reason for Cable's dismissal, which Cable has utterly failed to prove was pretextual. Evidence of the subsequent job posting in May 1994 cannot support a finding of pretext because all uncontradicted evidence shows that posting related to Griffin's position, not Cable's. Therefore, it does not provide evidence of pretext sufficient to show that the proffered reason for Cable's dismissal was not the real reason. See James v. Sheahan, 137 F.3d 1003, 1007 (7th Cir. 1998). He has, in short, failed to raise a question of fact sufficient to merit a trial. 48 It bears noting that the district court analyzed Cable's discrimination claim under the prima facie standard announced in Leffel, which requires a plaintiff to show that the adverse job action was taken because of the plaintiff's disability. Leffel, 113 F.3d at 793. While technically the court should have applied the standard for RIF cases since Cable's termination was part of a larger, systemwide restructuring, Cable's case fails under the Leffel framework as well. Cable did not establish causality because he brought no evidence of discrimination related to the decision to fire him. The comments allegedly made by Henry did not relate at all to Cable's termination, as no evidence suggests when, where or in what context those comments were made. Cable asserts that his advocacy for the rights of handicapped people led to his dismissal, but the only evidence presented was that Cable was an advocate and that he was fired. It is only Cable's conclusion that the one action caused the other. Simply put, in the three years this case progressed toward summary judgment, Cable managed to find only the thinnest evidence that anyone held animosity toward handicapped people in general, or Cable specifically. None of that meager evidence related at all--in time or substance--to Cable's termination. 49 Even if all Cable's proffered evidence is believed, he has failed to raise a genuine issue of material fact upon which a reasonable jury could find in his favor. The district court properly found in favor of Ivy Tech on the discrimination claim.